Page 19 of Harvest Moon

I came up, and behind a row of planters, I saw a flat rolling cart absolutely laden with as many mums and pansies as she could fit.

“Can I help you? Maybe get you another cart?”

She laughed, her dark pink lips splitting in a wide smile. “Oh, no. I’m here with my friend.” She nodded down an aisle, and I saw a lady with another cart stacked with bags of soil and mulch. “And I think we’ve got plenty. Only”—she scowled down at some stone edging and pursed her lips—“we’re redoing the front of the church for fall, and I’d love to get some of this lovely scalloped stonework to go around the beds. Do you think you could help us with that?”

“Sure thing, ma’am. You know the perimeter of the beds?”

She filled me in on the details, and it turned out they’d come with the church van, so they were in good shape for getting it all where it was going with the back seats folded down.

Once we got their stones loaded up, I helped them roll the smaller carts to check out.

Tammy, the owner of the shop, usually ran the counter. There was a stool back there, because her knees bothered her something fierce. Already, somebody was standing at check out when we got in, so I lingered by to make sure everything was sorted with the edging in the van.

Beside the counter, she had a stand of newspapers and gardening magazines, gum, candy bars, and those little packages of sunflower seeds for last-minute impulse buys.

One of the women I was helping picked up a copy of the Washington Post. She opened the first page and turned to her friend.

“You know what I heard?” Her voice was that half-whisper that people used when they were about to spill something really juicy. “I heard the Grove pack doesn’t have it half as good as this Colt guy tries to make out in this article. A big old deal, them having a whole, intact family of omegas in their pack still. But just last month, they had one of themkidnapped.”

I’d been listening, my interest piqued because I was pretty darn sure that Alexis had gone to stay with the Groves. That was where Claudia was, right? Five minutes before, I would’ve been sure that was it, but hearing them talked about in hushed tones over a Washington Post article felt like too big a coincidence.

Still, the Grove pack wasn’t too far from here. A little farther east and north, but only about an hour or two’s drive from here.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, you said the Groves?” I asked.

She looked at me, her eyes lit with intensity, delighted to be in the know. With a sharp nod, she waved the paper in the air. “It’s justawful. Another pack took the poor little dear when he was getting off work. I have a girlfriend out in Grovetown, and she said her man had never smelled anything like it—an omega that scared, that out of sorts.”

Her friend worried her lip with her teeth. “Almost makes you not want to go out by yourself, doesn’t it?”

I didn’t think either of these ladies were omegas. Normally, I could tell, but it shouldn’t really matter. Nobody deserved to be scared like that.

“I sure hope nothing like that ever happens here,” I mumbled. And then the counter opened up, and I rolled their cart forward while they gossiped behind me. Once I got everything loaded up in their van for them, I was glad to see the back of it as they drove away.

But all afternoon, I couldn’t get the thought of that story out of my head. There was a dangerous pack nearby, someone unstable, and they’d set their eyes on the Grove wolves.

And Alexis was out there. Did he even know? Was he in danger?

All through the rest of my shift, I kept imagining something would happen to him, and I’d never know. One day, I’d be flipping through a paper on my break, and then I’d see he’d been taken or murdered or... or maybe I wouldn’t get any kind of news at all. Alexis could get the Condition, and he’d suffer somewhere I couldn’t see him. Couldn’t help him.

It didn’t even take me till the end of my shift to pull Tammy aside.

“I’m real sorry, Tammy,” I said, my thumb brushing over her arm like that tiny bit of closeness would be able to convey how much I didn’t want to make things harder for her. “I can’t stay here. I’ve—I think I’ve decided I gotta leave town, so I won’t be able to work for you anymore. I can give you two weeks, but...”

There were lines around her mouth when she frowned, but her eyes were swimming with worry. I hadn’t been working for her long, but she was a good lady, and I was obviously out of sorts. “It’s all right, Ridge. Sometimes things happen. If you could work till Friday, I’d really appreciate it, but if something’s going on and you need to go, go.”

I shook my head, taking the first deep breath since those ladies had talked about trouble in the Grove pack.

“No. No, I can definitely work till Friday. I appreciate you being flexible with me. I meant to do better by you.”

I hung my head, but she patted my cheek. “Hon, I was young once. Sometimes you’ve just gotta let the wind carry you. If you’re ever back here and need work, you’ve been mighty good with customers.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“So you get on and find some adventure. Maybe you’ll send me a post card when you find your feet.”

* * *

With Tammy’s approval,all I needed was to run things by Patrick.

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