Page 88 of Power Shift
“I was so busy with work and trying to get my master’s that I neglected him, I suppose.”
I had no idea she’d done that much schooling, but I nipped her again for her thought process.
“Stop that,” she admonished, tugging on my neck fur. Regret spilled through me when she didn’t speak for a while. I nudged her belly.
“I couldn’t look at him the same afterward. He begged me for another chance, but all the love I felt for him…it dried up in that moment. How does that happen? One day your heart is so full, and you can see a beautiful life in the horizon, but in the next, all your dreams lay shattered and that person, your person?—”
Her voice shuddered and broke on the last word.
“They become someone you never knew. Someone you never wanted to know. And suddenly a stranger you’ve given everything to stands before you and you don’t know what to do. Life becomes unsure and the steady path you just stood on gets washed away in the storm that comes after.”
And then she went to Scotland where something happened. My intel never clarified what, but Evie’s movements after that were erratic until she landed in Joy Springs.
“Just when I was picking up the pieces, I took that trip.” She stopped talking. “Well. Things changed after that, and I drifted for a long time until I found Moira and Ash and Tess.”
She toyed with my ear, and I let out a happy little growl. Evie’s soft chuckle emboldened me, and I turned my head to let my tongue loll out.
“You charmer,” she said softly. “And now I’m here on a porch pouring my heart out to a Shifter Lord.”
Evie sighed and took a sip of her coffee. “You must think me maudlin tonight.”
I nudged her belly again and then her hand because she’d stopped petting me. This is the most she’d ever told me about herself, and the longest we’d probably gone in a conversation without being awkward or getting into a fight.
She dug her fingers into the fur on my spine and scratched.
I died and went to heaven.
“I’m going into work early today, I guess.”
A whine escaped me. She needed more rest.
“I can’t sleep. The memories are too fresh.”
I whined again and lifted my head to stare at her.
She snorted and pushed my face away. “Quit. I’m tired but I can’t sleep.”
I went and padded to her door, pawing at the handle. I could open it, but she was being awfully sweet tonight, and I didn’t want to do anything to make her snappy. My instincts kicked in. I knew what she needed, even if Evie didn’t.
She sighed. “Is this your idea of trying to get into my bed?”
Yes, but not in the way she was thinking.
Evie frowned. “Your paws are all dirty.”
I wiped them on her rug and stared at her.
Sighing, she rose. “Fine. But one wrong move, and I’ll let the plants eat you. Got it?”
I sat down like a good doggie and let my tongue hang out.
“I’m going to regret this,” she muttered to herself.
I’d make sure she did not.
When Evie rose and opened the door, I sent up a mental fist pump. She set her coffee down on the counter and watched me.
Padding over, I got behind her and nudged her hip toward her bedroom.
