Chapter 3
“Hayden?”
Hayden looked into a face he’d recognise anywhere.
He knew that hazy scent he smelled before seemed familiar.
But when you’re wrist-deep in shortcrust dough, you can’t afford to let your mind wanter to things you’re better off forgetting.
He’d spent enough years wondering what had happened to her, even hoping they might bump into each other at some shops or in a bar, or perhaps get “Perthed” while overseas on holiday.
He’d thought of her way more than a guy should think about a long-lost friend from Year Seven.
And now here she was in the humble little café he ran with his siblings.
Leonie Chin with her soft hair, sitting quietly at Deanne’s favourite table next to Lupe’s plant shelf.
If he was in his wolf form, there’d be little he could do to stop his tail from wagging or stop his muzzle from prodding into her hand, seeking out that affectionate touch from a safe companion.
But that’s not how humans do things. So all Hayden could do was stand there, gaping like a stunned mullet.
“Sorry,” Leonie said. “I must be mixed up—”
“No,” Hayden interrupted, “it’s me, Leonie. Sorry, I . . . I just couldn’t believe it’s you. You look great!”
“Thank you. So do you.”
There was a festive red suitcase beside her. His eyes snapped back to hers and he noticed a pinkness around the edges. She’d been . . . crying?
“Are you off on holiday?” he asked, hoping they might be happy tears. He mustered as casual a tone as he could, despite sensing something amiss.
“Oh, ah . . .” Leonie glanced down. “No, I . . . I’ve left my husband.”
“Oh . . . I’m sorry. That’s awful. I shouldn’t have pried, sorry—”
“It’s okay, really, you didn’t know. It’s, ah, funny to be running into you while my life’s a hot mess.” A wry smile hinted at a Leonie he remembered.
“Are you all right? Do you have somewhere to go?” he asked.
“Yeah, I . . . well, yes but no. Do you remember Sam? I was going to stay with her, but her kid’s got gastro.”
“Samantha Jenkins, from Year Seven? She said you just disappeared.”
“That . . .” Leonie paused. “That’s a long story.
But we bumped into each other at uni, of all places, and just seemed to pick up where we left off.
” An uncomfortable expression clouded her face, one Hayden would intuit it a lot better if he were shifted, but not indoors here—that’d be a fast track to harassment by health inspector, despite The Spice Pelage always passing muster.
“Don’t suppose you’re allowed to join me?” Leonie asked, gesturing to the empty chair opposite.
“It’s my café, so absolutely!” He rounded the table and pulled the chair out, then looked over at Lara who flashed him her tightest-lipped café manager look and pointed her nose at the kitchen.
Hayden sighed. “On second thought, I better not. We’re down two people today, and if I stick my sister with all the front-work, she’ll come over and murder me in my sleep.
Of course, that won’t solve the staffing problem, but you know . . .”
“I didn’t even recognise Lara,” Leonie marvelled. “She looks great too. And is that little Mackenzie in the kitchen? He’s huge now!”
Hayden swallowed, suddenly lightheaded at seeing her astonished smile.
His heart raced and he pictured himself just going back to work, as if this lucky meeting was just a blip in an ordinary week, and they’d drift out of each others’ lives for another twenty years, or possibly forever.
That wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t do at all.
“Um, hey, Lee, if you’re not leaving in a hurry, we start closing in a couple of hours.
I’d love to catch up some more if you’re still around then.
Or anytime, if you don’t feel like waiting around.
I mean, anytime but right this minute, of course.
” He wiped his hands on his apron, a flush sweeping through him.
“I’m gonna stop talking now,” he added with an awkward grin.
He could never play it cool around her, and it seemed twenty years apart didn’t change that.
“Aw, Furball.” Leonie laughed. Hayden’s ears pricked and heated at his old nickname. “I’d love to hang around, if you guys don’t mind me here.”
He watched her while he worked. Not in a weirdo staring way, he assured himself, just in a from-time-to-time way, making sure she was all right the way a good friend would.
He ignored the looks from Lara and Mackie, who’d almost certainly mention it to Deanne and Lupe later, and all four of them would corner him at dinner for the goss.
When the café quietens, Hayden offered Leonie another hot chocolate and something more substantial to eat—on the house since the only reason she was here was to wait for him.
When she had to step out, he wheeled her suitcase into the back office for safe keeping, batting away his little brother who sniffed at it, trying to profile her by perfume.
L’Eau d’Issey? Fussy and organised. Jo Malone Bluebells?
Stuffy and conservative. Oh, but that’s Molecule 01. What a hipster!
Leonie returned with a big rectangular something in an Officeworks bag, then returned to the back corner table.
She opened the box and pulled out a brand hew laptop, reminding Hayden about when Deanne had left her own deadbeat husband, sealing the deal with a new phone and a fresh haircut.
Looks like he really had run into her in the midst of a mess.
Soon, Mackie swept through the seating area for his pack-down, wiping tables and stacking chairs.
Despite Hayden’s offer of the snug café office, Leonie favoured outside, drawn by the golden-hour sunshine that filled the back alley at closing time.
She stashed her laptop with her suitcase and settled on the old milk crates stacked by the door.
Hayden packed down the kitchen, double-checking against Lara’s meticulous cleaning instructions, breezing through Deanne’s daily stocktake, and sent Mackie back out to water Lupe’s plants.
The one task that wouldn’t happen tonight this week was those plants following them home.
A few nights without their greenhouse light wouldn’t kill them, and it was times like these that Hayden felt proud and relieved at being a shifter family.
That they recovered more quickly from human illness meant staffing issues during winter were usually short-lived.
He spared a thought for the shifter-hating humans running the Orange Bar café down the street.
Those ignorant folks put themselves on the back foot, not to mention their food wasn’t as good as this one-hundred percent shifter-run family business could make it.
Love was a core ingredient, and it certainly helped to have a shifter’s sense of taste.
Hayden turned to the door and dropped an armload of baking pans. The scent of stale sweat and hostility drifted in from outside, and his ears twitched at the sound of aggression. His mind fully inhabited his body so suddenly, he had to shake himself back to his thinking senses.
Leonie! He bounded out into the alley, barely registering Lara’s boots squeaking on tile as she burst out of the office, and wood crashing against wood as Mackie sprang into action inside the café.
The alley was bereft of people, save for two—Leonie and some guy with bloodshot eyes and the reek of bad intentions.
Hayden growled, deep and menacing, hackles raised and the skin of his muzzle wrinkled as he bared his teeth.
The guy stomped a foot his way and yelled for him to get out, a gesture that might have scared away an ordinary dog, even one the size of Hayden’s wolf.
But Hayden was no ordinary dog, and neither were the two coming through the kitchen behind him. His packmates had his back.
And when the guy finally realised Leonie had three large canines coming to her aid, he blanched and back off, spat a curse, then turned tail and ran. Verging on feral, Mackie gave chase after him.
“Easy,” Lara muttered under her breath, warning him against taking things too far. But Mackie shifted back to human form just before the end of the alley, then peered around the corner, kicking up his right leg in a dainty fashion. He chuckled and sauntered back to the café, giving the all clear.
Even back in human form, Hayden’s heart pounded. “You all right, Lee?” he asked, holding an arm out in case she needed reassurance.
Instead of answering, she just hugged him.
Her heart pounded too, a rhythmic tremor that rumbled both of them, his senses still raw from the shift.
He put his arms around her, telling himself off for enjoying what it felt like to hold her—this wasn’t the time or place to enjoy things, not after what just happened.
Then, she let out a tiny sob, and he tightened his embrace, recalling all the old feelings he’d pushed away over the years.
Yes, he could enjoy this, being next to her again.
Finally, after all this time, after he’d given up hope, he had his best friend back, even if only for right now.
She was back. She was back! Just seeing her again made him want to run and do flips in the air.
And if a wolf couldn’t enjoy something like this, then what was the point of anything?