Page 11 of Small-Town Secrets
Letting goof thoughts of Laurence was no easy task. In fact, I was still thinking about him almost two hours later, sitting at the only bar in town with my friend Jake.
“You seem kinda distracted,” he said, still nursing his first beer of the night even though we’d been here for a while. Jake had never been a big drinker, always said that he saw too many drunk people in accidents. I was pretty sure though that he just didn’t want anyone to know that he couldn’t hold his liquor.
I took a sip of my own beer before speaking. “I’m sorry. I have a lot on my mind.”
“Did your first karate lesson not go well? Don’t beat yourself up over it. Kids can be hard to handle.”
“It’s not that, although there was this one situation…” I drifted off, replaying the children’s argument and the way Tyler had reacted to me in my mind. Now that I knew who Tyler’s daddy was, things made a little more sense. What if I’d scared him because he’d known other alphas in his life to be violent? The thought made me shudder in disgust.
What kind of asshole did you have to be to terrify a child like that?
The kind of asshole who burned his partner’s face…
Put like that, there was no doubt in my mind as to who was responsible for the fear I’d seen in Tyler today.
Poor kid. He didn’t deserve that. No child did.
Jake snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Are you still with me?”
“Spaced out. Sorry.”
My friend laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this. What happened today?”
I rubbed my chin. Should I tell Jake? Oh, what the hell. “Can you keep a secret?”
“What kind of secret?” Jake leaned in, intrigue painted across his features. “I keep all sorts of secrets for all sorts of people at work all the time.”
“Notthatkind of secret. You’re making it sound like I’m about to tell you about my hemorrhoids.”
For some reason, Jake looked even more intrigued now. “You have hemorrhoids?”
“I don’t have hemorrhoids!” I got the feeling that maybe I’d said that last part a little too loudly because now some of the other patrons were throwing glances our way. Fantastic. Tomorrow morning the whole town would know that I was asking Jake to look at my hemorrhoids. Oh, the joys of living in Oceanport. Three years I’d dated another alpha and kept any and all rumors from spreading, but twenty-four hours from now some happy homemakers would meet in the aisle of the grocery store and discuss the fact that I’d allegedly invited Jake to look up my ass.
“Okay, okay, I get it.” Jake took another sip from his bottle. “Not that hemorrhoids are anything to be ashamed of. There’s worse things, believe me.”
I gave him a look. “Could you please let that topic die?”
“Fine. What did you actually want to talk about?”
“Do you know Laurence Fe—” I stopped because Fessen probably wasn’t Laurence’s last name anymore if he’d mated. “Laurence, the omega who came back to town a little while ago. He was at Nathan’s wedding.” I raised my beer to my lips as if drinking from it would make this whole conversation seem more casual.
“The one with the…” Jake held a hand in front of his face and made a gesture.
“He didn’t always look like that,” I protested, slamming my bottle onto the counter. “His asshole ex did that to him.”
Jake raised his eyebrows at me. “No need to get so aggressive. It’s not like I’m judging him for his scar. I mean, come on. You know me. When have I ever judged an omega by their looks?”
“The only reason you don’t is because they don’t have a chance with you anyway, if their name doesn’t start with a C.”
“My point still stands. Besides, it’s not like you’re any better.”
"How am I not better? I'm not hung up on one person." At least I'd never given Jake any indication to think that I was.
"I've known you for years now and you've never been on a date," Jake pointed out. "I don't know the reason for that, but there must besomething.You're just as likely to be stuck on one particular person as I am."
I shot my friend a smile. What I was about to say would drive him wild with curiosity. "Just because you don't know about any of my dates doesn't mean they never happened."
Jake stared at me, but then his expression relaxed again. "No, you're not fooling me. You're making that up."
