Josie was going to burn in hell for this—the seventh ring, at that. There was no doubt in her mind. This woman was eating up every word they said, and here they were lying their asses off to her. Well, not completely. They did meet like that, and he did follow her into the restaurant. But they weren’t really mates, and she hated lying to the sweet older woman.
“I can see how much you care for each other already.” Julia reached for both their hands and gave them a squeeze. “It does wonders for my sanity to know you have found each other.”
That just skyrocketed her guilt level to epic proportions. How was he supposed to continue lying to his own grandmother? It was Xander’s fault, may he burn in hell for deceiving the nice lady. God. Her stomach burned with nerves. She should have never taken this job. Lying wasn’t her thing. She sucked at it. Most times people knew she lied because she stammered so much. Poor Julia was going to see her in such a bad light after this.
A waitress stopped by their table and placed three glasses of water down. “Welcome back. I haven’t seen you two in a while. I assume you to want the usual?” Xander and Julia both nodded, and the waitress turned to Josie. “Welcome to the café. We don’t have menus, but if it’s for breakfast or lunch, we have it and it’s amazing. What can I get for you?”
Josie wasn’t sure what to say; she hadn’t expected no menus. What had they ordered? She didn’t want to order something that made her look like a glutton, but she also didn’t want to order something that was going to leave her starving in a couple of hours.
“Just give her the same as me.” Xander spoke up, saving her from deciding. She sighed in relief and gave him a gentle nudge to say thanks.
The seconds ticked by in companionable silence. Josie took a moment to study the small café and was surprised by the homey atmosphere. It seemed more like a family’s kitchen than a public restaurant.
“Josie, tell me, what do you do for a living?” Julia interrupted her thoughts to ask.
“I work for a cleaning service.” Josie waited for the condemnation she normally got when she said that. She wasn’t ashamed. It was an honest living, and she worked hard, but people always looked down on her as if cleaning wasn’t good enough.
“That must be hard, exhausting work,” Julia said, surprising her with the kindness in her words.
“It is. I was fortunate to get the job, though. I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. It pays the bills for the most part and keeps my head above water.”
Xander and Julia shared a puzzled look at her words. “What do you mean you were fortunate to get the job? Did you have trouble?”
Josie blushed, she hadn’t meant for them to pick up on that. She cleared her throat and prayed the waitress would come back so she could change the subject. No such luck, though.
“I was married before. My ex, Michael, took me for every dime I had in the divorce. To make it worse, he and his friends spread horrible lies about my bad business sense and inability to handle the accounts I had at my previous job, and I quickly became someone no one wanted to hire in my field.”
Julia raised her brows high. “It couldn’t have been that bad?”
“Oh, it was worse. He took accounts I normally handled to supposedly do random checks and balances. This was right before we broke up. He messed them up so much that I would need a lot of time to fix them but wasn’t given the opportunity because nobody trusted me at that point. He was my boss, so people believed him. I mean, he told them he divorced me because I had made so many people lose money and he couldn’t be with someone like that.”
“I’m guessing that wasn’t true?” Julia asked.
“No. I divorced him after I realized he was having an affair.”
“Oh my God!” Julia shook her head in disbelief.
“The only job I could get was cleaning houses, and then only because he hadn’t gotten to them yet.”
Julia scowled. “I don’t understand. Why would he do that?”
Josie shrugged. She really didn’t know why. She could only come up with guesses. “He was jealous. I was the breadwinner. He was my boss in the business, but I brought in the accounts. People trusted me. He had a handful of clients. None were multimillion-dollar companies like mine. I brought in three times as much money as he did. We both have college degrees, but he struggled to get clients. He found some bimbo to shack up with and got his buddies from school to pull strings and complain over my bad business practices. They smeared my name all over. I was fired, but he stayed and took everything I had ever worked for. He moved in with Miss Double-D and I got a small apartment.”
Xander growled and squeezed her hand to get her attention. “What is his name? Where can I find him?”
She grinned but shook her head. “Karma will come back and get him. I have to believe everything happens for a reason. It did, actually. If all of that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have met you that day.”
Xander grunted and kissed her knuckles again. “That’s true, but I don’t like that he got away with pulling that crap.”
“Out of curiosity, what field where you in?” Julia asked with a kind smile.
“I’m an accountant. I graduated with full honors and had the pick of jobs out of school. I stupidly moved here because I thought I was in love. I took a job at a small firm we both worked at, and I was happy. I quickly become their top accountant, above Michael, who was my supervisor, and that’s when things went downhill. He couldn’t handle being second to a woman.”
“An accountant?” Xander and Julia said in unison before they looked at each other and chuckled.
She was confused. What was so funny about that? What did she miss? Most people didn’t have that type of response to a regular bean counter.
Julia cleared her throat. “Has Xander told you what he does for a living? Who we are exactly?”
Josie felt like she was missing something important. What were they? Minor royalty or famous or something? “No, it never came up. Why?”
Xander blushed. “Have you ever heard of XJ Financial?”
She didn’t live under a rock. Everyone who was anyone in the accounting field knew of the company. “Of course, I’ve heard of it.”
Julia’s eyes twinkled in merriment. “Do you know what the XJ stands for, by any chance?”
No, there was no way they were implying what she thought they were. She shook her head in disbelief and embarrassment.
“Yes, you got it. Xander and Julia Financial. It’s our company. That also brings me to why I came down for the day.”
“You came down to meet my mate. That’s what you told me.”
“I did, and if you recall, I told you I was coming down, and then you told me you wanted me to meet her. I had already planned on it. It just worked out that I accomplished two goals at once.”
Josie could feel the tension that filled Xander at his grandmother’s words. Was she sick and that’s what had worried him? She looked well and seemed lucid and in control of her mental facilities. Josie reached over and leaned into his side to offer what comfort she could. It was odd, but she felt perfectly comfortable doing this even though she had met the guy barely forty-eight hours ago. It was almost as if she were his mate, that they did share that connection.
“Don’t look so dire, boy. It’s nothing that bad. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack always jumping to the worst conclusions. Josie, make sure you help him lighten up. He always has too much self-imposed stress.”
Josilyn smiled and nodded her agreement. She could think of a few ways to help this gorgeous man de-stress. She almost purred, thinking about all the fun they could have while making him relax.
“I want you to give up that wretched apartment of yours and move into the house. I’ve decided it’s too big for me, and since I’m not here much, it’s sitting empty. You have a mate now. Fill it with the sound of kids, and give me a reason to come visit.”
Xander’s jaw dropped. “It’s been your home all my life. How can you walk away?”
“Stupid boy, I’m not walking away. You will keep a room for me, of course, but I’m being practical. The house needs a family.” Julia winked at Josie before continuing. “Give in graciously. I won’t be changing my mind.”
Josie felt guilt overtake her, and she wanted to cry in frustration. They were deceiving this poor woman and here she was offering them a house to raise their nonexistent family in. She was going to hell. There was no longer a doubt in her mind. She might as well buy prime real estate in front of the pit now.
Their conversation turned to lighthearted banter, and Josie slowly fell in love with Julia. She had a sarcastic tongue that left her laughing more often than not. This woman was one hell of a businesswoman and a devoted grandmother. Josie hoped she could be half the woman Julia was one day.
After brunch, Xander offered his car to Josie so she could run errands while he rode with his grandmother to the office to catch up with some of the staff and she could read through some papers he held for her visit. He really didn’t trust Josie’s car and would make it a point to try and get her to use his until he could get her a new one.
Julia signaled to change lanes in the heavy traffic heading toward the office. “Tell me, Xander. I know you had someone check into that man who attacked your mate.”
“Of course, I did. His name is Trey Randulf. His brother Dominick is alpha of their wolf pack. Trey recently lost his mate in a fight which, according to my sources, was suspicious. Trey was badly wounded but survived. Grief and the attack have left him with limited capabilities mentally. He is under constant supervision while off their lands. Dominick is well respected and is fighting a battle to keep his lands from some outside interest trying to run them off.”
“You think it was a random attack, then?” Julia questioned.
Xander paused to think over his words before replying. “I could find no evidence of Josilyn and the Randulf pack having any connection. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what motivation there would have been for Trey to take her. It has to be random, wrong place, wrong time type of thing. It makes no sense any other way.”
Julia nodded and stared out the window. Xander smiled and let his mind wander to his mate. She had been fantastic at brunch with Julia. The two most important women in his life seemed to like each other, and that gave him hope. Now all he had to do was convince her she was his mate.
“I like your … mate,” Julia said with a quirk of her eyebrow.
Xander groaned. “How?”
“Nothing obvious. You both did well hiding it, but I have my own sources, and they informed me of how you met her and when.” Julia smiled. “I also know that from what I saw today, she is your true mate, and that makes me very happy. I like her, son. She is a good woman with a pure heart.”
“Yes, she is. Please don’t tell her you know the truth. I have to get her to stick around so I can convince her. She doesn’t understand shifters and how we operate. I need to ease her into our lifestyle and ways.”
“I think I can help there, my boy. Don’t you worry. You don’t get to be my age without cooking up a few schemes. Now, let’s get to work so you can pick up your mate.”
Xander chuckled and climbed out of the car. There wasn’t a day that passed he didn’t think how lucky he was to have this woman in his life. He was hard-pressed to think of a shifter he knew who was stronger willed than his grandmother.
“Time’s a-wastin’, boy, let’s go. I have a lot of people to catch up with and things to do. That secretary of yours always has the best gossip.”
He almost froze in his tracks when he realized just what gossip his grandmother was going to find out, his throwing stuff in the office due to lack of sex. They’d have no sympathy for his sexual frustration to forgive him for his office outbursts. His fake mate was causing him so much more trouble than he could ever have imagined. He shuddered to think what would happen when they were finally mated for real.