Shifting Dreams (25 page)

Would he? Suddenly, the weight of his answer made Caleb want to squirm. What was this boy asking? What exactly was he committing himself to? Sure, he liked Jena Crowe, maybe more than any other woman he’d met. Including his ex-wife. But he hadn’t even taken the woman on a proper date yet. He’d told her secrets that he’d kept hidden for years, then they’d never brought it up again. A few stolen kisses when she slipped away from her responsibilities wasn’t exactly enough to commit the rest of his life to. In all honesty, he had no idea whether the woman was really that interested in him or whether she just felt responsible for him since her town had turned him into shapeshifter.
 

And Low was still watching him. More suspicious than ever.

“No one can predict the future,” Caleb finally said. Then a thought occurred to him and he smiled ruefully. “But I guess I don’t know many other towns where I would fit in anymore. You all might be stuck with me since I’m just as weird as you are now.”

Low smiled at the joke, but it was tight and nervous. Nothing like Aaron’s open acceptance. And Caleb knew he didn’t deserve the boy’s acceptance. Low was old enough to realize something his younger brother didn’t. Sometimes, whether they wanted to or not, people left.

By the time Sunday dinner rolled around, Caleb was tight and needy. He wanted to get Jena by herself. Didn’t want to spend the whole night with a bunch of her friends and family. Didn’t want to talk about Alma’s murder, even if he knew it was what he needed to do. He’d only seen her in passing a few times since he’d been back to work. She was too busy to stop by the trailer, or she was avoiding him. Avoiding the hard edges and shadows of his life. Avoiding the inevitable souring of a relationship that had never really gotten off the ground.

“Hey!” She opened the door with a bright smile that immediately flooded him with relief. But the tension still sat in his belly.

“Hey.” He bent down to kiss her and she ducked her cheek to the side, blushing a little as a couple of kids he didn’t recognize ran through the room.

“Sorry,” she whispered. “There’s just a lot of people here and…”

He gave her a sharp nod, then ducked down to her ear. “Where’s your bedroom?”

Caleb could see the desire spark in her eyes. “Down the hall,” she murmured. “Second door on the left.”

The house was a babble of voices. Allie and Ted joking in the kitchen. Various kids screaming and laughing outside. Some male voices from the backyard. Caleb pulled Jena by the hand and led her down the hall decorated in children’s pictures and family photographs. He shoved the door to her room open and pulled her inside. The shades were already drawn to keep out the afternoon heat. The pretty, feminine room was dark and cool.

He spun around and cornered Jena, pushing her up against a wall as his mouth crashed down on hers. He angled his knee between her legs until she was straddling him, then he pulled her closer, cupping her backside as he swallowed the moan that left her throat.

“Caleb!” Her voice was a high keen. “We can’t—”

He cut her off with another kiss. He needed… he just
needed
. Her. Her skin. His hand crept around her neck, clutching at the warm soft skin at the nape. Her curves. His other hand grabbed a handful of her hip as he pressed his knee against the heat between her legs. Her heat.

“I want you, Jena. So much,” he groaned, pulling away from her lips for a moment when she lifted a leg, wrapping it around his waist. Her hands clutched at his shoulders, pulling him closer. She was just as frantic as he was, panting his name in soft breaths against his ear. They would fit perfectly, he thought as he kissed her neck. She was made for him. Everything about her. “You’re driving me out of my mind.”

Jena’s skin was flushed a deep red and burning up when he kissed her again. He wanted to forget about everyone else, lay her down on that soft, unexpectedly frilly, bedspread and dive into her. Until there was nothing else but him and her and push and pull and wanting and—

“Moooom!” Aaron’s voice called down the hall.

Damn
.

Jena pulled back, her head hitting the wall before he could catch it. He lifted a hand to sooth where it had hit, brushing her hair away from her face and kissing her temple. She took a couple of deep breaths and set both feet on the floor. He gave her a little room… not much, though. He didn’t particularly want to let her get away.

“Yeah, Bear?”

“Where’s the juice boxes?”

She rolled her eyes. “In the blue ice chest where they always are.”

“Oh.” He paused. “Why are you in your room? Uncle Alex was looking for you. And is Chief Caleb coming?”

 
“Not likely,” he whispered, making Jena stifle a laugh.

“We—I’ll be out in a minute. Tell Uncle Alex to put the tri-tip on, okay?”

“Okay!” He heard the little boy’s feet stomping down the hall.

“Not likely?” she whispered, trying to look severe. The smile fighting to get out killed the effect.

“Someday?” He kissed her neck. “Hopefully?” Then he gave the hollow behind her ear a little lick and whispered, “Don’t pretend you don’t want me, Jena.”

Her face burned. “Wanting? Sure. Acting?” Her face fell a little. “Entirely more complicated.”

He put both hands and her waist and spun them around so he was leaning against the wall with her standing between his legs. They were eye to eye when he spoke.

“I missed you.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s been a busy couple of days and—”

“I missed you,” he said again, pulling her face to his for a soft kiss. “Not just this. I missed seeing your face. And making you laugh. Did you miss me?”

She looked embarrassed and tried to pull away. “Caleb, I…”

“Simple question.” But an important one. Was he too strange to her now? She’d had a few days to think. Over a week for the reality of it to sink in. Maybe, like his grandmother’s people, she would find him grotesque now. Unnatural.

Jena finally looked up at him and she nodded. “I missed you, too.”

The tension that had wrapped around his heart eased a little. “Good.”

“But we need to get out there.”

He wiggled his hips between the cradle of her thighs. “I beg to differ.”

“Hold your horses, cowboy. I’ve got a lot of hungry people to feed.”

Did he have to let that one pass? He sighed and stood up, mentally willing away the tightness in his pants. “Fine. Later?”

“Later we have to talk about the case.”

“After that?”

She opened the door. “You’re relentless.”

“I warned you about that, didn’t I?” Then Caleb squeezed her hand and left her in the hall to walk into the riot of noise coming from the kitchen.

Chapter Seventeen

Jena watched him as she cooked, sneaking glances in his direction as she put together a salad, heated macaroni and cheese, and tossed instructions at the various small children acting as her minions. Caleb had grabbed a beer and gone to sit by Ollie and Alex at the barbecue, looking as comfortable as if he’d been coming to her Sunday dinners for years.

It was a tradition she’d started when she moved back, wishing to reconnect with her oldest friends and needing the comfort of those who had loved and known Lowell. Over the years, it had become tradition. Everyone brought something to eat and their favorite drink. You didn’t call or plan. If you were there, you were there. But most Sundays, Jena’s friends were there. Willow was the only one who was still absent, deciding to stay in Colorado for the rest of the month at an artists’ retreat she’d been invited to.

“Jena!” Ted called from the back, carrying Allie’s youngest, Loralai under her arm. “Where’s Allie?”

“I think she’s on the phone.”

“Donde esta el esposo?”
Ted asked, switching to Spanish so the baby couldn’t understand her question about Allie’s absent husband.

Jena shrugged. Joe and Allie were obviously having problems, but her usually cheerful friend was reluctant to talk about them. Joe had always been temperamental. And Allie had always made excuses. He’d moved to the Springs as a teenager, a reluctant addition to the community his parents forced him to accept as his own. By the time he’d shifted to a coyote at age thirteen, Joe seemed to have accepted life in the small town, but Jena had always sensed restlessness in him.

Ted muttered something uncomplimentary about Joe’s mother under her breath, but the baby only giggled. She was Allie’s surprise baby, eighteen months old and a handful of energy. Within seconds, she had taken off into the backyard again, where she crawled onto Caleb’s lap with no introduction and proceeded to babble something that made the man laugh. Jena watched him. He’d mentioned that he had lots of little cousins in the family, and he was obviously at ease with the kids running around. But that picture…

“It’s enough to trigger spontaneous ovulation,” Ted said with a sigh. “Cute man, cute baby, and the smell of barbecue in the air.”

“You’re an odd one, Ted.”

“No, I’m just hungry.”

Jena smothered a grin. “Alex is right out there. I’m sure he’d be able to—”

“Don’t finish that sentence and expect me to still like you, Jena Crowe.”

Jena bit her lip and continued watching the scene in the back as she cut the cornbread Ollie had brought. “He says he’s moving back to town.”

“Trust me. He’s said that before. Plenty of times.” Ted turned her head bitterly. “He always goes back to the city.”

“Maybe—”

“Maybe we should talk about the hot cowboy, your oddly wrinkled shirt, and the look of frustration he was wearing when he arrived.”

“Shut up, Ted.” She flushed bright red.

Her friend gave her a smug smile. “Admittedly, the people-shifting thing is a little weird, but at least it means he’ll stick around.”

“Yes, just what I’ve always wanted. ‘Hey, baby, since we’re both freaks of nature and I’m stuck in this town, let’s get together!’ It’s a love story for the ages.”

“Please, he was hot for you before he turned into a freak of nature. Now, you can just be freaks together. Plus, he’s smart, and… he genuinely seems like a good guy.”

Jena piled the cornbread onto a plate and turned to grab the macaroni out of the oven. “I’m not saying he’s not a good guy. I’m just saying he’s…”

“What?” Ted looked confused. “I’m not sure why you’re holding back here, Jen. He’s a good man who you’re obviously attracted to and he’s completely into you. Even the guys like him, and that’s saying a lot.”

She shrugged. “He had family problems in New Mexico, and… he left. He had people he loved and cared about there—lots of them—and he took off when things got hard. I’m not saying that sometimes you don’t need a fresh start. I understand that more than anyone. But it’s not just me I’m worried about. I don’t want the boys getting attached to someone who might just leave. Bear already thinks he walks on water.”
 

She glanced up to see Caleb surrounded by the kids, who were mobbing the new person. Loralie had planted herself on Caleb’s lap, Aaron had grabbed his hat and he and Austin, Allie’s seven-year-old, were charging around the yard making their fingers into pistols. Even Low was standing nearby with Allie’s two older boys, trying to act cool and gulping down sodas as they watched the three grown men by the fire.

“You fit, Jena Crowe. Like the right pair of shoes.”

He fit, too.

For now.

“You’re right,” Ted said. “There’s nothing tying him here. Not really. But maybe he’s looking for a reason to stay. You can’t live your life waiting for people to leave you, Jen.” Ted bumped her shoulder as she took a pile of plates out to the table in back. “Not every man is Lowell, and not every relationship has a set expiration date.”

Jena blinked back an unexpected tear before she saw Caleb look up and meet her eyes through the window. He frowned when he saw her expression, but she just smiled and turned back to the stove.

Hours later, after food had been eaten, the kids had been tucked away, and the leftovers packed up, Jena still couldn’t shake the melancholy. And Caleb wasn’t helping. He’d seemed to sink into a sullen mood as soon as the kids left the room. Joe still hadn’t shown up and Allie wouldn’t say why, but Devin had come round for dessert and coffee and stayed to chat about the case.

“Now that Caleb can get all the information,” Alex said, “I’m hoping we can make some headway.”

“The cats are still ignoring my dad,” Jena said. “He’s asked them for weeks now to help with the investigation, but…”

“There hasn’t really been one,” Ollie said. “My granddad has mentioned it more than once. He’s disgusted with them all. The Elders meet, everyone talks about how tragic it is and how dangerous to have someone out there who could do something like this, but no one is really taking charge. At one point, Gabe Vasquez asked Granddad why
he
hadn’t guarded Alma, because the Campbells and Allens are supposed to guard the Springs.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Allie piped up. “It’s not like you can control what we do ourselves! You all guard the town from outsiders, not our own people.”

Ollie flushed with embarrassment. “I’m sure it was just spoken in anger, Allie.”