Page 9 of Shifters in the Night

“Salespeople again?” Zed guessed. “I thought Jessica guarded your door?”

“Ambushed me while I was walking across the street,” the newcomer grumbled.

Zed chuckled. “What was it this time?”

“Water filters,” the man said, sounding annoyed. “They want us to install them in every household in the Bayou.”

“Did you tell them we’re installing a whole new municipal water system, with filters already built in?” Zed asked.

“I try not to make surprise sales appointments any longer than necessary.” The man rolled his eyes and turned to Lia. “I’m sorry. I’m being very rude. You must be Ms. Doe. Theresa called to let me know you’d arrived.”

Over his shoulder, the dark-haired lady from the lobby waved at her.

“That’s our Theresa, always moving, always making connections,” Zed said proudly.

“It’s true!” Theresa called from her desk. “I also have excellent hearing!”

Lia laughed as the man sat in the chair next to hers. “I’m Alex Lancaster, executive director of League operations here in Mystic Bayou. I know we had a meeting scheduled later this week, but I thought we might hit two birds with one stone, since the League’s interests are the town’s interests, too.”

Zed offered that same easy grin. For a second, Lia wondered if this was some sort of power move, meant to disorient her. Were these men conspiring to put her off her game, to get some sort of advantage over New Ground? If so, she resented it. She was a lot of things, but easily intimidated was not one of them. She opened her other senses to Mr. Lancaster and all she saw was the olive green of guarded optimism and a little red sizzle of attraction. Lancaster didn’t mean any harm, but he wasn’t sure he could trust her.

That was interesting.

Over the next hour, the three of them discussed all of the town’s and the League’s concerns, hammering out a working plan that, to Lia’s best effort, would reduce the impact of construction on the town, while allowing New Ground to build as quickly as possible.

The biggest concession, and the one that she expected her team to object most to, was a redesign of the planned building. Rather than New Ground’s usual large, multi-floored complex, the League asked for a collection of single-story structures with two-apartments each. It would match the League campus, make the residents feel like they had more privacy and it would be cheaper to build. Victor would be unhappy, but Lia couldn’t help but be excited at the prospect of building charming little cottages that would help people.

Zed signed the last of the papers she needed with a flourish. “Thanks for talking all that through, Lia. I feel a lot better.”

“Absolutely, anything you need, the least little concern, you come to me,” she told him. “That goes for you, too, Mr. Lancaster.”

“Please just call me ‘Alex,’” he replied smoothly. Her brows rose ever so slightly. Alex was sending her vibes, even if he didn’t mean to. The little ruby flicker of attraction had grown to full-on rolling fog in the last hour. He was definitely interested and she found herself ... flattered. He was like a lot of men she’d dated, polished and professional. He had a nice smile and he didn’t talk down to Zed. But for a moment, her mind flashed back to Jon, and how he hadn’t looked at her with a hint of red, not even when she’d been naked in front of him. He hadn’t looked at her with lust. He’d looked at her with awe, bright and golden.

It was probably shallow, but Lia thought she preferred the awe.

“Why don’t you come to our next League staff meeting?” Alex asked. “You can meet the key players and some of the newer people in town. We need to stick together, us newcomers.”

“That would probably save a lot of time,” she admitted, grateful for a moment that her first week in the Bayou wouldn’t be a never-ending slog of new faces and new names to remember. She could do it, but it was so much easier just to get it all out of the way at once.

“I’ll email you the details,” Alex said.

Zed offered her his hand, like she was stepping out of a carriage instead of just getting up from an office chair. “Are you hungry? We could take you to the pie shop for lunch.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet, thank you,” she said, grinning. “But I need to get back to the office, which is barely unpacked.”

Zed looked vaguely disappointed, but the beige of it felt more like pouty brotherly affection than romantic interest – which she found comforting. She had her hands full with Jon and whatever was happening with Alex and the red wisps that seemed to be stretching towards her from his side of the desk. Zed reached into a roughly carved card holder on the Oakendesk and handed her one of his business cards. “Jillian and Sonja made me have these printed up. It’s got all of my contact information on it. If you need anything, anything at all, let me know.”

Alex suddenly started patting his own pockets, while she handed them her business cards. It just made sense for them to be able to contact her, given their positions in town. Did she want Alex to use it to contact her personally? Well … she wasn’t sure. She supposed it wouldn’t upset her, though.

“Anything I need to know about the town before we get started?” Lia asked.

“Jon Carmody is a really nice guy,” Zed blurted out, making Alex’s head snap towards him, his expression befuddled.

Lia fought to keep control of her own face as she nodded. “That’s good to know. Thank you.”

* * *

Walking back to her office, Lia tried to make sense of her last few minutes with Zed. She’d managed to glide right over that moment of conversational awkwardness about Jon. Heaven knew she’d been through enough of them in years of working in tense interoffice situations. She’d just smiled, shook their hands and eased out of the room as if Zed hadn’t knocked her off-kilter with his announcement that Jon was a “nice guy.”

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