42: Cancel My Plans
TARA
It was Saturday already, and I was presently at the diner, but I couldn’t wait for the days to speed up on itself. It had been days. since Collin and a number of his loyal allies stormed out of Vermont pack, and not one person that had come into the diner since then hadn’t talked about it.
They had something to say, while others had quite a lot to say.
Aidan’s name was heard left, right, and center, and that didn’t mean well for me since I was trying to rule a line on things between the two of us.
When everyone was either singing praises about him for taking out the cruel alpha of Vermont pack or swooning over how in their words, ‘he did it for me‘, it was hard to keep my thoughts in one place.
Yeah. They spread the rumors that Aidan accepted the challenge because of me.
“I didn’t think it at first when you zoomed off to go and try to put a stop to the challenge, but I see it now. So y’all are a thing.”
It was Riley speaking, and we were both by the counter, attending to a few afternoon customers. The sales for the day had been amazing.
“Oh, come on. Not you too. I thought you weren’t interested in rumors like these ones, Riley?” I sighed.
42 Cancel My Plant
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She raised her hands in mock surrender.
“I’m only telling you what the people are seeing, Boss. It’s.kind of hot though, don’t you think?”
If only Riley and the others “saw” a little bit closer, they would have seen the uncanny resemblances between Aidan and Nadia. Like the way both their smiles tilted the left side of their lips a little higher.
Shaking the thought off, spoke.
“What’s hot, Riley?” I pressed a thumb to the middle of my eyes, not believing that I was entertaining this whole conversation.
“Everything about him. And that’s a lot, coming from someone who isn’t really into men. That explains why he always buys too many things whenever he’s stopping by.”
“What?”
That was new.
“I mean, he buys several cups of coffee and more of what’s on the menu than three hungry adults can eat at a go. I’ve always found it weird, but now I get it,” Riley said, grinning hard.
Goddess.
“We are not a thing, Riley,” I said, “And if at all what you all are seeing has any weight to it, I am at the very bottom of Aidan’s list of reasons for doing what he did.”
Riley was about to throw another response in when the bell dinged at the front door, announcing the arrival of someone.
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I took that as my way out of this conversation, and I turned to face them after mouthing the words, “Go back to work,” to Riley.
It wasn’t any customers, but Jenna and Nadia instead.
“Mommy!” Nadia beamed, running toward the counter to give me a hug.
“Hi, sweetheart,” I called, confused, but that didn’t stop me from still peppering kisses all over her head.
I had a really important errand to run for the diner later in the afternoon, and Jenna was watching Nadia for me. I was surprised to see them here now.
“How’s it going?” Jenna asked, and Riley, who hadn’t had enough of the conversation, was the first to answer.
“We were just discussing how hot the new alpha is, and how Tara here has been jumping his stick without us knowing. Did you know about that?” Her question was directed at Jenna.
“Hey! Kid in the room,” I yelled, exasperated, covering Nadia’s ears with my hands. “No one’s sticks are being jumped.”
Goddess, only a little more of this, and Nadia would ask me what I meant by that.
Jenna only laughed. “I mean, if you think about it, it’s kind of cute that he dethroned that prick of an alpha just so he could have unlimited access to the pack to see you as often as he wants. Wouldn’t you say?” Jenna asked.
Riley was the one to respond. “That’s exactly what I was saying!”
My ears were practically bleeding from hearing these two poke
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me, so I changed the conversation as quickly as I could.
“You,” I pointed to Riley. “Get back to work. And you two,” J turned to Jenna. “Why are you here? This wasn’t in our plan,” I said, already sending the reason why.
Jenna offered me an apologetic look before she spoke.
“If it wasn’t important, I would have found a way to cancel, but I have to meet up with what’s left of the pack’s security. It was a last–minute summon.”
Shit.
“Oh my gosh. It’s okay, Jenna,” I replied. “It’s going to be hard to find someone to look after her now. Esme wasn’t home?”
Jenna shook her head. “I checked first and was going to call you to know if it’s okay if I dropped her by Esme’s place, but she wasn’t even around. I’m so sorry.
“Don’t be silly. It’s totally fine. I’ll handle it,” I replied.
“I can come with you, Mommy,” Nadia cut through our conversation. “I promise I’ll be good.”
I chuckled and stooped down to her level to kiss her on the cheek.
“Yeah, I know, honey, but it’s going to be really stressful where I‘ m going. I’ll be lifting a lot of heavy boxes, and I’d rather you stay away from all those heavy items so you don’t get injured.”
Nadia pouted, but she nodded in understanding.
Riley’s shift was almost over, so I couldn’t burden her with my
- Cancel My Plant
shit, and it was too late to find a babysitter by this time. I wasn’t left with much choice.
“I would just have to cancel my plans and reschedule,” I said out loud.
“Shoot. I’m sorry again, Tara,” Jenna said..
I smiled at her, letting her know that it was okay.
“What do you think about us trying out that recipe you’ve been trying to learn together, Nadia?” I asked, and she nodded with a smile.
“Let’s do it.”
Having had that sorted out, Jenna got ready to leave for her duty.
The front doorbell dinged again, and after it closed, it only took. a few more seconds for me to know who it was.
The scent from our proximity a few days ago was still so fresh in my memory that I could single him out from a crowd of strangers.
With my heart toppling over itself and rolling to the tip of my tongue, I stood up, and turned to face Aidan.
I heard snickering from behind me, most likely Riley, and yeah, Jenna was still very much in the diner.
They weren’t going to let me hear the last of this, were they?
