Page 6 of Falkner
It took him the rest of the morning to find her again.This time, he told her that she was having lunch with him and that he needed to talk to her.He wished that he knew of a better way to have a conversation with her, but all he could think about was that he had a big house and she needed a place to stay.Most importantly, he had to think of a way to tell her that they were mates and that he was going to offer her a place to stay in his home without her thinking that he was some sort of pervert.He hoped that she had some inkling of what mates meant and that he was only offering her a place to stay; he wasn’t going to pounce on her as soon as she moved in.When his brother Cullen walked in, he could have kissed him.
“I’m here to get my stitches checked out.I think I might have—what’s wrong with you?You look bug-eyed.Did you just realize that you have to take care of people now?I couldn’t do it.I don’tcare for people all that much.”He told him what he’d figured out.“Mate.With my nurse?What are the chances of that happening, you think?Good Christ, that means that I’m the only one left.I don’t want that.No siree, Bob, I don’t want to find my mate at the moment.”
“Focus.This is about me and mine.”Cullen grinned at him and asked him if he’d told her yet.“I’m still trying to find her.About the time I figured out her scent, I’m finding it all over the place.She must be hiding from me is all I can think of.”
“Nah, that can’t be that.From the little bit of time that I spent with her, she struck me as a straight shooter.Someone who doesn’t pussyfoot around but comes right out and tells you that she wasn’t going to allow you to find her.No, she’s not hiding either, but she’s working.She’s very good at her job.”He nodded, distracted again when her scent seemed to roll over him.“I can sniff her out for you if you want.I know her scent, too.”
“Yes, that’s just what I need for you to go around sniffing people to find out where she might be.No, I have this.As soon as I find her, I’m going to have a talk with her.She’s homeless, did you know that?”He said that he’d spoken to Dallas about the apartment fire but didn’t know it had anything to do with her.“Yes, she’s lost everything, I would imagine.That’s why she’s been working extra shifts, I heard.Damn it, Cullen, where the hell is she?”
He didn’t have any luck finding her in any of the rooms.But he knew from the desk nurse that she was to go on break at eleven-thirty.Going down to the cafeteria, he found her sitting at one of the smaller tables by herself.He made his way to her then.It was time he got down to business with her so that he could feel better about her living situation.
“Hello.”She looked up, then looked around like she was afraid or something.“I just want to talk to you for a little bit.Please?It’s important.”
“All right, but don’t sit down.”He nodded and wondered if she meant to be mean, and decided that she was under a lot of stress and he could forgive her for it.“What did you want to say?”
“I’m a shifter like my brother is.”She nodded and kept glancing around.He knew there were rules about doctors and nurses consorting together and hoped that was what was worrying her instead of looking to get help from her fellow coworkers.He felt like a lunatic.“We’re mates.Do you know what that means?”
“Yes.”Before she could say anymore if she was going to say anything else, someone came to the table and asked him if he was being bothered.“He just wanted to talk to me about his brother, whom I worked on the other night.I’m not bothering him.”
“I asked him, not you, McFarlen.You’d best be minding your own business and not bothering the doctors with your whining about how they don’t do their job either.”She assured him that she wasn’t.“See that you don’t.Doctor Dixon, is she bothering you?We’ve had a talk with her before about her bothering the doctors when they have free time.”
“It’s just what she said, and I don’t appreciate you talking to our staff that way.She does a great job, as well as the other nurses, and I don’t know what this hospital would do without the dedicated workers that we have now.”The man, he had no idea what his name was, glared at McFarlen before walking away.“I’m sorry.I should have thought of this happening when I started looking for you.My brother Cullen is here to have you look at his stitches.I’ll talk to you after you get off shift.All right?”
“Sure, whatever.”He started away when she called his name.“I do know what mates mean, but I’m not sure you have the right person.I have literally nothing to my name but this uniform and a few things I’ve been able to pick up.”
“I’ll help you out with whatever you need.”She didn’t break eye contact with him, but he could tell that she was stressed out.There was little he could do about that right now, and he told her so.“I’ll talk to you after work.All right?”
She picked up her phone and did something to it.Before he could begin to figure out what she was doing, she set it down so that he could read the number there.Memorizing the number, he nodded once and walked away from her.Before he was out of the cafeteria, he was putting her number in his phone to talk to her later.Christ, he didn’t remember his brothers having this much trouble withfinding their mates.
He knew the rules about the hospital.He’d also heard that McFarlan had a good head on her shoulders, and most of the doctors liked her.One had gone so far as to tell him that he’d trust her word over any other doctor in the building when it came to knowing what the patient needed.And she was really good at telling him what was wrong with the patient when she was asked.For a nurse, she could have easily been a doctor as far as he was concerned.Now he finds out that she’s his mate, and he can’t talk to her at work.Damn it, things had to get better after this.
He spent the rest of the day shadowing another doctor to find out what they did in the department at this hospital.The man was telling him all the places that he could take a nap in, as well as the nurses who would put out if you asked them really nicely.When asked about McFarlen, he’d never gotten her first name yet; he said she was too straight-laced to even want to go out with doctors, much less get a little tickle under the table with him.He found that he was both relieved and angry at the man for saying such things about his mate.
By the time four o’clock rolled around, he felt wrung out.He’d not done anything much today other than to follow a few people around, but he felt like he’d been running a marathon and came up short.All he wanted to do was to go home, shower, and figure out a way to call his mate on the phone when he just knew the number that she gave him was going to be to some restaurant, and he was going to look like a fool.He was surprised as he’d ever been when she answered the line with her last name.
“It’s Falkner Dixon.”She told him her name, too.“Doone?What a beautiful first name.It suits your red hair.I bet your parents are Irish too.”
“My dad is, but I’ve not seen him in about six years.My mother was down with cancer, and he left us for greener pastures when she was told she only had about six months to live.”He asked how long that had been.“Six years ago.I got with a vampire friend of mine and had her give my mom her blood so that she’d live.Now she’s cancer-free and has found out that she can live her life just fine without my father.What did you want to talk to me about?”
“As I said, we’re mates.That means that everything that I own is now yours.”He thought about what he was saying and told her that he was messing things up with her.“I have a house that you can live in with me.Not with me, but in the same place.I have taken the master bedroom, but I’d like for you to have it.”He felt like nothing he was saying was coming out right.
“I’m sure that Dr.Mulkeen would have a heyday if he found out that we were living together.Whether it was in the same room or not.”He said that he was sorry she’d had to have someone talk to her like that.“It doesn’t matter, Doctor.I’m used to him by now.But I can’t live with you.I have enough trouble going on for myself right now.You should find yourself someone else to live with you.As I said before, I have nothing to contribute to your life other than more heartache.”
“I’m afraid that it doesn’t work like that.Now that I’ve found you, I need to protect you.It’s in my blood.”She laughed, but it didn’t sound like she was enjoying anything.“I’m sorry that you don’t believe me, but that’s the truth.I find myself needing to protect you from the Mulkeens of the world, too.He had no right to talk to you like that.”
“What do you plan on doing, protecting me from every doctor at the hospital?They all have something like that to say daily.They don’t mind the nurses when they’re quiet and reserved, but when one of them thinks they can date one of the holier-than-thou doctors, everyone has an opinion.”He asked her why she was a nurse if she hated doctors so much.“I don’t hate them, just their ways of doing things.”She drew in a deep breath and spoke again.“Look, it’s been really nice talking to you, but I have to go.I have about a million things on my list for today, and I can’t get them finished talking to you.Go find someone else to have as a mate.I’m not worthy of your kind.”
When she hung up the phone, he had a feeling that she was going to turn it off and didn’t bother calling her back.As soon as he put his phone away, he did some thinking.He, too, had about a million things to do and wasn’t getting any closer to getting them done than she was.He needed to convince her that she was his mate and that he needed to take care of her.Soon, he told himself.Soon, he’d be able to get her on the same page as he was.
Chapter 3
Meggie didn’t want to say anything to her daughter, but time was running out, and she hadn’t been able to find anything to rent.While she loved her daughter very much, she didn’t want to have to go looking for an apartment, too, when she had this lovely house to live in.True to her word, Doone didn’t eat any of her food card money, and she felt badly about that as well.She just wanted to cry about the way that things were going, and she was afraid of being just as homeless as her daughter.
She knew that she was being selfish.It hit her sometimes when she was in the living room trying to be quiet so that Doone could sleep in her bed.The times that she wanted to take a nap on her bed aggravated her to no end, but she’d been a good mom and not said anything about it.However, she was sure that Doone knew it the way she’d get up and be snippy with her.What did she expect her to do all day?Just sit around and be happy that her life was turned upside down?
She’d been complaining to the neighbor across the street from her about Doone.Mrs.Hall said that she had a deadbeat son, too, who would come and stay with her for a while without asking her.Doone had a job, so she wasn’t a deadbeat and helped with the little bit of bills that she had.But she wasn’t wrong in wanting her to get her own life together so that she could go back to being on her own.That’s what she wanted for her, her to be alone in the house that she’d gotten for her.It just didn’t seem fair somehow.
Today, some boxes had come for Doone, and she’d had to bring them into the house.She knew what they were; they were uniforms for her to work in.But there was nothing for her in the boxes.She should be treating her nicer, she thought, since she was having to drag the boxes in the house for her.Doone said that working so many shifts, she needed extra uniforms, and the online service had the best price for them.What about her?
