Page 8 of Midnight Mate
Grief welled up, hitting me harder than expected. Something about those words coming from East made the wounds feel fresh again. “Thanks. It’s been a hard year.”
“I can’t imagine. They were amazing people, Cat.”
“They were.” I forced back the urge to let a tear slip. Crying on my ex’s shoulder was not an option. Especially when he hadn’t so much as called or texted last year when it happened.
I cleared my throat. “Why don’t you tell me what brings you in today?”
He looked like he wanted to say more about it. I was relieved when he let it go.
“Snowboarding accident. A month ago, I went up for a supercat—no pun intended—and didn’t so much land it as succumb to gravity’s laws.”
I ignored the pun on my name—and the smirk that came with it. “And for those of us who don’t know what a supercat is?”
“A double wildcat?”
I shrugged.
“A wildcat is sort of a backward cartwheel. A supercat is two of them.”
“Two backward cartwheels,” I repeated, impressed despite my best efforts to resist. “In the air.”
“Guess I’m a bit of an adventure seeker.”
“Or an idiot,” I mumbled.
He grinned then continued, “Anyway, I came down hard on my left leg. Not enough weight dispersion, I guess. My knee popped, and I’ve been in pain ever since.”
“Yes, I remember your mother saying you were working for some fancy resort. Do you compete now?”
He shrugged. “The owner put a team together, using his instructors. We do local stuff, mostly. Sponsored competitions, charity events, instructional workshops for celebs.”
“Sounds exciting.”
“Pays the bills.” He grimaced. “Or it did.”
I listened while I scanned the notes his doctor provided. Two of the four ligaments in the knee had torn. It would have taken surgeries and months of physical therapy for a normal human to come back from this. But Easton wasn’t a normal human. So why hadn’t he healed yet?
“This happened one month ago, you said?”
I checked the date on the report as he nodded.
“You’re thinking what I’ve asked myself every day since,” he said, lowering his voice. It wasn’t necessary. Everyone in the clinic was aware of the supernatural residents in this town. But East didn’t know that, and I wasn’t inclined to offer it up.
I looked up at him. “You don’t know why you haven’t healed.”
He shook his head. “No idea.”
I hesitated. Not many people here knew the real reason Easton had left. Hell, Easton probably thought no one knew. But I’d learned from the gossip train about his dad’s drinking problem, which meant the pack knew it too. And once the powers-that-be heard he was back, there’d be certain expectations. Even as a human, I knew how these things worked. “No offense, but shouldn’t you go see Tobias? Or one of the witches? They’d know better what to do with an injured shifter than I would.”
“I’m not a member of the pack,” he said in a clipped voice.
“But your dad is,” I pointed out.
His mouth flattened, and something hard flashed in his blue eyes. “The pack’s not an option.”
“I see.”
Tension layered the air between us. Finally, he blew out a breath and ran a hand through his already disheveled hair. I hated that it still looked inviting. My fingers twitched to reach for it. For him.
