Autumn After (Waiting Hearts World)

7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Willow

“My brother says his mate is here.” A woman’s voice came through the open window. The cool fall air gave the cabin a crisp and earthy scent from the mixture of dried leaves that whirled around outside.

I swung open the door, piecing together quickly that this was Fern, Cedric’s sister. Even if she hadn’t mentioned her brother, I’d have known. They had the same eyes and smile. I hadn’t met her yesterday since Cedric’s family was giving us some space for me to come to terms with all the things, but Cedric had said she’d probably be coming around. I just hadn’t expected it to be when he was out running a quick errand.

“Your brother was right. I’m Willow. You must be Fern.” I gave her my best smile. Cedric assured me his family would love me, yet that didn’t stop my nerves from going into overdrive. Usually, I had weeks to work up the courage to meet the family of the guy I was dating. Not this time. And based on what I understood about mates, this would be the last time I was meeting the family.

Cedric was my one and only. I felt more sure of that than I had about my dream to own a food truck, and I’d been pretty locked in on that goal.

“I am, and check us out. We’re both trees. Tree-ish... I’m more of a plant, but whatever. We are green.” She held up a plate. “I brought muffins.”

“I like muffins.” I stepped out of the way, and she came in.

“You’ll especially like these ones because I make the best muffins in the entire pack.” She was singsongingly, and I already adored her.

“You don’t say.”

“I do say. I had to put that out there because my brother says you make the best cookies. And since I was the best cookie maker before you got here, I shall hold the title of muffin baker supreme.” She grinned.

“They do look delicious.” I wasn’t really a muffin maker, but even if I was, I’d stop right then and there. If this made her this ridiculously happy, I wanted her to have it.

We put on a pot of coffee, and as it brewed, she told me all about herself. It was easy to see why Cedric thought so fondly of her. She was fun, nice, and sweet, and had a bit of spunk to her. I could instantly see us becoming friends.

“Okay, it’s the moment of truth. Tell me what you think.” She held the muffin out to me, and I took a bite. I had to admit, it was pretty freaking good.

“Well-deserved title, I see,” I said.

Her smile was infectious. “See, now you can trust me.”

“Because you make good muffins?”

“Nope, because I make the best muffins.” She grabbed one for herself.

I wasn’t sure how those two went together, but I went along with it.

“Where’d my brother go, anyway?” she asked.

“He was going to check with Rodney. Something about a tow.” Rodney being the mechanic or just the tow truck. I wasn’t sure which.

“Oh yeah, Rodney was having trouble with his truck.”

Wasn’t that my luck? Yesterday the news would’ve crushed me, but today, I was kind of glad. It meant there was no rush to making a decision of what came next between Cedric and me.

After learning about shifters yesterday, I’d spent the entire day drilling him with questions about his world. I would have thought I was crazy, except any time I looked out the window I saw wolves running around like… well… like people. More than once I saw them shift. I couldn’t deny that Cedric told me the truth.

I just didn’t know what the future held.

My home was nowhere near here, and my dream was to have a food truck and attend the festival I’d spent the last few weeks saving for. Hell, I had practically run away from home in order to go to the festival. Which reminded me that I needed to call Alex and let him know I was safe.

I should’ve been upset. I had the big event coming up, but right now, it kind of felt like it wasn’t as important. It would be nice to get her moved to someplace safer, though. I didn’t like leaving her there where another truck or car could hit her.

“My brother says she’s purple and that you call her Lavender.”

“Well, he’s right on both accounts.”

“I knew I liked you.”

The door opened, and Cedric walked inside. “Are you being nice to my mate?” he teased, coming up behind her and kissing the top of her head.

“I made him muffins. I think that qualifies as spectacularly nice,” she said.

“Besides, we’re both trees,” I piped in.

He looked at me like I was making no sense, which, fair. It didn’t, not at face value.

“On that note, I need to get going. I have chores, and you guys have... whatever it is mates do.” She winked, and I wanted to shrivel up and hide. It was one thing when his brother teased like that, but his little sister? It just didn’t feel right.

That being said, she was totally right. As soon as she was gone, we’d return to the bedroom. In between him telling me all about shifters, I’d also learned all about his body and him about mine.

She gave me a quick hug, and her brother one as well, then left.

“Good news,” Cedric said. “Rodney should be able to get your truck today. And he is an excellent mechanic, so there is a good chance he can repair it.”

“That is good news.” So why did it make me a little bit sad?

“Even better news is that we have the next few hours to do whatever we want.”

“Oh? And do you know what you want to do with that time?” I asked, stepping close, knowing I very well had ideas.

“I do—we’re going to the coffee shop in town for one of their brand-new pumpkin spice lattes.”

That wasn’t where I was expecting that conversation to go.

“And call me a basic alpha all you want, but I think I need one of those today. And afterward, I thought maybe I could show you some of the packlands. We have an orchard and pumpkin fields.”

“This place is like a fall festival all wrapped into one.”

“Yeah, it pretty much is. It’s kind of our thing.”

“I do love fall. I should probably call my friend first. He needs to know that I’m okay so he doesn’t send some sort of search party after me.”

“Sure. Do you need some privacy to call him?”

I shook my head. “No. I’ll keep the conversation vague and short. Maybe a text message would be better?” No, after what I put Alex through in disappearing like I did, he deserved a conversation.

I picked up my phone, found Alex’s name, and hit dial.

He answered immediately. “Hello? Where are you. You better not be dead, Willow!”

“I’m not dead.” Far from. I was more alive than I’d ever been, and I had Cedric to thank for it. “I did take a slight detour, though…”

Alex sighed. “Willow…”

“I’m fine, I promise. And my truck is… mostly fine. I had a breakdown, but luckily, I found a place to stay.” That was mostly true. “And there’s actually a small festival in this town,” also mostly true, “so I’ll get to use my truck after all!” Yeah, that one was a total lie.

I couldn’t bear to tell Alex that I failed miserably with the food truck. It didn’t feel like a failure to me exactly, not really, but Alex wouldn’t see it that way. Not yet. And my family really wouldn’t see it that way.

“You’re safe? You promise me that you’re safe? Do you have enough money to stay there? I can send you some.”

“No, I’m good. I promise. Better than good.” I smiled at my mate who stood at my side. He leaned closer and buried his nose into my neck. He did that a lot. Scent-marking me, he called it. I loved it.

Alex was quiet for a moment. “I’m trusting you, Willow. I know how much this means to you, and I want to support your dreams. Just… keep in touch, please?”

“I can do that. And I promise I’ll call my parents soon.” Not that they’d really care. They were probably happy that I wasn’t around to bother them with the whole food truck thing anyway.

“Take care of yourself, okay?”

Little did he know that I had a wolf by my side who was hellbent on taking care of me. “I will. I promise.”