Filed to story: Reclaimed Book by Roxie Ray
“You’re feeding the guys, too?” I asked.
“Of course.” She looked at me like I was crazy. “You think I’d let your enforcers go hungry?”
“They can eat at the clubhouse,” I said. “You’re not their chef.”
She patted my chest. “I know. I wanted to. Plus, that credit card of yours buys a lot of groceries.” That made me laugh again, and her blue eyes sparkled. “You’re a lot more handsome when you laugh than when you scowl.”
“Good news for you,” I said. “I happen to laugh a lot more often when you’re around.”
Harley winked at me, then grabbed the big dish of chicken breasts and walked it over to the half-set table. I watched her navigate the two kids, and my dragon purred with contentment
again.
I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do about Sean. He could be too far gone to help. But he was my brother, and if he could be saved, I owed it to him to at least try.
Right now, though, I was happy to bask in the warmth in my home. I could handle whatever Sean threw at me-as long as I had Harley at my side.
HARLEY
Iwoke up, sprawled on Stephan’s soft, dark sheets, to an extremely quiet house. Rolling over, I smoothed my hand over the dip on his side of the bed. The pillow smelled like him-his woodsy body wash and the musk of his sweat. The familiar scents had heat curling low in my belly, but his side of the bed was cool. It was fairly early, but it seemed like he’d been awake for a while.
That was odd. Since we’d agreed to try things again, Stephan had stuck close to me. I woke every morning with his arms around my waist and his nose pressed to the crown of my head. I’d quickly gotten very used to that.
I climbed out of bed and headed downstairs, trying to push down an itch of nerves. With everything that’d gone on recently, I didn’t like waking up alone. “Steph? Dylan?”
There was no response from either of them. I checked my phone, and there were no messages there. Suddenly, the empty house seemed a lot more ominous. My heart rate sped up a little. I started to dial Stephan’s number, then the coffee machine chirped its song as it finished brewing.
There was a note taped to the machine, written in Stephan’s bold handwriting.
Dyl woke up early.
Out having dragon bonding time. Back soon.
S.
The panic dissipated as fast as it’d risen inside me. I sighed in relief and smoothed my thumb over the note. I wondered what had woken Dylan up. He’d been restless and fidgety recently, complaining more of pre-shift soreness. Maybe Stephan’s dragon had sensed it, and they’d snuck out without waking me up.
Now that I knew where they were, I had no complaints. The quiet house was suddenly safe and cozy again, so I grabbed my laptop and curled up on the couch with a fresh cup of coffee.
I clicked through my emails. There wasn’t a lot going on at the bank, and most of my urgent work had been diverted to other employees, courtesy of Suri. I answered a few timely questions. Then, one caught my attention at the top-it was from Cassidy.
SUBJ: Stop looking at your work email and open your personal email
BODY: now!
I laughed, then did as instructed. My personal email was a graveyard of marketing emails and expired coupons. No one ever really communicated with me there-anyone I’d want to hear from could text me. But there was Cassidy’s message, right at the top.
I didn’t want to text this to you and catch you off guard. Figured an email would catch you when you were already in work-mode. I happened to see this and thought I’d send it your way. No reason 😉
Below the message was a link to a job posting site.
I clicked it curiously.
It wasn’t any job posting site. It was the Lakeview Public School System job board. And Cassidy had sent me a link to an open third-grade teaching position.
I immediately grabbed my phone and called her. Cassidy answered at the first ring. “Hey, girlie! What’s up? I’m walking into my spin class, so I’ve got about four minutes.”
“What’s this job you sent me?” I asked.
“You finally saw it!” she said with a laugh. “Thank God. That means you weren’t spending too much time working while you’re up there.”
“Cass…”
“It’s just something I saw,” she said. “It’s what you always wanted to do, right? I know you didn’t graduate college with a degree in elementary education to become an account executive.”
“It’s not exactly easy to raise a kid as a single mom on a teacher’s salary,” I said.
“Well, you might not be a single mom anymore, right?”
My heart felt like it was about to explode. “It’s nowhere near that serious, Cass.”
“Okay, okay, sorry, I’ll lay off. I just saw it and thought of you.”
“How did you just see a Lakeview job posting?”
“Okay, I went looking for it.”
I laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”
“What?! I was thinking how great it would be if I had a place to crash up there for my own vacations. It was a totally selfish endeavor.”
“Thanks, Cass. I… I don’t know what to think about this. But I’ll think about it.”
“Good! Call me back, I’m about to spend an hour in hell in this class. Bye!”
I set my phone down and stared at the application. The salary was a lot lower than what I made at the bank. But if I was here in Lakeview full-time, I could sell the house in Atlanta… There was already space for us here in Stephan’s home… We could be a little family, with Stephan’s businesses and my teaching income, the house, the garage, the clubhouse… Dylan would have other dragons around, kids like Peter, and his cousin Bella too… And I’d get to spend my days doing what I loved-teaching kids-instead of being cooped up in my office going over spreadsheets with grumpy clients.
It was a nice thought.
But I thought of Blakely running my car off the road. Stephan’s twin brother. The Lakeview police chief, who wanted to lock Stephan up again. The business endeavors that still weren’t all-the-way legal.
I sighed and closed the job posting, then walked into the kitchen and poured myself another cup of coffee. I added some cream and swirled my spoon in it, watching the colors blend in a spiral.
I couldn’t simply drop everything and move here. There was too much to lose. I couldn’t do that to Dylan-I couldn’t do that to myself.
But hell, a part of me wanted to risk it.
“What’s got you looking so down?”
I nearly jumped out of my skin, and
barely managed to keep my coffee from sloshing over the lip of the mug.
“Sorry,” Striker said with a laugh. “Didn’t mean to scare you.” He was laden down with grocery bags, and I hurried over to grab a few from his hands.
