“Sit, Corbin. Rein it in. Family dinner. Then back to my condo.” Zach clearly fought a smile at Laurie’s other side.
Corbin took a seat and set a hand on Laurie’s thigh.
“Welcome to the family, Corbin,” Adam began. “Please, consider yourself one of ours. Come and go as you wish. Walk right in.” He shifted his gaze to Laurie. “Both of you. The back door is never locked.”
“Thank you.” Laurie was humbled by the kindness of these people who had never met her.
Corbin stiffened subtly, his hand gripping her thigh harder.
She glanced at him, wondering what he was thinking.
He didn’t return her gaze, however. Instead he pursed his lips and nodded toward Adam as though overwhelmed with emotion.
She doubted that was his real sense though.
“So, I hate to bring this up at this juncture, but we have a slight issue,” Adam said as he dished the steaming stew into the first bowl in the stack in front of him and then handed it to Laurie.
“What’s the problem?” Zach asked.
“You must have spoken to Caleb Parker when you came down the mountain.”
“Yes. The young kid in the ski rental area.” Zach slapped his forehead. “He saw us. The three of us, I mean. We weren’t thinking. And we weren’t subtle.”
Adam nodded. “Don’t freak out. There was no way in hell we were going to keep the matings of our kids a secret from the world forever. I’m surprised more people haven’t wigged out before now, actually.”
Sharon grabbed the bowl her father handed her. “Several people at the hospital got a little jumpy when they saw Rebecca with Griffen sometimes and Miles at other times.” She turned toward Laurie. “She even quit that job and took a job on the reservation at the hospital in Sojourn.”
Laurie froze. She hadn’t considered that problem. “Jeez, she had to leave her job because she was with two men?”
Sharon nodded. “She’s a very good friend of mine. I hated what they drug her through. Regular people I’ve known my entire life. Judging. Made me sick.”
“Humans, of course,” Zach added. “It’s a tiny bit easier on the reservation. A larger population is shifter on the west side of the reservation. They’re far more understanding.”
“So what happened? Were people talking about us at the lodge?” Corbin asked Adam.
Adam nodded as he took his seat and picked up his fork. “Yeah. I just wanted to warn you. We’ll support whatever decision you kids make. But you need to know what you’re up against. There are a lot of people in this area who aren’t going to look fondly on the arrangements of my sons. In particular, there’s a church in town that tends to run a bit fundamentalist, and the members have been known to go slightly ballistic on occasion.”
“Ballistic?” Corbin asked.
“Picketing and stuff,” Sharon responded.
Carlie spoke next. “Caleb Parker is a member of that church. His parents go there.”
“What should we do?” Laurie cringed. The damage was partially done. They’d been spotted on the first morning. It was hardly possible to go back now.
Adam took a deep breath. “Not sure. Let’s see if the rumors and innuendo die down in a few days. It’s amazing how fast a wildfire can spread. I heard people mumbling to each other the moment I arrived this morning. Craziness.”
“No one said anything to me,” Carlie added. “But then again, I’m not the sort of woman people mess with.”
Zach and Adam both laughed.
“That’s for sure,” Adam said. “I didn’t mate a weak woman.”
Laurie hoped she had half the gumption Carlie had, or her life was liable to become a nightmare.
Carlie continued, “The majority of our staff is shifters. The few who are human will have to deal or move on. That’s their prerogative. It’ll be tough for them to make that sort of choice since jobs aren’t easy to come by in this area, and we’re considered the cream of the employment crop. We treat our employees extremely fairly, pay them well, and provide benefits. If they want to walk away from that, so be it.
“As for the rumors, the members of the Church on the Hill like to stick their nose in everybody’s moral business. I assume they’ll weigh in on this swiftly. I’m not going to lose sleep over that either. Bunch of meddling ninnies.”
Laurie nearly laughed out loud at that. “How have Griffen and Trace gotten away with their relationships so far?”
Zach swallowed his bite and spoke. “They’ve been living slightly under the radar on the edge of the reservation for a while now. Griffen doesn’t respond to innuendo at work at the resort, and Trace is a deputy here in this county. The sheriff is a shifter, so he understands, and he doesn’t tolerate shit-talk from his deputies.”