Etienne (The Shifters of Shotgun Row Book 1)(54)

“The bakery is running smoothly, and I have the time.” After a two-week intensive baking training, Gina took over my duties as baker. I still came in and helped, but I was no longer tied to the place. It was freeing, and the first step to baby time.

Etienne, and rightly so, felt the stress of the bakery and the insane hours would be too much for me during a pregnancy. Now that the bakery was good and solid on its own two feet, baby-making time had arrived, and we took every opportunity to work to that end.

Life was good.

“That’s not the point.” So maybe Meemaw hadn’t conceded. Arggggg. She was stubborn. At least I knew where I got it from.

“Marie, I learned a long time ago that sometimes it is easier to just agree to whatever she says.” I smacked Etienne in the shoulder. “Oww.” He gave me the are-you-kidding look. “It’s true.”

“You’re a good mate, Etienne, but that doesn’t mean she should expend all her energy helping those who haven’t moved on—”

“Discussion over.” I cut Meemaw off. “I have an announcement.”

It’s sexy when you change the subject like that. All in your face, I’m not even pretending to hide it, like. Good Mate.

You think I’m sexy all the time. And I him.

Damn straight I do. I love you.

Love—

“You do realize we are all here. Having a private conversation like that is fucking rude,” Loic hissed. He wasn’t wrong.

“Whatever, Loic. You’re just jealous.” Callum glared at him.

“Fuck yeah, he is,” Justice added. “We all are, but that doesn’t make it less rude.”

“Fine,” Callum conceded.

Announcement?

“Oh right.” I kissed his cheek. “I accepted an offer on the house today.”

Putting Meemaw’s house up for sale had been a logical, yet difficult thing to do. All the memories of my time there begged me to keep it, but there was no way I’d ask Etienne to leave his home, his people, our crew. “Some woman from Chicago. Full price. Cash.”

Even the Realtor had been shocked at that, mumbling something about city folks.

“’Bout time you got rid of that thing.” Meemaw shocked me. I had been scared she was going to be upset, if not mad. I so had that one wrong.

“You’re not mad, Meemaw.” It was a statement. Go, Meemaw.

“Why would I be? It’s not like I need it.”

“I’m hoping we will be friends.” I pushed my feels over Meemaw’s comment down and changed the subject back to the contract I had folded in my pocket in the least responsible manner ever. “She’s a city girl, too, and while I love you guys, I sometimes wanna talk fashion with someone who gets it. Milla Robichaux. That sounds like a friend name to me. Goodness, last time I met a Robichaux, I got mated.” I was babbling on and on as Etienne’s jaw tightened.

“What’s wrong?”

“Milla Robichaux is his cousin,” Callum barked out in laughter.

“The one who…?” My eyes shifted from his mismatched eyes to the scar on his face, and he gave a subtle nod.

Yeppers. Things were about to get interesting.




Turn the page for a sneak peek at the next book in The Shifters of Shotgun Row. Justice.





Justice



“This is the last time, fuck nuts. Next time, you go all the way into the next town and get a dozen gallons of paint and Pine-Sol or whatever else in the shit you think up.”

In the last two months, Etienne had gone into some kind of nesting frenzy. He’d cleaned everything. He’d repainted his house and sealed the roof. The dumbass had even built a new set of stairs to his porch even though the old ones were fine. There was something seriously whacked out about the gator, lately. Etienne jerked the massive pile of crap out of my hands and mumbled off checklists in his head.

I turned to his mate who was calm as a cucumber, sipping on her lemonade while flipping through a magazine. “What the shit did you do to him, Tansy? I mean, fuck. He’s been acting like that Jeff dude on Flipping Out, except meaner and not so much juice in the lips. What’s up his ass?”

Tansy rocked back and forth on the porch swing Etienne had built for her when the weather turned cooler. She swung there every chance she got. She ticked her eyes to him and then back to her Vogue with a shrug. “He was so busy this morning, he didn’t even come in to get his king-nut. I think he’s sniffing the white lightning behind my back.” The dig was aimed at Etienne, but the bastard scrubbed the floor harder, like he didn’t hear.

“Oh? A little nose candy for the gator?”

Tansy slapped her knee. It wasn't that funny. “It’s a shame. We should have an intervention or something. Wait, can shifters take drugs? I mean, would cocaine even do the same things to you? Does cocaine even make people clean? I don’t understand life right now. I think I need a drink.”

I laughed at her question. She had a lot of them. I didn’t mind. She was like the queen of Shotgun Row. We did whatever Her Highness wanted or needed, with pleasure. “It would take a truckload of snow to make us even twitchy. I don’t know what’s wrong with this one. Wait, what the hell is that smell?” A light breeze whipped in from the swamp but with it a spice, no, maybe a warm smell laced through the tang of the bayou. I’d never smelled anything like it before, but I knew the smell by instinct.