Page 15 of The Pumpkin Spice Romance
“Because Uncle Simon eats smelly lunches, not because he’s a shifter.” Mum sighed. “If he knows them, he’s okay. But he still watches too much news, I think.”
At this, Leonie relaxed. Maybe living in Australia all these years had helped her folks shake off the fears they’d left home with, even if echoes of old attitudes still lingered. Nothing was perfect, but then, progress itself was a kind of perfection. It was comforting just to know things could get better.
As she and her mum got back to eating, she looked once more at the front counter and caught Hayden watching her through the kitchen window. He started and looked away, only to look back with a shy smile.
There was something between them, more than definitely, even forgetting about the kiss they almost shared at his place. They hadn’t addressed it yet—sure, they’d flirted and hinted, but that’s as far as it got. Leonie wasn’t ready for more, and with the divorce proceedings soon to be underway, she appreciated Hayden just seeming to sense she needed space. In any case, there was no rush. He and Lara had a long-term lease on this place for The Spice Pelage, so they’d be around a while. And Leonie could happily guarantee she wasn’t going anywhere.
When she looked back, her Mum was smiling, watching her thoughtfully. Immediately, she felt a rush of self-consciousness, like she’d been caught sneaking lollies from thepantry. Had Mum put two and two together? Did she realise Hayden was more than just “the other best friend” from schoolandthat he was that very same shifter boy?
But Mum just remarked that the lasagna was the best she’d ever tasted, and Leonie let out a quiet breath of relief. She hoped her mum realised without needing to be told, but if she didn’t, then maybe telling her eventually wouldn’t be a problem. Not anymore.
9
One Month Later
A man walked into The Spice Pelage. He was tall and walked with a swagger than seemed to tell the world it owed him one. The hair on the back of Hayden’s neck stood on end, not in a good way. The guy had a whiff about him that Hayden had smelled on Leonie’s clothes, not the pungent smell of fresh contact, but that old worn-in smell from many years of shared space. He knew immediately that this was Mark, Leonie’s soon-to-be ex-husband.
“Excuse me,” Mark said, approaching the counter, never minding that the two people standing middle-distance away might have been queueing up to order instead of just waiting for coffees. “I’m looking for Leonie. is she around?”
Hayden ignored him and kept loading fresh macarons into the display, knowing Deanne was just over his shoulder and more enthusiastic about serving customers.
“I’ll get her,” she said, and ducked off to the kitchen.
Surreptitiously, Hayden sized the guy up. Mark was broad-shouldered, but Hayden could take him if things came to blows, if he dared cause trouble for Leonie. But up close, there was a secondary smell about him, a smell of weakness and possibly a little fear. People who smelled like that were either tooreluctant to cause trouble, or they took trouble to the extreme. Hayden rolled a creak out of his neck and shoulders, hoping he wouldn’t need to step in, but ready if whatever Mark was here for came to that.
“Mark,” Leonie greeted, rounding the counter.
Mark held up a white A4 envelope. “I bought the paperwork. Can we talk for a sec?”
“Yeah, I got ten minutes.”
“Coffee?”
“No, thanks. You can order at the counter.” Leonie smiled at the waiting customers as she headed for a table in the middle of the seating area.
Hayden bit the inside of his cheek, amused at how his favourite human had just told her almost-ex to rack off and get his own coffee with such elegance. Deanne took Mark’s order and flashed him a sideways grin, baring her teeth in a casual yet visible way. A warning, veiled beneath pleasantry, not to upset a member of the pack. Whether Mark, obviously a human, understood its true meaning didn’t matter. That message belonged to this place.
With the window filled, there was no reason for Hayden to linger at the counter, but he hovered in the doorway to the kitchen. Lara emerged from the office, took one look out the window, then hip and shouldered him through the door.
“Why don’t you take a break, have some lunch?” she suggested, nodding to the plants shelf in the corner. “Lupe’s plants look like they need watering,” she added with a smirk.
Pastry gods bless the clever big sister, Hayden thought as he filled Lupe’s long-nozzle’d watering can. He grabbed a sandwich and a cupful of hot chips on the way to the back table, noting a brief and subtle smile from Leonie as Mark pointed at various sections of their legal papers. Hayden watered the plants and sat with his back to them, relieved that she didn’t seem to mind him hovering nearby.
“Honestly, I wish you’d have just said you were unhappy,” Mark declared over the softgakof pages hitting table.
“I could say the same thing,” Leonie replied without missing a beat. “Cheating on someone is a heck of a way to send a message.”
“Granted, that could have been handled better.”
“You had ample opportunity to figure that out.”
“I was thinking of everything we built together, Lee,” he argued. “Our savings, our home, our business. Now you want to tear it all down, and for what?” Far out, he was pathetic.
“I’m just taking my share and leaving you to whatever you want to do with the rest of your life, Mark. Your choice to shutter the business and sell the house has nothing to do with me.” Leonie’s chair scraped back. “Look, I’m technically still on shift, so . . . thanks for dropping these off. And for not filing an opposition.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t want to be with someone who doesn’t want to be with me anyway. I have some dignity.” A silence passed between them, where all Hayden heard was his own intent chewing on his sandwich. It staggered into an awkward farewell, a tall man’s footsteps leaving the café, then ended with Leonie’s cool elbow resting on the shoulder of an eavesdropping wolf.
“You catch all that, Furball?” she asked, stealing a chip. Hayden kicked out a chair for her to sit.
