Etienne (The Shifters of Shotgun Row Book 1)(16)

“Sorry, Eti, I’ve just never seen you clean up so well. Especially for a female.”

He was right. All of my meaningless conquests had taken place in the back of my truck with my gun still holstered.

I certainly wasn’t proud of it, but I wasn’t a monk, either.

“She’s—this one is different.” I admitted it with a hushed tone. The jeering stopped from the others immediately. They knew what I was talking about. None of us had mates, mostly because we were a group of beastly ogres secluded in the swamps, and a good percent because we were dickheads with attitudes the size of the Atchafalaya Basin. But a mate—that was a topic even asshole shifters didn’t give each other shit about.

“You think she’s your...I mean your gator…”

Loic couldn’t even say the word. It was that sacred to us.

“That’s what I’m going to find out.” I could lie to myself all I wanted to about my true intentions for going to Tansy’s house that night, but I couldn’t lie to them. They were my brothers in this place and in our place in life. Plus, they could taste the lies before they came out of my mouth. It was like a penny that had been in the river too long, bitter and metallic on our tongues.

They didn’t say another word.

“Hey, Eti, good luck,” Loic ground out before I stepped into my truck.

I forced myself to take my time getting there, not wanting to come off too eager, though my gator was about to come barreling through my chest at any minute. I’d bought her some tulips from the local gas station, the only local place to buy cut flowers. Tansy didn’t seem like a roses kind of girl.

The smell of rolls and meat caught my attention before I knocked softly on the door.

“Good evening.” She answered the door in a white dress that swayed softly above her knees.

And she wore the red heels.

Good girl.





Tansy

“You look—nice.” Or smexy as the day was long, but lame nice was what I settled on. Boy, did he clean up nice.

I wasn’t going to wear the heels. I tried to convince myself it was because I was at home, and who wears shoes in the house. But I was lying to myself. I wasn’t going to wear them to show I was independent or some dumb thing. But then I heard him pull up and watched him get out of the car all yummy-like, and on they went. The look he gave me when he noticed them had me wanting to never take them off again. What was it about Etienne that could have me so in knots and questioning all my thoughts on men with some slight glance?

“You are beautiful. These are for you.” He held out a bunch of tulips, my favorite. It was obvious from the way he thrust them at me, that flower giving was not his normal wooing strategy, making it a bazillion times more special.

“They are my favorite.” Ever since I went to Holland, Michigan as a kid, tulips had been my fave.

“They’re from the gas station.” His head dropped slightly. Was he embarrassed he hadn’t gone to some shop that cost all the dollars for the same exact flowers? Men.

“That doesn’t make them less special.” It was the truth of it. They actually were more special. Sure, my ex thought flowers were the best gift ever and always got them from a fancy place, but every last bouquet was a lie or a cover-up.

Sorry I can’t make dinner. Unexpected department meeting. Which in English meant going home to be with my family. And I miss you. Which translated to: I need you to stop calling so I’m doing an over-the-top gesture to give you confidence in us so you don’t end up calling when my wife is around. And then there was the ever-popular, Last night was amazing, which translated to: I did all the things he wanted right before he left me to go home to the wife he never told me about.

These flowers dwarfed those in all the best of ways.

“Well, are you going to come in all the way?” He was just standing in the doorway like a true gentleman, which I had no illusions he was, or at least I hoped he wasn’t. It was adorable, but the bugs were going to come in if he didn’t get inside.

“If dinner is half as delicious as it smells, try to stop me.”

“I’m going to go put these in water and do the finishing touches on dinner. You can hang out with Curtis.”

That darn lizard had grown on me something fierce. The little thing was cute and, at the same time, terrifying. Little ghost girl knew what she was talking about. I needed to go visit her soon, see if I could help her. No little girl should have her life over that soon, and definitely not under conditions trapping her here.

I set to work slicing the roast, dishing up the sides, and whipping the butter. I had a feeling Etienne was a meat-and-potatoes guy, so that was what he was getting. None of the pretentious truffle oil junk they taught us at school, just honest-to-goodness dinner.

“Dinner is ready,” I called over my shoulder, only to catch him deep in conversation with Curtis.

“You don’t have to call me twice.” He came over and sat at the tiny café table that was my dining room set.

“There’s plenty more of all of it on the counter. It’s just that the table is small.” I shouldn’t be embarrassed by my place. It was clean and well-kept, yet as I pointed to the cracked counter where the food sat, I wondered for a nanosecond if he thought less of me. He was a cop, had a real job. I was a college dropout running someone else’s dream. Not even really a dropout. I was a college kicked-out. Was that a thing?