Chapter 24
Ford
Forget groveling.
I didn’t deserve to have her even consider forgiving me. While I’d had my reasons to be concerned, my reaction had been… not only less than stellar and possessive, but bordering on asinine.
Who was I trying to fool? I’d acted like some jealous boyfriend in high school without deciphering the facts. She’d stormed out of the iceplex, disappearing. The calls had all gone to voicemail, the messages unreturned.
I’d given her a day to cool off, but this couldn’t stand. Not only because she deserved an explanation or a huge thank you, but because of how strongly I felt about her.
In the months of getting to know her, not only did I crave her luscious body, which of course I did.
But there was so much more. Even the mating aspect was down on the totem pole of life.
I craved her friendship and support. She was the air I breathed, the crystal-clear water I drank, and the reason I got up every morning.
“Then you need to tell her that.”
It took me a few seconds to realize I wasn’t alone. “What?” I hadn’t spoken out loud. Had I?
Jake glanced at my brother, who was sitting across the booth from me.
“I am right. Don’t you think? He needs to get his ass out of this booth and head to her house and tell her exactly how he feels about her.
No letting the door hit him in the face.
No accepting threats of her going to the sheriff for a restraining order.
Just going over there and refusing to take no for an answer. ”
Still dazed, I slowly turned my head toward Beck, who was munching on fries. Off my plate. Granted, I hadn’t been hungry. Except for one thing.
Her.
“I agree,” Beck muttered. “But he’s a hardheaded son of a bitch and won’t admit when he was wrong.”
“Did I speak out loud?” I pressed, now glancing from one to the other. Somehow, Beck had convinced me to grab lunch with him.
“Men are all alike,” Jake offered.
“Yeah, well, that goes for you too. Everyone knows you’re in love with Roxanne. You need to go to her house and refuse to take no for an answer until she agrees to go out with you.”
Beck was eating this up and I almost agreed. What the hell?
“Whoa, did I say what I was thinking out loud?” I said again.
My brother snorted. Jake laughed. “Buddy, your thoughts were so easy to read anyone on the interstate could have done so. Come on. Don’t you know when you’ve found your mate everything is different?
Food tastes better. Wine is an experience.
Just breathing air is as you’re waking up to a new world all the time?
And sex… Well,” he whistled. “To die for. At least that’s what I’ve heard. ”
I thought about what his words and his suggestion. “As if you’d know,” I snarked, still grousing under my breath. “So you think I should go to her house and simply tell her she belongs to me and that’s it. The end.”
“Yep,” Jake said while nodding to Beck.
“Sounds about right. At least you won’t mope around the office any longer.” Beck burst into laughter.
“No wonder you’re both single. You’re Neanderthals.
” Although sitting and sulking wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
“Shit. I don’t know what to do. She went to all that trouble creating a framework of an incredible contract with Mr. Young and I almost killed the man out of jealousy.
You didn’t see her face or hear her tone when she told me she never wanted to see me again. ”
“She didn’t mean that. She just wants you to make a fool of yourself,” Jake offered.
I shook my head, grabbing my beer as I did. That trick wouldn’t work ever again.
“She wants to know why,” Beck said quietly.
“Why I was an idiot?”
“Yeah, but more important, why you can’t let go of the past.”
While Beck and I had always been close, he’d never nagged me about what had happened more than a decade before. To hear the angst in his voice gave me pause. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Oh, I know I am. Hunt her down. You have the skills. So I’ve been told.” He laughed and while teasing me, he was also pushing me in the right direction.
So maybe he was right.
As I slipped from the booth, Beck nodded in encouragement. Just before I walked toward the entrance, I gave Jake a piece of advice.
“Don’t be like me, buddy. Tell Roxanne how you feel before it’s too late.”
Too late for what I wasn’t certain, but I knew one thing in my heart. If I allowed another night to go by, I would never be able to find happiness.
Not without her.
I was lucky in that after a harrowing drive at ninety miles an hour in heading for her house that her car was parked in front.
And that I hadn’t gotten into an accident.
There was no time to waste, at least not in my mind. In three long strides, I was at her door, pounding my fist against it.
Hearing no footsteps, I was instantly frustrated.
But her scent wafted through every crack and crevice, providing me with incentive and boosting my raging desire. A few seconds later, I pounded again. “I’m not leaving, Georgia, and I know you’re inside. I will stand out here all day and all night until you open the door. I need to talk with you.”
As expected, there was no reply and no real sound coming from the other side.
“You are my everything, my mate and lover, and my friend. I’m sorry. Okay?”
A lot more of nothing.
I thought about what might grab her attention and grinned. “Since you seem to like eighties movies, let’s see if you can guess where this one is from.” As I started to sing ‘I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am,’ I did so with gusto.
After a couple of minutes, I thought for certain my horrible rendition would work. She’d moved closer to the door but wasn’t budging.
So I continued.
Three minutes.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Dear God, I was going to lose my voice. Instead of taking a break, I picked up the volume, really trying to get into the moment and the feel of the man singing the chorus.
Less than two minutes later, she threw open the door, storming onto the porch. “Enough!”
I had my head tilted back, my body in a perfect singing position when I ceased making the sound. Damn if she didn’t look even more beautiful. “You don’t like my rendition?”
She stood with her arms folded. “We don’t have anything to talk about.”
“I think we do and I need you to come with me.”
“I’m not interested.”
I walked closer. While she stood her ground, the sweet glare everything I’d come to know and love, I sensed she wasn’t budging. “You’ll want to see and hear this.”
“No.”
Hmmm… Well, there was only one thing left for me to do. With one easy movement, I tossed her over my shoulder and headed to my truck.
Maybe there was such a thing as taking what I wanted.
* * *
“This is beautiful.”
I stood behind her, my hands in my pockets and my thoughts shifting from twelve years ago to now.
“It used to be my favorite place. When I was a kid, I crawled all over the rocks. This part of the forest was the one place I could go that felt truly like my special location that no one else knew about. When you have three siblings, things can get a little crowded.”
“I bet you were an amazing kid.” Georgia appeared serene, but I sensed she was worried about me.
“Just average.”
“Nothing about you is average, Ford.”
It had been a long time since I’d wanted anyone to care.
I moved closer to the edge, peering down at the raging river below. “I never took anyone here. Even my guy friends. I didn’t deem them worthy.” At least some memories weren’t painful. I sensed she was watching me closely. “One day everything changed.”
I’d forgotten how much I’d enjoyed having a woman as a friend. Women knew instinctively when to listen and were much more observant. With Georgia, she was completely intent on giving me space as well as support as I needed it.
“Her name was Marianne. She was my first and only other love. Sure, we were both too young at sixteen, but we certainly thought we knew what we wanted. This became our special location. We’d race here after school to spend some time together.
Before you ask, our families don’t get along.
They never have. Call it wolf hierarchy. ”
She inched a little closer, ensuring I knew she was right there and she was listening.
“We kept our relationship a secret from everyone, including her brother who was my best friend at the time. One day there was a storm approaching, but I wanted to see her. I all but demanded she meet me. She hated storms, but I had some news that I had to tell her in person and not over the phone. So we met here. As crazy as it sounds, the reason I insisted on meeting right then was because I was accepted into a junior hockey league, one of the best. I thought I was something, and she was the first person I wanted to tell. Even before my parents.”
I allowed myself a moment not only to reflect on that horrible day but also on my feelings for Georgia. Just studying her beautiful, pensive face meant more than she could know, affirmation that the way I felt wasn’t a false reality.
“I was so excited, I wanted us both to shift and run through the forest. Together. I used to shift every so often, enjoying the freedom. She didn’t want to and of course, I pushed her.
I know you might find this difficult, but there are a lot of shifter families who forbid their kids to embrace their wolves unless absolutely necessary.
They’re trying so hard to be completely human or as they like to say, normal, that embracing their heritage is a dirty concept. ”
“But she shifted for you.”
“She did,” I said, feeling the weight of that day all over again. “For me. The boy she said she loved.”
“What happened?”