Page 299 of Secret Shifters Next Door

“I’m sorry. You’re right, I wasn’t thinking. It wasnotmy intention to make you feel…I don’t know. Abandoned, I guess.”

He smiled. “We’re good. No big deal.” He nodded to my cart. “Are you done shopping?”

My brain short-circuited. I was supposed to grab three or four other things, but instead of saying that, I nodded like an idiot. “Yup. All done.”

“Cool.” Blayne placed the basket he had in my cart, took the handle, and then started rolling it toward the cashiers.

I stood in the same spot for a full ten seconds before I came to my senses and hurried after him. “What are you doing?”

“You said you were done,” he said with a shrug. “I’m taking your cart to the register.”

“Uh, that’s very gallant of you, but I can do that myself.”

Blayne didn’t answer. Instead, he started unloading the groceries onto the conveyor belt. My shoulders sagged, and I went ahead and helped pull things out of the cart, watching them roll inexorably toward the cashier. The whole time, Blayne didn’t say anything.

I didn’t realize he’d mixed his items in with mine until everything had been rung up and he slid his card into theterminal. My mouth dropped open as the cashier handed him a receipt for all the groceries. His and mine together.

“Wait, no. You didn’t need to do that,” I said, but it was already too late. He was rolling the cart toward the door.

He turned as I walked up to him. “Do what?”

“Buy my groceries.”

He shrugged. “Look, you’ve been cooking me dinner for like two weeks now with no payments at all from me. It’s time I did a little something to make it up to you.”

The grin on his face was good-natured and a little playful. What had gotten into him? This wasn’t the Blayne I knew. It was like a switch had been flipped inside him, and now he was trying to be buddy-buddy with me.

“What’s gotten into you?” I asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

A sigh escaped my lips. “You know what I’m talking about. Cut the bullshit, Blayne. Not even two weeks ago, you were willing to live through unimaginable pain to keep me out of your life.” I pointed at the cart. “Now you’re joking around with me in the grocery store and buying my groceries? Spill. What the hell is going on here?”

We were out in the parking lot now. Blayne stopped pushing the cart and said, “Do you want me to go on hating you?”

The question caught me off-guard. It was so abrupt. I could see by the look on his face that he was not trying to be mean or sarcastic. He was asking me a question that he thought truly needed a response. A response that he wanted to hear.

“Umm, well, no. I don’t.”

“Open your trunk.”

“Excuse me?” I gaped at him, then my face turned red when he pointed at my car. For an instant, I’d thought he was making some crude double entendre about pulling my pants down and bending over.

“The trunk of your car?” he asked again, this time smiling as he realized where my mind had gone.

Fumbling around with my keys, I found the button and hit it. My trunk popped open and he started loading the bags in. When he was done, he closed the hatch, then rested his hands on it. He was thinking. Obviously trying to find the right words, and it was all I could do to stay quiet and let him have a few moments.

Finally, he straightened and turned. “Do I still have resentments? Yes. It will take me alongtime to heal from that. I’m trying to let go of the past. With your dad sticking his and his men’s necks out for me and my guys, I came to the conclusion that some things are bigger than the past.” He shook his head, almost as if in defeat. “I don’t know what I’m feeling, but at times like this, we need allies. Your family are our allies. I can't say I won’t get triggered by certain things sometimes, but I am trying to work on healing. Does any of that make sense?”

“Uh, yeah, actually. It does.” I was almost at a loss for words. He’d never been open with me. It was nice to know that perhaps that frozen heart was starting to melt a little.

Blayne pushed the cart into the parking lot corral before opening my car door for me. “I’ll be over for dinner around seven.”

“Wait…huh…what?” This time, I really was at a loss for words. “What do you mean?”

He stepped closer, almost as close as he had that night in the woods. “I said I’ll be over for dinner at seven. Better than you dropping food off on my doorstep. That okay with you?”

I had no idea what was going on. All I could do was let the heat of his body radiate into mine. Déjà vu swirled in my head, and I had to force myself to keep my eyes on his. This was not how I’d envisioned my trip to the grocery store going. The way Blayne looked at me right then? It reminded me of a different Walker brother, and the way he’d sometimes look at me.

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