Page 28 of Prayers for the Prickly

I followed, as did Aunty Eunice, wanting to know who the woman was and what her connection was to Olly and Gregor. The nerve of that shrew, coming in here like that. I don’t know what she’d hoped to accomplish, confronting Ever that way, but if I knew anything at all about my littermate, I knew that what she’d done here would just make him even more determined to spend time with Oliver.

I couldn’t hear what was being said between the pair as he led her out of there, but he kept her close, one hand holding her wrist, the other wrapped around her, his lips moving non-stop by her ear as he escorted her to the large Harley she’d parked on the sidewalk.

At least it didn’t have a ticket on it or she’d probably have turned around and blamed Ever for that. I watched him point her down the street before the engine roared to life. She flipped him off before roaring down the street in a plume of exhaust as Gregor came rushing up out of breath.

“Pops,” Gregor rasped out in between puffs. “What the hell’s going on?”

“Fix that damned machine of yours so you can ride it to the shop and you’d know already,” Pops snapped.

For a moment they just glared at one another, until he saw me approach with Aunty Eunice and Aunty Clara and turned to face us.

“I hope you have an explanation for that,” I said before Aunty Eunice could.

“That’s Olly’s mom, but I don’t know why the hell she came here like that.”

“They’re dating,” Aunty Eunice declared. “And they are going to keep on dating as long as they want. Olly is Everett’s mate.”

“Wait, you mean two of my boys found their mates at the same time?” the older man said, ending my curiosity about whether Oliver and Gregor shared a father or a mother.

We’d had to put off introducing me to his folks when his rut hit, so this was the first time I was face to face with one of them. I’m just glad that meant the witch that left wasn’t Gregor’s mother, but I felt shitty for Olly knowing that was the kind of bullshit he had to put up with.

“It might be easier to have this conversation inside,” Aunty Eunice suggested.

For the second time that week, we wound up commandeering the largest table in our shop for family issues, but as long as the registers kept running and orders kept being filled, no one seemed to mind. I sat beside Gregor for what I was certain would be one hell of a story, but nothing could have ever prepared me for what I heard.

Chapter 11

Gregor

Talk about embarrassing and infuriating, too. I could tell my old man was pissed as he stalked beside me, taking the seat August’s Aunty Eunice specifically held out for him before she took her place at the head of the table beside his Aunty Clara.

“Pops, this is my mate, August,” I said, shocked when my father stood to shake August’s hands and pull him into a one-armed embrace.

“Welcome to the family, August, I apologize for not meeting you on better circumstances.”

“I’m glad to finally meet you,” August said. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other.”

“Of course,” Pops said. “Let’s get this mess dealt with first.”

August and I took the seats next to him as elders of the family gathered, while shooing the younger members back to the kitchen and counter to take care of their customers.

“When you say that’s Oliver’s mother, should we infer that she’s your wife?” Aunty Eunice bluntly enquired.

“Oh, hell no,” he said, nose wrinkling as he cast a glare in the direction he’d sent her roaring off in.

“She was a short-term diversion while my wife and I were taking a break, and a bit of an early midlife crisis you could say,” Pops said while I got to listen to a topic of conversation that was rarely brought up in my presence.

Despite the fact that my siblings and I were grown now, there were still things our parents felt the need to keep hidden from us, for whatever the reason, though I supposed those reasons were their own and they were entitled to them.

“She and I had shared custody of Oliver until he determined that he preferred living with my wife and I,” Pops explained. “About nine months ago he moved in to help his mother after she broke her leg and ever since then she’s been coming up with new issues she needs his help with. I’ve never known her to take an interest in Oliver’s love life, though, so I can’t speak to what’s going on there, but I intend to have a few words with her. I asked her to meet me at Café Caroline’s so I could find out what the hell is going on.”

“Well, when you do get some answers, I hope you’ll enlighten us, too,” Aunty Eunice declared.

“You have my word.”

“Thank you.”

“I’d better get going,” Pops declared.

---