Laurie’s Wolves(33)

“No. But my family is. You might know my grandmother, Mimi Bartel.”

The woman stopped shuffling papers and frowned. “You’re Joyce’s daughter then?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“So you aren’t full Native American,” she deadpanned.

Laurie shook her head. Who the hell cared if she was half white? “Is that a requirement?”

The woman hesitated. “Not specifically, but we find our families prefer the staff be Native American. It makes their children more comfortable in their surroundings.”

“Uh huh.” Laurie was too stunned to comment. She plastered on a fake smile and thanked the woman for her time.

She had leaden feet when she walked into the next preschool. And she instantly knew she was blacklisted.

Fuck.

The woman who greeted her smiled kindly, but totally fake. She was closer to Laurie in age. She’d been warned of Laurie’s arrival. Seriously? Was this town completely out of their mind? Racism? This was the twenty-first century. How could all these businesses get away with denying her employment because of the mixed color of her skin?

Nevertheless, she gave the woman her spiel and kept her chin up, not willing to admit defeat.

Surprisingly, the woman calmly told her she knew who she was, and instead of insinuating that her clientele didn’t care for mixed race teachers, she sat on the front corner of her desk and peered down at Laurie. “I’ll be honest with you because it doesn’t seem anyone else in this town has the balls to speak straight.”

“I think I get the picture. No one is willing to hire me because my skin isn’t red enough.” Ironically, she was sure her face was a hundred shades of red at the moment.

“Unfortunately that’s true. But it’s more than that. Rumor has it you’re living with two men.”

Laurie swallowed heavily. Dammit.

The woman nodded when she saw her answer on Laurie’s face. If she’d been a shifter, she wouldn’t have found the idea so appalling. Neither would any of the other women she’d spoken to that morning. But the reality was that not every Native American living on the reservation was a shifter. There was only the one tribe on the west side of the rez. The rest of the county was filled with Native Americans who had no idea of the existence of shifters.

And those people were appalled. The Native Americans weren’t simply concerned with the purity of her blood line. They were also worried about her sleeping with two men. And how could she blame them? It was awkward to say the least.

But this was her life now. Right? There wasn’t a damn thing she could do to change it.

“I’ll warn you,” the woman continued, “people around here are shocked. Like wildfire, word is spreading you aren’t the only one living this lifestyle. Rumor has it there’s a group of you. A colony.”

Now Laurie gasped. “That’s crazy. And besides, it’s no one’s business.”

“It is if you want to find a job.” She blew out a breath. “I’m so sorry. I’m just telling you the truth. If I hired you, families would pull their kids out of my school before the end of the week.” She truly did seem regretful, but that didn’t dampen the sting of her words and the reality of their truth.

Shit. Laurie stood. This was a lost cause. She straightened her skirt, smoothing out the invisible wrinkles, and stepped toward the door. “Thanks for your time.” With that she left.

She fought back tears until she got to the car. And then she let them slide down her face.

Corbin was in her head in an instant. “Babe, what happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Like hell, nothing. Talk to me.”

“Later. I’m heading to Melinda’s shop now. Can we discuss this later?” She wasn’t in the mood to hash this stumbling block with Corbin telepathically. Not to mention it would be much easier to tell the story one time.

Tonight. Over dinner. With both men.

They were meeting at Corbin’s place that night. Since Laurie was already in Sojourn and neither she nor Zach had been to his place yet, they’d opted for reconvening there after everyone got off work.

Luckily, Corbin let it go for the time being. “Okay, but please let me know if you need me. I’ll be around Sojourn most of the day.”

“I will.”

»»•««

Jazmine’s hand shook as she held her cell phone to her ear and waited for Mary to pick up. “Come on. Come on…” she muttered. She’d met Mary almost six months ago at a preschool forum, and the two of them had become close friends.

“Hey, Jaz. How’s it going?”

Jazmine blew out a breath. “That woman you mentioned was just here looking for a job.”