Riley's Secret (A Moon's Glow Novel # 1) (39 page)

A hand rested on the girl’s shoulder, stopping her
just as she reached the steps. “It was just a little bunny,” Nate explained,
wearing the t-shirt and jeans she had left out for him.

“Well, you better not have spoiled your appetite. I
made you dinner,” Megan replied with a smirk.

He grinned as he leaned down to kiss her.

Chapter
One

The Choice

I was having the dream again. I hadn’t had it since I
was in grade school. It always began the same way, with my parents and me at
the breakfast table, eating. My father’s nose was in a legal brief and my
mother was engrossed in a fashion magazine. I had asked my father for a ride to
school and he never looked up. I asked again and still nothing. I gave up on
him and turned to my mother, telling her that I needed a permission slip signed
for a field trip at school. Instead of answering, she licked her fingers and
used them to turn the pages, her long platinum tresses draping around her face.
I yelled at her to answer and yet she continually ignored me. I gazed at my
parents, fighting back the tears that burned in my eyes and as I looked down at
my hands, they began to fade away. A panicked inspection over the rest of my
body showed me why they were ignoring me. I was disappearing from view. My
voice had suddenly stopped and when I tried to scream out for help, nothing
came. I had actually become as my parents always thought of me—invisible.

Light kisses on each fingertip woke me from the
disturbing dream and I instantly felt relief. I was with the man that would
always see me. With Nate, I would feel loved and cherished forever. It brought
a smile to my face as I opened my heavy eyelids. His intense blue eyes looked
down at me as he hovered above the bed. He was already dressed for work and he
bent over, holding my hand.

“Good morning,” he said softly, with a breathtaking
smile.

I grinned sleepily at him and sat up. “Are you leaving
already?” I asked, tucking a few stray strands of hair behind my ear.

He let go of my hand and stood up. His charcoal  suit
was creased at the top of his legs. His bright red tie was a pop of color that
brightened his face.

“Yes, we have an early meeting. But I’ll be home in
plenty of time for our dinner.”

It was our sixth month anniversary and I wanted to do
something special. I had the whole night planned out for weeks. But all he knew
was not to eat ahead of time. “You’d better be. I don’t get a chance to cook
for you that often.”

His lips twitched as if he wanted to laugh or make a
joke, but he knew better to start that this early in the morning. “It’s seven
o’clock; don’t you have to be at the shelter at eight?”

I jumped out of bed. “Crap, why didn’t you wake me?”

“You looked so peaceful, I didn’t have the heart.” He
reached out for my hand and pulled me in close, his lips touching mine.

“You might not want to do that when you smell my
morning breath,” I whispered against his lips.

“I think I can suffer through it,” he said with
laughter in his voice. He kissed me deeply, his hands roaming the back of the
oversized t-shirt I wore to bed. I was getting lost in his kiss until an image
of two little boys flashed in my mind. I had to get to work. I had a new family
that I was interviewing today. Anna, the social worker that usually advised the
Riley House, had sent over their pictures and those eyes had stayed with me.
There were a few people that wanted the room that Mr. Daniels was vacating in a
week, but I really wanted to give it to the boy’s family. But first, I had to
go through the review process. The problem was, we didn’t have enough rooms and
I had been thinking of a solution for that. I just had to finish up my research
and run it by Julia and Nate.

I pulled away from Nate as much as I hated to. But I
had to hurry if I was going to make my meeting. “You’d better get to work,” I
whispered, out of breath.

He nuzzled my neck and then stood up. “You’re right. I
can’t wait until tonight when I can have you in my arms again.”

A giggle escaped my lips at his words. I had never
felt as loved as I did each moment I was with him.

He reluctantly left after another kiss.

Without the hunky werewolf to distract me, I took a
deep breath to calm my racing heart and then slipped into the shower. It didn’t
take me long. I blow-dried my hair, put it up in a messy bun and then slapped
on some makeup. I picked out a black tight fitting pantsuit. I wanted to look
professional and older, but not too fancy. I was meeting with families down on
their luck and I didn’t want them to feel uncomfortable. With a quick spritz of
my ginger body spray, I was off.

I ate a granola bar in the car while I thought about
the three families I would be seeing today. I had taken over running the
charity when we graduated high school and Nate started working full time at
Riley's Department store. Julia had run the charity off and on for years and
could probably do it without me, but she had told me often enough that she
really appreciated my help. When we first met, she had recognized something in
me that she herself had felt on her first day. It was the need to help others.
I had been searching for a purpose without really knowing it and after one day
at the shelter, I had found it.

I was lost before I met Nate. Before him, I hung out
with shallow snobs that only liked me for my money and my family’s prestige.
One night my so-called friends had started a fire by setting off fireworks and
I was the only one who cared enough to see if the family was okay. And for my
trouble, I was accused of starting the fire and given two hundred hours of
community service at Riley House—where I ran into Nate. We didn't hit it off
immediately though. He thought I had something to do with the fire and was
continuously rude to me. But that didn't take away from how much I loved
working there. Getting a chance to help others awakened something inside me and
I finally felt fulfilled. So when Nate was wanted at the store, his family’s
business, I jumped at the chance to take his old job, training the new
volunteers. There was also office work involved and I loved it. Helping
residents find work and places to live was my favorite part. In the few months
I had been working there, this was the first time that I would have to choose
between three candidates. The people that our social worker selected had always
been easy to choose, but this time, it was between three deserving families
that were down on their luck through no fault of their own. It was going to be
the hardest decision I’d ever have to make and I was beginning to feel sick to
my stomach.

As I stopped at a stop light, I glanced at the
rear-view mirror where a black sedan was stopped as well. While I waited for
red to turn green, I thought over the idea I had been working on since I
started the job. I wanted to expand Riley House to add a few more rooms but was
afraid with the zoning we’d run into problems and I was right. Apparently, you
couldn’t build too close to the property line and there wasn’t enough space at
the back of the lot. When I had discussed it with Nate, all he said was that we
couldn’t help everyone, even though from the look in his eyes, I knew he wanted
to.

Finally, green shone above me and I moved into traffic
once again. I turned on Willow in the direction of the shelter. I noticed the
black sedan make the same move. When Addison Avenue came into view, butterflies
bounced inside my stomach at the thought of what my day held. Minutes later, I
pulled into the back lot at the shelter and parked next to Julia. Once I had
climbed out, I spun around, vaguely noticing the black sedan now parked on the
street. I wondered if it belonged to one of people I was meeting with. I
doubted it though. The car was new and shiny and the groups I was working with
wouldn’t be able to afford it.

I started thinking about parking space. The parking
lot was large enough and far enough from the property line to add more rooms.
I’d just have to figure out another parking situation. Although the
neighborhood was a residential zone, we were able to stay since we were a
non-profit organization. But when I started talking to officials about
expanding, they started spewing out technical words that I didn’t understand. I
sighed, thinking again about having to turn away two families and spun on my
heels to head in. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a for sale sign on the
house next door. Happiness soared through me. Were my prayers answered? I
quickly noted the name of the real estate agent and rushed inside.

“Julia!” I yelled, slamming the door behind me.

She glanced up from her desk right inside the
entryway. Her dark brown hair was pulled back out of her face in a twist, with
a pencil stuck inside. I smiled; she was always hard at work and never cared
about her appearance. Of course, she dressed well, but if she spilled coffee on
her blouse or got ink on her pants, she’d just shrug and continue with whatever
she was doing. I dodged little Isaac as he shot from the toy room into the game
room and stood next to her. She glanced at the little boy, who was holding a
toy airplane and grinned before acknowledging me. “The first family is up in
your office.”

That caught me off guard; they were early. “Really?”

She nodded and took a sip of the coffee in her hand.

“Did you see that the house next door is for sale?”

She nodded again, this time adding a raised brow.
“Yeah, so?”

“I’m going to buy it!” I explained before rushing down
the hall to the stairs. She stared at after me with a shocked look on her face.
She too wanted to expand, but with all the dead ends we had faced, she had
given up.

The first group had gathered along the sofa on the
back wall. As I stood in the doorway, my heart ached when I noticed the little
boy about eight years old stick two brand muffins in his pockets. There was a
basket of them on the table. Julia must have left them out for the families. I
gulped down the lump in my throat before I stepped inside. I had never
experienced poverty in my life and since I started here, I had gotten used to
it, but it never got any easier to see. My instinct was to wrap my arms around
the boy and give him all the money and food we had, but I now knew that wasn’t
the right approach.

When the father noticed me, he smiled. It was cheerful
enough, but it didn’t reach his eyes. There was too much turmoil and worry in
the hazel depths—there wasn’t room for much else. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the
neediest family I would see today and I would have to turn him and his children
down.

“Good morning, Mr. Cartwright,” I said, holding my
hand out for him to shake. He stood up and wrapped his callused one in my
smooth pampered palm and I cringed again. I couldn’t take his family in and it
tore at my heart. I knew from the report that he had lost his wife two years
ago. After that he had gone into a depression, losing his job and eventually
his house. Right now he and his son and older daughter were staying in the
basement of friends. It wasn’t the best situation since the friends were also
on hard times, but at least they had a roof over their heads.

“Thank you for meeting with us, Miss Banks. I was told
there was a room opening up?” The room was more of a suite. There were a few
reserved for families. It held two rooms that backed onto a tiny common one. It
wasn’t huge, but it gave families space from each other.

“Yes, there is, in a week. Anna gave me three files
that would work out well and unfortunately we only have one room at this time.”

His smile faltered. “Yes, she told me that you would
be choosing the family that would get the room today.”

I nodded, clearing my throat. That damn lump just
wouldn’t leave. “Yes, I see here that Cole and Hannah go to school at the other
side of town?”

“Yes, but we can move them.”

“I don’t want to go to another school,” Cole whined,
yanking at his father’s faded coat sleeve.

Hannah, who was hunched on the sofa staring down at
her feet, shot her little brother a dirty look.

“Mr. Cartwright, have you been looking for another
job?” I hated prying, but the residents needed to be willing to work.

“Yes. And I have a few interviews next week.”

“Good.” Maybe I wouldn’t have to feel so guilty after
all. “If you’d like, we could help you out with that. Julia has a session on
how to act during interviews and we have suits in storage if you don’t have
anything appropriate to wear.”

His face brightened. “That would be wonderful.”

I glanced at the kids and smiled. “Would you two like
to have some breakfast? I heard it was pancakes today.”

Both children looked at their father with questioning
eyes; when he nodded, they jumped up and ran for the stairs.

When we were alone, I cleared my throat.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Cartwright, we are unable to take you and your family in at
this time. Another family is in more need right now. They don’t have friends as
generous as yours and they have nowhere to go.”

He frowned and gazed down at the floor.