Page 314 of Secret Shifters Next Door

Once the meeting was over, I hurried out. I was sure the guys would get to work on planning how to approach Antonio. The last thing I wanted was to get in their way. They were clearly under a ton of intense stress. That was why when Blayne came looking for me in the living room, I was surprised.

“Hey, let’s get out of here,” he said.

“What? Aren’t you guys busy getting, like, battle plans ready or something?”

He shook his head and grinned. “You and I are gonna spend the day together. There’s a storm coming, and I think it would be nice to spend some time together before it gets out of hand.”

“Really?” I was deeply touched that he wanted spend time with me, even with things coming to a head. “You don’t have to. I totally understand what’s happening. It can wait.Wecan wait.”

“No way. We have a lot to talk about. I don’t want this to get swept aside. There’s no telling what’s gonna happen. So not talking now is not up for discussion.”

My dad and Uncle Mike walked into the living room with Tate and Miles as soon as Blayne was done speaking. Daddy grinned mischievously. “How’s it going, you two?”

“I’m trying to talk Ava into coming out with me.”

With everyone there staring at me, I didn’t want to argue. All I could do was shrug.

“Going out, huh?” Dad said. He gave Blayne a knowing look. “Make sure she’s home at a decent hour, young man.”

My face flamed, especially with the way Blayne’s friends grinned. Ugh, it was like I was a fifteen-year-old girl going on her first date.

Blayne’s fingers interlaced with mine as he led me out the front door. Once we were outside, I felt a little better about the whole thing. Itwouldbe nice to spend the day together. We really did have a lot to discuss.

He helped me into the passenger seat of his truck, and then we were pulling down the driveway. I glanced in the side mirror and saw one of Dad’s guys tailing us in a dark sedan. I’d known he’d assign someone to follow me and keep a lookout. After the previous day’s ordeal, I was honestly a little surprised he was even letting me out of his sight.

Nodding my head at the car, I asked, “Is that okay with you? Having a chaperone, I mean?”

“It would bother me more if Giohadn’tsent someone. It would mean your father wasn’t being as cautious as he needs to be.” He chuckled and glanced over at me as the gate at the end of the driveway opened. “I still can’t get over how soft he is with you. The great Gio Francis, the godfather of the Rocky Mountains, and his little girl has him wrapped around her little finger.”

I coughed out a surprised laugh. “I wouldn’t say that. He’s always been protective and loving. It only increased when my mom died. We’ve always had a good relationship—losing her brought us even closer, I guess.”

“Can I ask how you lost your mom?” Blayne asked. He spoke in a quiet way, like he wanted to know but was afraid I’d be hurt.

“Yeah. It was a long time ago. I’ve gotten over it. Well…I’ve gotten over it as much as anyone can. I guess you know what I mean by that.” Blayne had lost his entire family. I still had my dad, my extended family, but Blayne had lost both his parents at the same time. I couldn’t imagine how awful that must have been.

“I do,” he said. “I’d like to hear about your mother, though.”

“She got sick one winter. I was almost twelve. I remember her shuffling around the house, drinking tea, taking cold medicine, the usual stuff people do when they feel sick. We didn’t think anything of it. Um…one morning, Mom couldn’t get out of bed. Couldn’t get to the bathroom without coughing her lungs out, and she had a fever of around a hundred and four. She didn’t want to go to the hospital, but Dad insisted.” I bit my lip as I looked out the window. “I think that’s what Dad feels the guiltiest about. My mother was stubborn. She hated going to the doctor, and even though she’d been sick for over two weeks, she kept telling everyone she’d be better soon. If Dad had forced her to go to the doctor sooner, she might have been okay. We’ll never know.”

“She died from a cold?” Blayne sounded horrified. “Can that happen?”

“Apparently it started as a cold, but then turned into pneumonia. That progressed unknown in her chest for days with no treatment. By the time the ambulance got to our house, she was delirious with fever and barely able to keep her eyes open. She’d gone into sepsis. The doctors pumped her full of antibiotics and intubated her because she couldn’t breathe.” The memories flooded back, and I blinked away my tears. “I…I never really got to say goodbye. I went to see her once. She was asleep, and all these wires and tubes covered her. It was awful. The infection was too far along by the time she got to the hospital. She died three days later.”

Blayne put his free hand out and grabbed my thigh reassuringly. “I’m sorry. We do not have to talk about this anymore.”

I waved him off and wiped my eyes. “It’s okay. I’ll always get a little choked up about it. After she died, the relationship between my father and I changed. It was us against the world. I look a lot like my mom, and I think Dad really started to notice that once she was gone. I’m pretty sure he always thought he could have done more to save Mom, so he did everything he could to take care of me, almost like he wanted to make up for it. It really showed me how much he loved her. I’ve always wanted to marry a man who loved me as much as my dad loved my mom.”

“I’m glad you have that kind of relationship with him,” Blayne said. “People deserve to have that type of closeness with their parents.”

“Liam told me about you guys losing your parents. How were things before you lost them?”

“They were great,” Blayne said wistfully. “The four of us were really close. We never had a lot, but they always made sure we had what we needed. Money was always tight, so we never got to go to the big beach or Disney vacations like other kids did, but we still took family vacations—usually to national parks or things like that. Cheap but fun stuff, you know?” He chuckled. “God, my parents were so into each other. Every time Liam or I turned around, they’d be making out or rubbing each other's butts or something. Even in the grocery store.”

Blayne smiled, and while I could see he was reliving good memories, his eyes were tinged with sadness, with a longing for something he could never again experience. I rubbed a hand over his back and shoulder, trying to comfort him the way he’d comforted me. He reached up and took my hand.

“They died protecting us,” Blayne continued. “I think they knew the hunters were coming. They never let us know how close they were to finding out where we were hiding. Liam and I went to a sleepover with the other panther family at their house across town. I have no idea how my parents knew the hunters were coming that night, or why they didn’t take the whole family and run. Instead, they handed Liam a backpack and said not to open it until the next day.

“The next morning, the other family woke us up in a panic, saying that hunters had come the night before and our parents had been killed. Liam and I didn’t believe them. They tried to hustle us into the car. They were going to run, but we refused to go with them. We ran off to our house. Liam had the backpack flung over his shoulder.” His voice hitched. “When we reached our house, the front door was busted in. Mom was lying on the floor inside, dead. Dad’s body was deeper in the house. He’d had time to shift and put up a fight, but the hunters had still managed to kill them.”

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