Page 324 of Secret Shifters Next Door

“I really needed to talk to someone. Listen…I need to get out of this house. I’m going stir-crazy. Are you free?”

“Lord, I’m glad you said that. I feel the same way. Steff has been gone all day every day. It’s like I am a prisoner in my own house or something. Can we get some coffee?

“Yes, please. Can I meet you at that place downtown?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I have to warn you, Steff has a few of their security techs following me. Hope that won’t freak you out.”

I laughed. “It’s fine. Your bodyguards and my bodyguards can exchange notes. It’ll be like a big family get-together.”

I texted Dad letting him know where I was going. To my surprise, he wasn’t asleep. He responded within seconds:

I’ll havea couple of extra guys patrolling outside the coffee shop. Have fun. Be safe.

I rolledmy eyes and walked to my car. The two guys assigned to watch me were hustling to jump into their car and follow me. Ignoring them, I drove to town and met April at the coffee shop. She’d already arrived and had gotten a seat in the back. I waved to her and placed my own order. Once my drink and pastry were ready, I carried them back to sit with her.

“Hey girl! This is nice, isn’t it?” April said looking around at the busy shop. “I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have people around.”

“I’ve got the opposite problem. My dad has, like, everyone who works for him at my house. At least that’s how it feels. I can’t think straight. But at least these are normal people,” I said, glancing around. “Not hulking mafioso guys who have a hard time finding their sense of humor.”

“Ugh, true.” April took a sip of her drink. “How are you holding up? With everything going on, I mean?”

“As good as I can. Things with Blayne are going really well. If there’s one good thing that came out of this, it’s me getting to be with him.”

“Amen. This whole curse thing should have been a bitch, but it found us all some really good guys. In the life I had before, good honest men were hard as hell to find.”

“How are the others doing? Celina and Harley?”

“Harley is stressed. She’s texted me nonstop since she’s been gone. The kids are enjoying the beach. Her girls are old enough to know something is going on, but she’s done all she can to keep them from knowing. That adds another level of stress. She knows they’re safer away from Lilly Valley, though. It’ll be easier for Tate to concentrate without worrying about them.

“Celina got back to LA safe. She’s more or less setting up camp in her friend’s place. She seems okay, but it’s not ideal to be pregnant and have to leave your doctor and your man behind for however long.” April stared at her cup, slowly turning it in her fingers. “I’m scared, Ava. I’ve hidden it pretty well, but this whole thing has me freaked out. I finally got Steff back. Now I might lose him again. Forever.”

“That's pretty much right where I am. I’m worried more about losing Blayne than what might happen to me.”

“Well,” April said with a shrug, “we’ll have to make sure to screw their brains out as much as possible. That’ll keep their stress low and remind them what they have to come home to.”

I choked on my coffee. I wiped my mouth and laughed. “I’m sure they’d hate that.”

“How’s it really going with Blayne? I know you like him, but is there anything else?”

I mulled that over. Then I realized the whole reason I wanted to meet up with her was to discuss Blayne. Why not get it all out there and see what my friend thought?

“I think I might be falling in love with him.”

April raised her eyebrows. “And how does that make you feel?”

I huffed out a breath. “It should make me happy, and it does, don’t get the wrong idea. It’s brilliant. Exciting and scary at the same time. I wonder what it’ll do to me if I lose him. I loved his brother, and his death almost killed me. I don’t know whether I can survive it happening again.”

“I get it. I really do. I didn’t lose Steff to death, but I lost him for years. That was bad enough. I can only imagine what it might be like if he was truly gone. We have to trust that they’ll all come out of this war alive and well. There’s nothing else we can do.”

I picked at my croissant and took a few sips of my drink before another question sprang to mind. I’d tried to keep it far back in my mind, but this was probably the best chance I’d have to verbalize it.

“April? I know the curse brought me to Blayne. It brought you and Steff together. And it allowed you to become shifters, and it allowed you to have kids together. I…well…when I officially rejected Blayne and broke the curse, did that end those possibilities? Like, will I not turn into a shifter? And does it mean Blayne and I won’t be able to have babies?”

“You want children?” April’s eyes were big as saucers.

“Well…no…er, yes…maybe. I don’t know. I’m thinking about what it means for me to have rejected him. I’ve always thought about being a mom. I just never thought it would be in the cards for me. Even when I was with Liam, he’d told me humans and shifters couldn’t have babies, so I pretty much put that out of my mind. Then he died, and I spent yearsrunningfrom relationships.”

“You’re wondering if it’ll still work even though you broke the curse?”

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