Chapter Thirteen
“Drake Avenue,” Destiny murmured, turning right onto the street Dodger had said his crew was working on today.
She followed the traffic up the winding road and saw the first road work ahead signs.
Over the next hill, she could see the boom truck. There were orange cones along the street guiding traffic to the right, and a man in a neon green vest stood there with a sign that said stop on one side, and slow on the other. He was talking into a handheld walkie-talkie.
The line of cars ahead of her were stopped to let oncoming traffic pass on a narrow open lane of road.
There were two cars in front of her, and Destiny craned her neck to see if she recognized any of the work crew ahead.
Two were throwing limbs into a woodchipper that was pulled by a truck, and a couple more were clearing limbs under a man working high above them.
She knew the guy in the bucket on the end of the crane arm was Dodger just from the way he carried himself.
He wore a neon vest over his clothes, and a hard hat as he trimmed the limbs away from power lines.
He leaned over and yelled something down to one of his crew, and while he was on a little break, she rolled her window down and did her best to whistle a cat call.
His frost blue eyes jerked directly to her, and the bright white smile that consumed his face was plain as day, even all the way over here.
He said something else to the guy on the ground and gestured to her car, and the guy got on the radio.
The man in front of them turned the sign in his hands to slow and directed the first car in their line to go on. When she got to him though, he stopped her and gestured for her to roll down her passenger side window.
She did, and he said, “Are you Dodger’s lady?”
The butterflies were back in her chest. Be. Cool. “Yes,” she answered shyly. “I brought him some lunch.”
He looked at the bag of food sitting in the back seat. “What did you get him?”
She giggled. “Why? Are you hungry?”
“I’m always hungry. Just seeing if it’s better than what I brought.” Dodger’s co-worker was an easy talker. “He’ll be off in fifteen. He wants you to pull off over there,” the guy said, pointing to the shoulder of the road that widened up ahead.
“You got it. Great work boys,” she called as she eased forward.
“Next time, bring me something!” the guy called as she rolled up her window.
A giggle escaped her as she eased her car over to the widened shoulder.
From here, she had the perfect view of Dodger working.
He was confident and had clearly done this job for a while.
His team below him moved like a well-oiled machine and needed little direction.
Any direction they did get came from Dodger.
He wasn’t even wearing a safety harness or anything.
Just some sunglasses to protect his eyes from the woodchips spraying from his chainsaw.
It was ten degrees outside, and cloudy, but he was out here in a t-shirt under his vest, his tanned muscles moving and flexing with everything he did.
Yep, she was staring.
Slowly, she lifted her camera up and took a picture of him, then sent it to her mom.
So hot, her mom texted back immediately.
She laughed and shook her head. There she was.
Destiny certainly wouldn’t be sending her dad anything about Dodger for a while. He had been pissed when he’d found out he’d ghosted Destiny, and Dad wasn’t super forgiving by nature. She was going to have to smooth that out later. For now, she just wanted to spend time with Dodger.
A quick glance at the clock, and relief flooded her. She still had three hours before she needed to be back to the school for crossing guard duties. Soon, when she started her substituting position, she wouldn’t have as much free time to bring him lunch.
Good Lord that man was fine.
The boom was lowering and he hopped the last fifteen feet out of the bucket.
No one even batted an eye or worried about him breaking a leg.
The way he landed was wild. There was almost no impact, and he started walking toward her immediately.
He yelled something at his work crew over his shoulder, but they were already preparing for another guy to take Dodger’s spot.
He must’ve been human, because they were definitely strapping him into a safety harness.
Dodger jogged across the last lane and stopped beside her window and did this dance to the music she was playing.
Oh dear goodness, he could dance too. She laughed and turned up the music, and rolled down her window, doing a little shimmy with her hands above her head and singing to the music.
“Fuck it’s good to see you,” he murmured, leaning into her window. He kissed her like it was the most natural thing in the world.
A car honked, and he waved at them, and then jogged out of the way to her passenger side door.
Elated with their little dance-off and kiss, she was all smiles when he climbed in her passenger side.
He yelped as his shins hit the dash. “Who do you have riding in your car, woman? Garden Gnomes? Are your friends the smallest people in existence?” he asked as he stood outside and hit the button to back the chair up.
“My mother rode with me last night. And sometimes I take her dog to the park, but he is tiny and doesn’t need the seat backed up to the trunk like you apparently do.”
“Party night?” he asked as he settled back in.
“Yep, you know it.”
“Speaking of parents, your dad texted me.”
“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry for whatever he said. He’s a little…protective.”
“Oh, he was perfectly nice.”
“Really?”
“No. He told me he was going to gut me and piss on my entrails.”
She pulled a grossed-out face. “He said it like that? He said the word entrails?”
“Yep.” He pointed up ahead. “There’s a gas station up there we can park at. I’ve got half an hour for lunch.”
She reached into the back seat and pulled up the bag and set it in his lap.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“I picked up lunch.”
His eyes softened. “You got food for me?”
“Well, yeah. Got to repay you for breakfast this morning, and…you know.” Her cheeks heated immediately.
“Have you been thinking about what we did?” he asked, a teasing note to his voice.
“Um yeah. It’s been a while for me, and I don’t ever remember it being like that.”
“I’ve been thinking about it all day too,” he admitted. “God, you felt so good and tight wrapped around me. I’ve been distracted all day.”
“Well, don’t get hurt. I command it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said through a charming-boy smile.
Destiny pulled out of her spot on the shoulder and in between two cars that were slowly drifting by the work crew. “Will they be okay without you?” she asked.
“Yeah, they know what they’re doing. I was in another crew before I left Coeur d’Alene, and if it was them, I’d say no way.
I got put on this crew though when I came back here and it’s better.
No new guys. My boss on this one is a little much sometimes, but I think that just comes with the territory.
He doesn’t like having a werewolf on his crew, but he’s already settling in.
Give me two more months and he’ll forget what I am. ”
“Are you desensitizing them?” she guessed.
“Yep. The trick is working twice as hard as the humans. Then if you have a slip up and growl at someone or fight them, or fuck up, the managers keep you protected.”
“Have you ever had a fight on the job.”
“Every week.”
She laughed. “You say that so easily.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“Oh yeah? Is this you desensitizing me?”
“I don’t have to, because you are the step kid of freaking Behren Young. Why didn’t you tell me who he was?”
She frowned. “I told you the Pack he left. You didn’t ask his name.”
“Do you know who he is?” Dodger asked, resting his elbow on her window frame and holding onto the oh shit bar as he relaxed back into the seat.
“Yeah. He’s my dad. The only dad I’ve known.”
“No, I mean do you know who he is to the werewolf community?”
“An outcast?”
“I guess. That was his choice though. He would probably still be running Michigan if he hadn’t settled down with a human.”
Softly, she said, “He’s happy. He told me the other day.
It took a while to find that peace in him, but he doesn’t have regrets.
He’s open with it. I believe him. I see him and my mom.
They flirt like high school kids. I used to be so grossed out by them but now I like it.
They make each other happy. He’s always whispering in her ear and making her giggle.
He doesn’t walk past her without patting her butt.
His arm is always around her shoulders, and he is always holding her hand, and they’ve been together forever.
The newness never wore off for either of them. ”
He was watching her face as she spoke, and she flashed him a smile as she turned into the gas station.
“It was pretty special being raised by them,” she said softly.
“When did he start teaching you to shoot?”
She snorted. “Age six. He used to put me in the competitive shooting leagues. You’ll never guess what my targets used to be.”
“Drawings of werewolves?”
“Yep.”
He belted out a laugh. “Even though he’s probably going to kill me, I respect him. I’d do the same if I had a human daughter.”
“I asked him to Turn me once,” she said as she pulled into a parking spot on the other side of the gas station.
“What?” he demanded.
“When I was a kid, I thought it would be so cool if I could be a werewolf like him. He’s my hero.”
“I bet he told you hell no.”
“He told me I had to wait until I was thirty years old. I remember the conversation so clearly.”
Dodger’s frown was so deep and his eyes so bright under his dark eyebrows. “No,” he clipped out. “Just no.”
“I didn’t say I’m asking him. I doubt he even remembers. I think he thought I would forget or rethink it as I got older.”
“And you did rethink it, right?”
“Yep. I’m good as a human.”