Page 40 of Wolves' Midlife Reunion
“Clearly.” She sat back down and told them about Dex coming to the shop that morning. “I get that Sage losing a little control was upsetting for him, but he just went completely off the rails.”
“Hm.” Chelsea chewed a cracker thoughtfully. “Sounds to me like he’s scared.”
“Really?”
“Oh, sure. Being a parent is absolutely terrifying. You’re just guessing all the time. You have to make tons of choices, and for some, you won’t know if they were the right ones for years down the road. I think about it with Corbin, although I try not to get too caught up in it.” She gave Tina a wistful smile. “It’s hard when you love them so much.”
“But I love Sage, too.” Tina’s heart ached as she thought of that sweet little girl. “I know she isn’t mine. I don’t have the rightto say what happens in her life. I just hate the idea of not getting to spend time with her anymore.”
Amanda flicked her dark hair behind her so that it hung over the back of the chair. “And what about Dex? Is he part of that fantasy picture, too?”
Tina couldn’t lie. Not to them. Even if she tried, they’d figure her out as they’d already proven. “Yeah. Recently, anyway. For a long time, I’d let myself believe that I’d never get to be with him. Then he just waltzed right into my life again. We’d had all that stupid social status crap that’d kept us apart when we were younger, but we’re old enough now that it’s gone. I thought that meant we could finally make it work.”
Chelsea reached over and rubbed her arm. “Maybe you still can. An argument doesn’t have to be the end of things.”
“It was a pretty big argument.” Tina didn’t think she’d ever seen that look on Dex’s face before. Chelsea was probably right, and that was all because he was scared for his child’s future. That was understandable, but it’d just been so hard. “The way he lashed out at me has me second-guessing the whole thing.”
“Didn’t he have a magical fight with some kid back in the day?” Amanda asked.
“Oh, yeah. That’s been brought up a few times since I started teaching Sage.” She sighed and sipped the Moscato, which was far lighter and brighter than she felt inside. “I wish I could get him to understand that he was just a kid, and that he can’t really hold himself responsible for that anymore.”
“His own experiences are making him overprotective,” Chelsea concluded. “That sucks, and I hate that he’s beating himself up over something he did so long ago, but you can’t really change who a person is or how they think. You either have to decide that you’re good with how things are, or that you’re not going to put up with it.”
Tina thought about this as she rolled her glass stem between her fingers. “Did you second-guess yourself on getting back together with Beck? When you weren’t sure if the Beck you knew was still around?” A sorcerer had put a powerful mindwipe spell on Beck. It was enough to make him forget who he was, and it’d taken a lot of time, love, and magic to get him back.
“Shit, yes,” she told Tina. “You still feel that pull inside you, that connection that has always been there, but that beast inside you doesn’t understand logic. It doesn’t know how complicated a relationship could be. It only knows what it wants and damn the consequences.”
Tina let out a long sigh, something she’d been doing all day and was likely to continue doing for a while yet. “I just don’t know what to do. My mind keeps wrestling with it, like this is a problem I have to find a solution for.”
Amanda was flicking her thumb and pointer finger toward the candles, sending miniature energy waves into the flames and making them dance. She stopped and looked up at her cousin. “I know this doesn’t really help, but you have to do what’s right for you, for your heart and your life. That might mean being with Dex, and it might not. You know we’re here for you all the way, but we can’t decide for you.”
“Life would be a whole lot easier if you could,” Tina grumbled.
“I don’t know. You didn’t even like it when I used to give you advice on what to wear,” Chelsea teased. “You hated it when I told you what to do.”
“Yes,” Tina said with a little laugh. “I guess I still do.”
“Is there any direction you’re leaning?” Amanda asked, playing with the candle flames again.
There was just enough wine in her system to make her slow down, to allow her to really pull back and see the big picture a little more objectively. She had a thing for Dex, and it honestlycame from both sides of her. It’d be wonderful if they could make it work out.
Right now, though, she wanted something even more than to have her mate at her side. “I want to help Sage,” she said. “I don’t know exactly how, and I need to give myself the space and time to think about it, but that’s the one thing I know for sure I have to do. She’s lost her mother, and she doesn’t have anyone to guide her with her magic. That’s not a situation any young witch should be put in.”
“That sounds like a solution to me,” Chelsea said. She lifted her glass. “To solutions, even if they’re vague and temporary, but as long as they make us feel better!”
Tina and Amanda laughed as they clinked their glasses against hers. “To solutions!”
“Thanks, you guys. I’ll keep you posted. I’m glad I’ve got you. I might not know what the hell I was doing otherwise.”
“Eh, I’d say most of us don’t,” Chelsea said. “We just have to wing it the best we can.”
Tina laughed and talked well into the night with her sister and cousin, but still felt uncertain. She didn’t have any real plan as to how to help Sage, and Dex might not even let her. Her stomach clenched. Tears threatened every time she thought of Dex, and worry rippled under her skin when she thought about Sage. But at least it was just a little better.
15
“This is goingto be really fun, Daddy!” Sage said from the backseat.
“Yes, it is.” Dex still wasn’t thrilled that he’d been roped into decorating for the fall dance at the Academy, but he might as well make the best of it.
