Page 21 of Cursed Bonds: An Alpha's Destiny

Chapter 7

Kirsten

Small beads of sweat slipped down my forehead onto my nose. I wrinkled my nose at the tickle of it and swiped my face across the sleeve of my shirt. One more turn of the wrench, and I had the sink drain reattached with the new rubber gasket installed underneath.

“There. You better work now, asshole,” I muttered to the thing as I pushed myself out from under the sink.

The job had been simple. The hardest part had been twisting and bending myself into position. I’d been fully focused on the repair job, but at the back of my mind, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Jace had said to me. Not-so-nice ladies. What exactly did that mean? My grandmother had been a saint, so how could the women who raised her have been any different?

Though, I did remember how the townsfolk had acted toward Nana when I’d gone with her as a child. They’d all sort of given her a wide berth. It was a distant and fuzzy memory, but one that stuck out now that I thought about it. Almost like they were afraid of her, or confused by her in some way. Was that what it was about?

While I contemplated that question, I turned the water on to test my repair job. No leaks. Yay, me!

My phone vibrated as I turned the water back off. It was Dad.

Did you make it to that place safe? Just checking.

Wow, Dad. A couple days late, but I guess it’s better than nothing. The idea of calling him made my skin crawl, but I did need to see if he was okay. I was afraid he’d be strung out or drunk off his ass, but I dialed before I could talk myself out of it.

He answered on the second ring. “Hey, kiddo. How’s it down in the middle of nowhere?”

He sounded surprisingly sober. I must have caught him at a good time.

“It’s good. I made it here safe. How are things there?”

“Well,” he grunted, “I had a visitor this morning.”

“A visitor?” I said, frowning, unsure what he was talking about.

“Yup. Some tight little redhead shows up at damn near the ass crack of dawn. I came stumbling out of my bedroom thinking some burglar had broken in.”

I grinned to myself. Harley. “I’m assuming she didn’t steal anything?”

“Oh, you know damn well she didn’t,” Dad grumbled. “She said you gave her a key! Anyway, she’s bebopping around my kitchen, making me breakfast and cleaning up. I told her I wasn’t hungry, but the woman wouldn’t take no for an answer. If she’s your friend, you can tell her I said she doesn’t need to be so fucking pushy all the time.”

“I wanted to make sure someone I trusted would check in on you. That’s all.”

Rather than getting angry or defensive like he usually did, he only grunted. “Yeah, well, at least you sent someone who’s easy on the eyes.”

I switched to speakerphone and fired off a quick text to Harley:

Thanks for this morning. Dad enjoyed breakfast.

“I’m sure Harley was happy to help,” I said. “Are you off work today?”

“Yeah. Factory is closed for two days for the annual equipment shutdown and inspection. Only the snooty engineers and management staff are there. Goddamned kids are half my age but act like they know everything.”

Dad had bounced around so many jobs, I couldn’t keep them straight. Almost all of them were manual labor—factories or warehouses. I honestly had no clue how he ever got hired anywhere with the drug tests most places enforced. I figured he must have had some kind of system for getting by, but I never asked how he did it. It would probably only depress me more.

Harley texted back a moment later.

No problem. He’s a pain in the ass, but I made sure he ate something healthier than Pop-Tarts.

“Listen, Dad,” I said. “Have you ever been to Nana’s cabin?”

“Nope. Never had any interest. In fact, she always acted a bit weird about that place when she talked about it. Almost like she didn’t want to be in Crestwood at all. More like she had this weird idea or thought that she had to go there every now and then. Your grandmother and I…” He paused and took a few breaths. “Well, we never meshed like a mother and child should have. At least, not in my mind. If I can be honest here, there was always something about Mom that, I don’t know, struck me as weird.”

A niggle of interest burrowed up in my mind, peeking its head out. “What do you mean?”

---