Page 115 of Secret Shifters Next Door

No shit.

“Your manager, Larry, let us know about it. We’re trying to do some digging to see if we can figure out who it is by tracing the number.”

April nodded and looked back over my shoulder at the dining room. She looked stressed out. I wasn’t sure if it was the calls orsomething else. I took her hand in mine. Her eyes shot down to look at our intertwined fingers, surprised.

“My team is handling it.” I slid my thumb gently across the back of her hand. “Iwon’t let anything happen to you.”

I made sure to put emphasis on the wordI. Not we, or they, or us. Me. She was mine to protect. I wanted to make sure she knew exactly what I was saying. What I meant and what I intended. Without looking at me, she slipped her hand from mine and took a step back.

“What are you doing, Steff?” she asked, her eyes still downcast.

I didn’t really know how to answer that. My bear was begging me to tell her the truth. The full truth. I winced as I fought inwardly with the creature that was half of me. When I didn’t answer, April finally looked up and locked eyes with me.

“I appreciate you wanting to help, but I can’t be here right now. I’ll talk to you later. Okay?”

Without waiting for me to answer, she walked past me, going back to join her family. The bear whined, and I explained that we had a lot of shit to fix before we were anywhere near close to letting her know everything. We had to at least get her to sort of trust us again before we sprang something this crazy on her.

THIRTEEN

APRIL

The Sunday after Aiden’s first ball game, Kellan invited me over for a cookout. He was making burgers and hotdogs. He asked me to bring some sides. In my time in the modeling world, I never really learned the wholecookingthing. I could make a mean bowl of ramen, but that was about it. I stopped at the store on the way and bought a massive bag of potato chips and a big premade tub of macaroni salad. I told myself it was better than nothing, but it was kind of sad. While I was in line checking out, I went online and bought some simple cookbooks. I needed to eat something other than sandwiches, cereal, and salad.

When I arrived, Kris and Chelsea were already there. Kellan was in the backyard, grilling. Fragrant smoke poured off the grill as he turned the meat. My mouth watered at the smell. For about three years, when I first got into modeling, I’d tried to be vegan, which turned into pescatarian, that then morphed into agive-me-the-damn-meatdiet. I wasn’t cut out to live on only fruit and vegetables, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a good old-fashioned burger barbecue. I was looking forward to this.

“Aunt April,” Aiden called and came running to my car to help. I gave him the bag of chips.

“Barbecue chips? Nice.” He ran off into the house without another word. Hopefully, he wouldn’t stuff his face on them before lunch.

Chelsea and Kris hugged me as I stepped inside. It looked like they’d brought a tray of brownies for dessert and the buns. Kris pulled me aside as Chelsea helped Aiden put the chips in a giant bowl.

“How are you doing? After yesterday, I mean?” he asked.

It took me several seconds to realize he was talking about us hanging out at the restaurant with Steff. He wanted to make sure I was okay. I grinned. “Kris, it’s fine. Really. It’s been years. I’m not still hung up on that.”

Kris nodded. “You may not be, but I saw the way he was looking at you yesterday. He may be thinking he can restart whatever you guys had before. I don’t want him trying to hurt you again is all.”

How had he looked at me? What had Kris seen? A pleasant tickle went up my spine at the thought, and I quickly quashed the thoughts before they could do more than skirt the periphery of my mind.

Kellan walked in with a platter of cooked food. “Time to eat.”

That snapped Kris and me out of the awkward conversation we were having. I turned and helped set out the buns and fixings, which kept my mind off Kris’s words. A few minutes later, we were seated around Kellan’s table, digging into the spread.

Finishing a bite of his burger, Kellan turned to Aiden. The look on his face was pensive and a little sad. “Hey, buddy?”

“Yeah, Dad?” Aiden answered, grabbing a handful of chips.

Kellan sighed. “I know your coach told you about that baseball camp he wants you to go to.”

Aiden’s eyebrows rose in anticipation. “Yeah?”

“Well, I really want you to go to it, and I do think it’ll make you a better player, but it’s too last minute. I didn’t have the timeto budget for it. Maybe we can do it next year? That will give me time to save up the money.”

Aiden’s face fell slightly, but to his credit, he didn’t pout or whimper. Instead, he nodded. “It’s okay. It’s no big deal. They have it every year. I can go next summer.”

“How much?” I blurted before I could think.

Kellan blinked at me in surprise. “Uh, well.” He glanced around at everyone, obviously uncomfortable. “It’s almost a thousand dollars. It covers the camp and lunch each day. It’s more than I have to spend right now.”

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