Ada gasped and set her hand over her heart. “Not a chance. Caleb’s a sweet young man. His parents have been members of our church for decades. If he said that Masters boy was with the deputy and that redhead, it’s true.”
Mary didn’t particularly care about the gossip of a bunch of old women, but she didn’t want anyone to judge her, and she’d finally carved a spot for herself in the community. She didn’t agree with everything they touted, but she’d been a member of a similar congregation her entire life before moving to Cambridge to open her own preschool.
She hated to admit it to herself, but if she wanted to remain respected in the community, she wasn’t going to be able to hire Ms. Laurie Hamilton to work with small children. Not if this was the kind of chatter building up among the residents.
Darnit.
Her hands shook as she set her coffee cup on the end table. Her life had never been so confusing, not until she moved to Cambridge. Suddenly her world was upside down. Everything she’d ever believed in seemed questionable. Including her religion.
Considering the number of things she’d discovered about herself in the last six months, who was she to judge others for their personal choices—with respect to race or sexual orientation?
She shuddered inwardly at the idea of a woman sleeping with two men, however. The idea seemed ludicrous. Who would do that? How on earth did they manage to share? Surely Ada was misinformed. Hopefully.
She wanted to run from the house, leave the church, and never look back. But she couldn’t bring herself to do that. At twenty-eight years old, she was now a business owner in a small town, and she’d never been happier nor more depressed in her life.
What did God have in store for her?
Chapter Eight
Laurie slumped down into the enormous stuffed chair in Zach’s living room and blew out a breath. She was so frustrated she could scream.
“What happened now?”
“Remember that preschool I was so hopeful about last week?”
“Yeah. The one on Third Street? They sounded very interested.”
“Well, it turns out they made a ‘mistake’ and don’t actually need to hire anyone at this time.” She mimicked the owner’s words in her sing-songy voice.
Corbin leaned over the back of the chair and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry, babe. That stings.”
“I don’t believe for one minute that woman hadn’t heard the rumors about us.”
Zach sat on the footstool in front of her and grabbed her knees. He winced. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to do to make this better. You could always come work at the resort, if you really want a job. But if that isn’t your thing, you know we don’t care if you work or not.”
Corbin grinned at her from above. “I’ve grown fond of your cooking. Beats my minimal BBQ skills any day of the week.”
She frowned. “I’m not spending my life cooking and cleaning for two men, so get that notion out of your head right now.”
“Teasing, babe,” Corbin continued, “Just trying to make you feel better and reinforce the fact that we don’t care if you work or not.”
“I know you don’t.” She groaned. “But working with kids is my passion.”
“How about trying the reservation?” Corbin righted himself and circled to sit on the arm of the chair. “We have more shifters on the rez, tribal members, in fact. I’m betting you’ll find a better reception there.”
“I could do that.” It wasn’t a bad idea.
Zach squeezed her knees. “Rebecca’s human and Caucasian, and she was easily accepted at the hospital where she works as a nurse.”
Laurie chewed her bottom lip. “Okay. I’ll give that a try.”
“In the meantime, how about we go for a run?” Zach stood and hauled Laurie up in front of him by her hands. “There’s still a few more minutes of daylight. We can hit the uninhabited side of the mountain and cover several miles.”
“Who needs daylight?” Corbin asked. “We can go as far as we want. Unless you’ve gotten some sort of nighttime visual impairment,” he teased.
“Ha ha.” Zach headed for the door, dragging Laurie alongside. He grabbed her coat and tossed it to her and then put his own on while Corbin stuffed his arms in his sleeves.
Ten minutes later, they pulled off the road and parked out of sight at the base of a section of the mountain uninhabitable to humans. It was too steep in that area and heavily wooded.
Laurie got excited. She hadn’t shifted since the night she met her mates. In fact, she hadn’t shifted for several weeks before that, either. And she hadn’t run free with them yet. From her spot between the men in the front seat of Corbin’s truck, she tugged off her mittens and then her coat. “If you two don’t hustle, you’ll find a shifted female wolf between you in this car. I’m not going to wait so you can ogle me naked first.” She grinned at Zach and then Corbin.