Page 47 of Healed
“Shaun?” she asked, coming out from behind the display counter.
“Yeah, babe…”
“What did Remi mean when he said he no longer had a family? He’s got the most wonderful family. You all do.”
Shaun sighed and set his fritter down on the saucer. He took an inordinately long time to chew the bite he’d just taken, mainly because he was weighing his options of how much to tell her. Chewing and washing the fritter down with his coffee bought him another few seconds. Finally he looked her way.
Bailey stood right beside the table, patiently waiting for her answer.
“He’s not a member of the clan anymore,” Shaun explained.
“What?” she asked, her brows raised in surprise.
“Brandt has been trying to help him, trying to help him get headed back in the right direction. He just reacts angrily each time Brandt shows up to help him out of whatever he’s gotten into. They got into it and it got ugly. Brandt gave him an ultimatum, and he chose to leave the clan.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” Bailey said.
“Wish I was. But no. Brandt’s pretty torn up over it, but has hopes that once Remi pulls his head out of his ass he’ll be back.”
“This is ridiculous! What did his parents say? They’re part of the clan!”
“I don’t know. We’ve been kind of sitting on it for a couple of days, hoping he’d come back and apologize.”
“I can’t believe Tempest didn’t call me.”
“I can.”
“She’s my best friend! She should have called me!”
“No. She’s the Alpha’s mate. Her first loyalty is to him and the clan. She can’t gossip about the clan’s inner workings with those who aren’t in the clan. Not to mention she’s about to pop! Have you seen her lately?”
“No, I haven’t. We talk on the phone all the time, but she doesn’t like to leave home anymore. I knew having the baby was getting close, but since she didn’t have an exact due date, I didn’t realize how close she was getting.”
“It’s close. She’d probably appreciate a visit.”
Bailey nodded.
“You don’t want to come out to the house because you don’t want to take a chance on seeing Remi,” Shaun said.
“It’s not for the reason you think.”
“I know you still care about him. It’s okay.”
“Yeah, I probably always will. But I’ve moved on. I’m not interested in that way anymore. He hurt me more than I cared for him. Turns out we were in two different places, and never really had a chance anyway. The part that made it okay to move on was that I finally realized it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Then what’s the issue when coming to visit Tempest, or me, for that matter?”
“He lives there. I’m just trying to be considerate. It’s not fair of me to invade the place he calls home. He lives in a different house, sure, but the neighborhood, the people, it’s all his family and he belongs there. I just don’t think it’s right to insert myself while he’s still in the middle of a struggle, you know?”
Shaun didn’t tell her, but he scented her for any lies or untruths. It was important to him because of the way he felt about her, that he know if she still harbored romantic feelings for Remi. There was no lie with what she said. And he’d known all along that she’d always care about him, even if she didn’twant him back. “Yeah, I do know. It’s very kind of you to consider that.”
“Thank you.”
“Bailey?” he asked after a few minutes of silence while she went about taking care of the shop.
“Yes?” she asked, pausing to look back at him.
“The reason I asked what the issue is, is because it’s important to me that you feel at home, at my home.”
