Nolan by Kathi S. Barton Page B

answered just the same way. He knew what
they were doing. They were stalling. To leave this room would mean that the
world would be there again, and for just the little while they’d been in here,
things had been perfect.
    “I want you to stop what you’re doing.” He
asked Rylee what she meant. “Stop telling your family that they’ve barged in on
what you were doing. And help them with this. It’s a good thing you’re doing,
but for them, you’re souring it by being a big baby.”
    He supposed he should have been offended by
her comment, but his cat even seemed to approve of her assessment of his
behavior. When he asked her what she was going to do now, he had to wait until
they were out of their little world before she answered him.
    “I’ll help where I can. I don’t know…money
has been something that I have no training with. I mean, I know that you’ve
grown up with it, had it all your life, but I haven’t, and while I know that
this relationship between us is permanent, I need to be my own self and not get
lost in you.”
    “You think I’d do that to you?” She nodded.
“I would never try to make you something that you don’t want to be, Rylee. You
may not believe this, but I’m falling in love with you.”
    “I have nothing to say about that. I mean,
I’ve known a few shifters so I know that you tend to fall in love quickly. But
I’m not one of you, and I have a responsibility to Shane to make sure he’s
taken care of too.” He thought about telling her what he and Joey had done, but
decided now wasn’t the time. She wasn’t mad at him, but he knew that she was
overwhelmed. “And then there is David.”
    “David Cole?” She nodded. Well, he supposed,
now was as good a time as ever. “Don’t get mad, but Joey has contacted David’s
great grandmother about some things that he’s said about your sister. Did you
know that he’s claiming that your sister had affairs while they were married,
and that he thinks she died from that, not cancer?”
    “I knew. And I made a promise to Shelby that
I’d never hurt him so long as she was alive. I don’t think she meant to keep me
to that promise, but after she got sick, I made sure that it was never brought
up again. I didn’t want her to change her rules.” He smiled. “What have you and
Joey done that I might have to kill you both for?”
    “So you know, you can’t hurt me. But Joey?
He’s all yours. He got a DNA test from Mrs. Cole. She’s going to make her own
rules, I think, concerning David.” Rylee asked him what sort of rules as they
made their way down the hallway again. “I don’t know. But Joey said that she’s
a hoot and that she might have already figured out how to help you two.”
    “I don’t want her help. I just…he should
acknowledge his son. Even going so far as to make sure that he has what he
needs, should he want to go to college. But I’m not asking for a handout.” He
knew she was upset, so didn’t tell her he was pretty sure there was going to be
something coming their way. For all he knew, and he really didn’t believe it,
there might not be a match anyway. “I’ll talk to her if it comes to that. But I
just want David to tell Shane he’s sorry for what he did to him and his mom,
and mean it.”
    “Do you think that will happen?” She said not
without a little help. “So you’re going to rough him up a bit, are you?”
    “Nah. I’m going to tear his dick off and
serve it up to him if he finds that he can’t do what I want.” She stopped at
the doorway to the outside and turned to him. “The school called me. Mr.
Simpson wants to have a meeting. I have a feeling that it’s not going to go any
better with him than it will with David. I was wondering if you’d go with me.”
    “As a physician or as a cat? Either one will
work for me so long as I get to record it.” She laughed with him as they moved
out into the sunshine.
    “Man for now. But the other two if he causes
me to get pissy with