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Once at my car, I took a sip and moaned at how spot on the coffee was. Not too rich and not too creamy. Just right. I slid inside my car, loving how Ben knew exactly how I liked it. He was always finding things out. My coffee was one of them as well as the littlest things I, myself, didn’t even realize I liked. If only things weren’t so complicated.
Heading off to the old folks’ home where William and I worked, I focused on the third man in my life. He was the one who got me the job there, and it was perfect. Great hours for schooling and just enough money to allow me to pay my portion of the rent. It wasn’t bad working at the same place as William either.
After a short drive, I pulled into my parking spot at work. It was a single level building with sliding doors at the front. Heading inside, I waved to the receptionist at the front desk with a soft hello and made my way down the hall.
William was most likely in his office, since he was one of the two managers for the facility. That guy had mad skills when it came to putting families at ease. When it came to their elderly parents or grandparents who needed help or had an issue, he was their guy. A smile played on my lips. He was kinda my guy, too. It had to do with his compassion and ability to think rationally when it the moment needed it. The rational side of him was all of his mother’s profession, the compassion was a natural quality his mother gave to him. Even though Doc was all about reason and practicality, she had a heart of gold. Her son was no different.
Taking the long way to the cafeteria where I worked with the night crew to get dinner ready for the residents, I stopped by William’s office and checked to see if the door was open or not. It was closed. He was probably in with a family who was going to check the place out.
I moved on to the kitchen and waved to the elders I knew as I passed them.
In the kitchen, I stowed my things in my locker, then grabbed my apron. Moving into the noisy cooking area, I tied my apron around my waist as I called out a greeting. My bright smile didn’t require effort; I loved working here and helping out the residents.
After the first and second wave of residents came through, it was time to deliver food to Mr. Guset’s room, since he was bedridden.
Grabbing the tray and making my way there, I caught William in the hallway with a couple touring the facility. A lot of times families couldn’t tour during the day, due to jobs, kids, and whatnot. When that happened, William was the one to do it. The second manger worked during the day for those who needed day tours.
I loved the way he smiled at the couple, and the way he focused on them, even the way his body turned always toward them and his feet facing them as if this was where he wanted to be. Helping the people in front of him was his only objective. Any woman would be proud to be on his arm, but he wanted me. They all did.
My heart kicked at the ache of having to choose... unless he went for what Ben and Z proposed. It was crazy talk anyway.
I turned away, realizing I stood there staring at them—well, at him—and ducked into Mr. Guset’s room before he could take notice of me.
Mr. Guset’s small, hospital-like room held a personal dresser against the far wall with picture frames on top, a recliner he often sat in with help, and the grouchy man himself in the hospital bed glaring at the television mounted on the corner wall.
“Hello, Mr. Guset,” I greeted, setting his tray of food down on the dresser.
“It’s a disaster. All of it,” his gruff voice insisted. When I turned back to him, he had his wrinkled arm up, trying to hold it straight, while he was pointing to his show.
“I’m sure it is,” I agreed easily as I made my way to his bedside. I raised the bed and helped him sit up.
“No, you don’t understand. You kids nowadays don’t do things right.” He turned to me and nodded again to his show. “You see what the man is doing there? It’s called cheating.”
I looked to the television and saw a home improvement show where a carpenter was on some sort of stilts to make him taller, putting some muck on the walls.
Mr. Guset pointed again. “The contraption on his feet is cheating.” His arm dropped as he shook his head. “No one likes a cheater.”
I smirked and fluffed his pillows. “Of course not, but I don’t think he’s cheating. It’s a pretty nifty invention to make his work easier.”
He caught my arm before I moved away to get his food. He shook a finger at me. “You listen here, Cass. No good comes from cutting corners. A man needs a ladder. Not something on his feet he’d have to take on and off all the time.” He let go and patted my hand. “Change is good, but some things are best doing it the old way, you hear? Old ways are safer.”
I drew my hand out of his and gave a nod. No sense in arguing with an old man. “Of course. Would you like to eat now?”
He muttered some kind of an agreement, and I grabbed his tray as his advice bounced around in my mind. Was keeping things in the old ways better? Ben talked about those Tibet farmers and the relationship they kept as tradition. Was their style of relationship an old way or a new change? Was it better for men to love the same woman? Wouldn’t jealousy rear its big head? If it was a new change, could it be for the better? I honestly didn’t think the stilts on the guy’s shoes in the television show to be that bad. If it made his work go faster, then why not? If it made life easier...
Shaking my head and the thoughts away, I left Mr.Gusset to glare at his television and went in search for William, but he was already gone. Disappointed I didn’t get to say ‘hi’, I moved back to the dining area and made my way through the many tables, saying hello to the residents once again as I passed by and went into the kitchen.
I did my work, delivering food, taking over pot stirring as well as clean up. I was an all over the kitchen kinda gal.
When the kitchen became crowded, Madelyn, the head cook, gave me clean up duty out in the dining hall and that was where William found me in mid-dirty-table clean up.
He had a clean shaven jaw and chocolate brown eyes I adored, and women fell for his charm and wit. He possessed a swimmer’s build. Fitting, since he spent a lot of time in the water.
Leaning against the entrance to the dining area, he wore a frown as he took in what I was doing. “What’s my girl doing with dirty plates?”
I sent him a grin. He had his hands shoved into his pockets and an amused smirk eased the frown from his face.
I picked up my last dirty plate from the table I was currently at when he started to move my way. “Your girl?” I teased back, adding the plate to the cart. “You do realize there are two others who consider me theirs as well?”
He got to my table and picked up the rag from my cart, then began to do his own scrubbing of the tables. “Hey,” I reprimanded softly. “That's my job.” I took the washcloth away from him and hip bumped him away. “You go do your job. I can do this.”
He slung an arm around me and pressed me into his side to kiss my forehead. “So how is my girl? And this time, no teasing.”
I paused washing the table and sent him a glare, but my irritation softened when his solemn gaze met mine. He was concerned. Nervous flutters filling my stomach, I turned away and returned to vigorously scrubbing the table, moving away from him. “You know, don’t you? One of the guys called you already.”
Still beside me, he answered, “Well, what do you expect them to do, Cass? Let you go there and face your fears by yourself without letting me know? Letting my mother know? You know I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
I moved away from the table, throwing the washcloth on the cart. “You and a bunch of other people.” I grabbed the cart to head to the next table. “Do you think I want to go back? No,” I said, answering myself. “But it’s the only way I can do it. They’re so old school back there, it’s not even a joke.” At the next table, I started collecting the dirty plates again. William jumped in and helped. “Why can’t your parents do it or... your brother?”
I almost rolled my eyes. “Because my brother doesn’t have the time and my parents are on a cruise. Plus”—I met him at the cart, set the plates down, and then faced him—“this is their weird way of giving me a late birthday present. They’re hoping I could sell it and use the money for my school bills. My brother’s schooling was paid for by them. This is their way of helping me to heal. I could rid myself of that house and get a place of my own where I’d feel safe. The deal now is since it’s mine, I’m responsible for all this paperwork. I’m responsible for going there and looking over the property before the lawyers can start the paperwork for a sale. So William, it’s not what I want to do... but it’s what I get to do. And it might be a good thing. To face my fears.”
William reached for my hand and took the cloth out of it, tossing it on the tray. His square jaw jutted outward in angry defiance. He was upset. He drew me in for a hug and rubbed my back, letting out a rough sigh. He knew me. He knew my fears. I didn’t even realize I was shaking until I was against him.
“It could help you, maybe.” Despite his anger, his tone came out soft. “But it could also be a severely traumatic experience. One I wouldn’t want you to face at all and couldn’t let you go through without me there to help you through it.”
I murmured into his shoulder as I held onto the sides of his shirt. “I know you just humor me when I talk about it, but I still believe it was a werewolf and not some random big overgrown wolf that came in there and killed my grandmother.” He tensed, but I went on. “It attacked me.”
“That’s not—”
I squeezed him. “Wait, don’t lie to me. Yes, I do think your mother’s counseling helped me. Absolutely. But when it all comes down to it, something attacked my grandmother. It spoke to me in plain English. And it was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. So yes, I am absolutely terrified about going back there, but I can’t live in fear all the time. It could have been something passing through. A myth come to our little town. Do I have an obsession with the monster? Possibly. Do I want to kill it? Yeah. But even with us going on those camping and hunting trips, even though terrified, we still did it. We did it to see if we could catch one of those beasts.”
He sighed. “And we came up empty-handed.”
I pushed away from him and he let me go. “Not once did we go back to my hometown to look for the very thing I feel is still there. So William, don’t tell me going is a bad idea or find excuses for me, because I have come up with a million of them and what it all boils down to is maybe I was meant to go back.” I threw up my hand. “Maybe this is divine intervention in some way.” Stepping up to him once again, I poked his chest. “Maybe I’m destined to go back to where it all started.” He caught my hand once again and drew me back into his arms. It was so unprofessional, but yet exactly what I needed. I curled my arms around his waist and let out a sigh. “You know we’re not supposed to be doing this.”
He chuckled. “Well, this seems to be what you need at this moment. I don’t just give out hugs to anybody.”
I gave him a tight squeeze. “True.” I went to draw way, but he held on.
“Look,” his voice vibrated through his chest. “You don’t have to do this alone. I know Z’s going, and I don’t know about Benjamin”—So it was Z who told him—“but I want to go. You might need me, and you shouldn’t have to do this alone. Not with Z. He’s liable to snatch something from the local pharmacy just to get your anxiety to calm down. We don’t need him going to prison trying to help you.”
This time as I pushed him away I smacked his broad chest. “Don’t joke.”
“Why?” he asked, rubbing the spot as his eyes danced with amusement. “Because you know it could be true?”
I let out an unladylike snort and went back to my work. “Yeah, that’s exactly the reason why.”
He sighed. “Well, I need to get back to the office. I just wanted to let you know to add me to your trip list.”
I turned back to him with a thought. “Hey, do you still have those rewards for staying in certain hotels?”
Smirking, he tilted his head to the side. “Do you want me to use my rewards points?” he asked, amused.
I gave him a sweet smile and batted my eyelashes, trying to be flirty. “I would love it if you could reserve a room for us with your rewards points.”
His lips quivered as if he was trying to hold back a chuckle. “You have to do something for me first.”
I shrugged, taking the challenge. “Okay, I agree.” My hands met my hips as I waited for what he would send my way.
He crooked a finger at me, and I dropped my hands to walk back over to him. He tapped the corner of his mouth where his cheek met his lips. “You need to plant your strawberry lips right here.”
I didn’t hesitate, because I had already done it with Ben. I held on to his shoulders and lifted up on my tiptoes, ready to plant one right where he had asked me to. It was more of a half kiss anyway. But he turned and let his lips land on mine.
He cheated. He totally cheated. When I went to pull away, he nipped my lip causing a gasp to escape, then took the kiss deeper. My senses exploded as I kissed him back... until a voice called from the kitchen.
“Tell that boy to get his grubby hands off you, Cassandra. It’s working hours,” the teasing voice of Madelyn, my boss, warned.
“You’re liable to give these old folks a heart attack, or ideas they don’t need to be having,” a second voice concurred.
We broke apart, and I twisted around to find Maddie and another worker looking out the kitchen doorway with Cheshire Cat grins. “You let my girl get back to work. She doesn’t need any late nights here.”
Surprised at what just happened, I didn’t know what to think. My lips tingled with the memory of his kiss and with it came the guilt. I loved what we just did but the two of us crossed a line we couldn’t come back from. What the hell was I supposed to do now?
William kissed my forehead and leaned down to whisper to me. “We’ll talk about this later.” Then he waved at the two sneaks at the kitchen door before doing a turnabout and heading out.
I just stood there and watched him leave.
“Girl, are you going to finish or not?” Maddie asked.
Someone beside her laughed. “I think she might be in shock, Mads.”
Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I whirled to them and pointed a finger. “Don’t you dare say a word, Maddie. Or you either, Bailey.” The two of them grinned.
“You think a bunch of us busy bodies around here would keep the hot juicy thing a secret? Girl, you just made front page of the nursing home newspaper.”
I groaned and went back to my work, wondering what in the world I was going to do. And what would the others think when they found out? William and I were going to have words. And I wasn’t so sure they would be pretty ones.
I went back to work thinking of all the stern things I would tell William, then I touched my lips halfway through and my heart raced once again remembering how his lips felt against mine. I might just give him a little bit of slack. My lips curled into a grin. Especially if I wanted another one.