Page 97 of Healed
“Yes, you are. And you know it. You just let people think you’re not.”
“Come on, tell Uncle Bam what the problem is.”
“I’m an idiot, that’s what the problem is,” she grumbled.
Bam chuckled. “If there’s one thing you’ve never been, it’s an idiot.”
“What else would you call a female who has found two mates and they both lied to her and made a fool out of her?”
Bam thought about it for a second. “I don’t understand, Daisy. You have to give me more information.”
She huffed an irritated grumble and shook her head. “I thought I found my mate. He told me everything I wanted to hear, including that he was not married.”
“And he was…” Bam said, completely straight-faced with all traces of humor completely gone.
“Yes, he was. And I believed every single word he told me. Including when his wife started stalking me! I figured out real quick that he was lying to me, but why didn’t I know that the minute he started lying? Why didn’t I know? I’m a shifter, I’m supposed to know! And then the worst part is just when I’m starting to feel okay again, starting my studio, looking forward to waking up in the mornings, I do it again.”
“The same male?” Bam exclaimed, his forehead wrinkled as he tried his best to be understanding.
“No. But with a different one. I not only fell in love with him, I fell in love with his son! And now I find out he’s lying to me, too!”
“Hold on, is this guy the one with the little boy that’s been hanging out with Bane? Wait, I know his name…”
“Carson,” Daisy said.
“Yes! Carson! I like that little guy. He’s brutally honest, and so smart!” Bam said.
“Yes, he is,” Daisy said, turning away from Bam.
“No, now, don’t do that. Tell me why you think he’s lying, too,” Bam encouraged, pulling her chair back to face him.
“It’s stupid.”
“No, it’s not. It’s got you torn up. Tell me.”
“I woke up happy today. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that. I made my breakfast, because I have late days, then I made Charlie lunch.”
“Charlie is Carson’s daddy?”
“Yes. And I took it to him. He’d told me he’d be working today and had a meeting so might not have time to call me, which is fine. But when I got there, I told the receptionist I was dropping off lunch for Charlie, and she said, ‘Oh, he’s not here. He didn’t come in today’. Then she explains that he asked for personal time off today, something to do with his girlfriend, and did I want to leave a message.”
“That doesn’t mean anything, Daisy. She’s just a receptionist. She doesn’t know.”
“I asked if she’d ever seen his girlfriend and she said no, but she heard some of the guys talking about how pretty she was, so they must have.”
“How do you know they didn’t see you?”
“Where? We haven’t been dating all that long. And I have the same problem with him that I did with my professor. I can’t read him. I can read everybody else. I can see their auras. I can feel what they’re feeling before they even begin to tell me what they’re experiencing. But I couldn’t with the first one, and I can’t with Charlie. What’s wrong with me, Uncle Bam? Why can’t I tell when the men I’m interested in are lying to me? Why can I see everyone else’s happily ever after, and not my own?”
“Okay, let’s take these two one at a time, okay?” Bam asked.
“I’m done after these two. I can’t trust myself to not walk right into a lying narcissist again.”
“Let’s look at Charlie, alright?”
“I don’t want to look at Charlie.”
“Let’s look at Charlie!” Bam insisted. “I couldn’t read Everly. Couldn’t pick up on what she was feeling. Couldn’t see her aura at all. I was drawn to her just like a mate, but couldn’t see the gold aura when we met, or at anytime since. And honestly, if it wasn’t for me telling everybody, they probably wouldn’t know they’d found their mates either. Only a healer can see the auras. I can see gold when mates meet. Just like you can.”
