Page 9 of Next Door Midlife Alpha
Or a shit ton of money,Stacey silently added, remembering some of the home prices she’d looked at on comparative properties. “I needed a big change. The Boston suburbs were great in a lot of ways, but when I looked into this place, I knew it was meant to be.”
He was standing next to the truck, watching her, those dark eyes burrowing straight into her the way they’d done the previous day. She’d hardly been paying attention to him as she moved back through time in her mind, once again experiencing that rush of urgency once she was out of the hospital and back on her feet. But now, Stacey felt like she was the only other person in the world as he spoke. “Sometimes destiny holds things for us that we can never imagine.”
“Yeah, it really does.” She turned, ready to strain her thighs and knees all over again to hop in the back of the truck, but it was empty except for a small box of dishes that’d been missed. “Nor did I imagine someone coming along and helping me unload this in record time. Can I buy you dinner or something to pay you back?”
He opened his mouth, and the angle of his head suggested he was going to say no, but then he nodded. “Sure. You don’t need to repay me, but I could use a dinner out. How about I pick you up tonight? I know a great little place that you might like.”
“All right.” Was she smiling too much? Because as much as Stacey tried to tug the corners of her mouth back down, they weren’t cooperating. “I’ll see you then.”
“See you.” Dylan headed back over to his place.
That left Stacey to recover. She pulled out the box of dishes, finding that she barely had enough strength to tug the truck gate shut. Whether that was because she’d exhausted her muscles with the move or because watching Dylan’s muscled body had driven all her strength away, she wasn’t sure. She braced the box on her hip and headed back into the house.
“We’re coming!” Carol announced as she and the kids came out of the hallway. “We got a little distracted, but we can get another load now.”
“No need. The truck is empty. I’m going to get it dropped off in a bit.” And then she’d have to come back and take a cold shower.
“Empty? And what are you smiling about?” Carol followed her into the kitchen.
Stacey put the box on the table and pulled it open, casually unpacking the dishes. Was she still smiling? She wasn’t the kind who got all gooey over a man. She was a more rational person than that. “Why not smile? After all, we came out here to have fun, right?”
Carol raised a brow and was about to say more when the kids barreled into the kitchen to raid the fridge. She settled for a knowing smile. “Right.”
5
Dylan rana comb through his hair and looked in the mirror. It was an image he’d seen thousands of times, but now he leaned forward and looked into his own eyes, questioning himself. Pierce had reported back to him the previous night, explaining that he’d seen a boy and a girl heading back to what had formerly been the Sutton home. He’d kept to the shadows of the hydrangeas near the clanhouse, his ears pricking as the boy talked about wolves. Stacey had dismissed her children’s talk of wolves as nothing more than a bit of fun, and Dylan himself had encouraged that line of thought. She didn’t have a clue that shifters were nearby, and she probably didn’t know that one was about to go pick her up for dinner.
Well, fine. Dylan put the comb away and thumped down the stairs to put his shoes on. If she believed he was just as human as she was, wasn’t that precisely what he wanted? That was what he and the other Brighams wanted people to think. They were just regular folks. But these humans livedright therenext to the clanhouse.That meant these humans had to be kept at such a distance that they’d never guess, or he’d have to convince himself that they were safe enough to understand their secret.
His bear pounced on that concept, liking the idea of finding someone he could confide in. It certainly had plenty of other thoughts about Stacey, ones that had been difficult to control earlier that day. Well, it would just have to shut the hell up and let him do his job. Dylan had accepted Stacey’s invite because he couldn’t think of any better opportunity to get to know her and determine exactly what the clan needed to do about her.
Heading into the garage, he fired up his Jeep. It amused him to back it out of the driveway only to pull it into the next one, but Dylan would do everything he could on this outing to make her feel comfortable around him. He needed her to open up, to tell him more about who she really was inside before he could figure out what to do about her.
Stacey was ready as soon as he pulled up, stepping out her door before he had a chance to come up and knock like a gentleman. She’d worn a pair of pale shorts, strappy flat sandals, and a button-down blouse. It was a simple outfit, but Dylan found himself admiring the way it flowed over her curves. It turned out she was just as sexy whether wearing her swimsuit or fully dressed. “Hey,” she said as she hopped into the passenger seat.
“Hi.” Backing onto the road, Dylan headed out along a familiar route that he took at least a few times a week. “I’m not taking you away from your kids or anything, am I?”
“No, they’re fine. Mom is entertaining them tonight. When I left, they were eating pickles and olives on the living room floor.”
Dylan laughed. “Sounds like a nutritious meal.”
Her earrings jangled slightly as she shook her head and smiled. “She’ll feed them more than that. I’m sure she’ll feed them almost anything they want. There’s nothing she likes better than spoiling them. I’m sure they’re pretty happy about the pickles and olives because a few weeks ago, I would’ve probably told them no.”
“What made the difference, if I can ask?” She’d mentioned earlier that she’d needed a change,which had sent his mind wondering just what would spark a drastic measure like leaving a job and moving. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, though.”
“Oh, it’s all right,” she said.
Dylan adjusted his hands on the wheel. There was something about telling someone they didn’t have to speak on a subject that always made them want to. That wasn’t necessarily the case, especially since he didn’t know Stacey well enough to say for sure, but it still made him feel like he was setting a trap for her. It didn’t feel right to do that when she might be…well, he’d figure that part out later. Either way, he needed to know more about her and what brought her there.
“I know this is going to sound crazy,” she began, “but I had a near-death experience when I fell off a ladder.”
He ripped his eyes from the road to look at her. “Shit.”
“Yeah,” she agreed as she swiped a bit of hair from her face. “I won’t bore you with all the details, but I saw my late father and felt all sorts of things. The general message was that I had to get back to my life, that it wasn’t my time yet, and that there were people who needed me. I was workingconstantly for this big marketing firm. Work was my whole life, and it meant I wasn’t spending enough time with my kids. I thought I was doing well by them because my job meant I could give them a nice house and new clothes and all that, but they needed hugs and time and sunshine.”
“So you left the ‘burbs and moved to the beach,” Dylan finished for her as he pulled up into a little parking lot in Provincetown. It was a short drive, which he normally thought of as a good thing, but that night, he wished it were longer. He didn’t know if a story like that would’ve interested him any other time, but the fact that it washerstory made him want to know all about it. “That makes a lot of sense.”
“I think you’re the first person to say so, other than my mother.” She unbuckled and slipped out of the car, not giving him time to come around and hold the door for her.
