Quiver arrowed book 3, p.5
Quiver (Arrowed Book 3), page 5
I laughed in embarrassment and moved out of bed to brush my teeth. When I had returned from the bathroom, I found him looking at my pin board where I’d displayed the photos of me and all my friends on vacation. “Check out the window to see if my dad’s car is there,” I instructed him as I dove into my dresser for a fresh t shirt to wear.
“He’s here,” he reported after he’d moved to the window.
“You know what that means,” I prompted forebodingly.
“I have to jump out and go ring the doorbell,” he answered with a roll of his eyes. He may not have minded the jumping out part, but I knew it bothered him to pretend to my father that he hadn’t just been upstairs.
“Just think,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck, “When I have my own place you won’t need to deal with this charade or the awkward conversation if he gets to the door before me.”
“I’m warming up to the idea more and more every second.”
➹➹➹
Noah
I stopped by the truck for a change of clothes and a mint before attempting to re-enter the house. I was still trying to grasp the idea of Sophie living alone. I had just always pictured her moving in with me when she left her dad’s place, that her second home in Montana would be her forever home, and that we’d be married or at least engaged. I never considered she’d want to live on her own first, because it wasn’t a part of most Arrowed couples’ timeline. Did she really crave that much independence?
Not only that, but to picture her alone in her own place made me fear for her safety. What if a burglar broke in and I wasn’t there? She may have only just been saying ‘day or night,’ but if Sophie was living on her own, I was going to be there as often as possible. Not only that, I was going to buy her the best security system. Our small town wasn’t dangerous by any means, but I wasn’t going to take any chances.
Sophie was there to answer the door when I returned, and I was grateful not to have a forced conversation with her dad.
“He’s in the shower,” she explained, locking the door behind her as she joined me on the stoop. “Where are we going to eat, by the way? Yours, or Bean?”
“Let’s get bagels at Bean,” I replied. Out of our usual spots, Bean There Done That was a personal favorite. I loved the food and coffee there, but mostly I enjoyed taking the opportunity to show Sophie off to the town in the most popular spot on the main street. She was so gorgeous; I’d never stop wanting to brag that she was mine.
“Sounds good to me,” she said, getting up on her tiptoes to kiss me quickly. Immediately, I pulled her back in again in for more than just a peck, when a ping sound came from her phone and stole her attention.
We started walking towards the truck as she kept her eyes down on her phone. She was frowning slightly as her fingers typed at a furious rate. Whoever she was speaking to was getting a long message.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she assured me with a nod, hopping into the truck. “Well, actually, I don’t know,” she said a second later, scratching her head.
I smiled at her indecisiveness. “Care to elaborate?”
“Mollie called me last night and told me that Tristan was mugged last week.”
Immediately, my blood boiled at the mention of his name. Tristan. The city slicker tool who had the audacity to think he stood a chance with my girl. Sophie had assured me they remained platonic throughout the vacation, but I had my doubts. It was impossible not to fall for her, and before the guy even met her he assumed that they were going to be together. He had to have romantic intentions.
“He was mugged?” I tried to sound concerned, “Is he okay?”
“Maybe? That’s what I don’t get,” she said, “he hasn’t mentioned it to me.”
“You talk to him?” I had to work to steady my tone, she hadn’t mentioned this to me before and I was upset at the realization he wasn’t out of our lives for good.
“Yes, we’re friends,” she said slowly, emphasizing the final word of her statement, “I’m glad we kept in touch.”
“Are you sure he was even mugged? Mollie loves to tell a story.”
“She was telling the truth this time, with no exaggeration,” she insisted, “I just don’t know why he hasn’t talked to me about it. He’s pretending like it didn’t happen.”
He probably just wants to look macho in front of you, I thought. “Maybe he doesn’t need to talk about it,” I said out loud instead.
“Maybe.” She sat back in her seat with a huff, “I don’t know, it’s frustrating. He’s not letting any of us be there for him. Which means it was really serious and he’s not handling it well.”
“Or, it means he’s used to dangers of the city life and doesn’t want to dwell on it,” I argued.
“Not everyone is as tough as you,” she said, giving my shoulder a squeeze, “Some people need to talk about the trauma they go through.”
I was silent as I contemplated this. I would need to talk about the battle— someday. It wasn’t that I was tough and had already gotten over it, I just didn’t feel ready to digest it yet.
We swiftly picked up our bagels and coffee and headed back out on the road toward the ranch. I drove with the windows down, enjoying the nice weather. Sophie’s hair whipped around her face like a wildfire, but her smile told me she didn’t mind. I was both excited and nervous to teach her how to ride a motorbike. I loved being able to give her new experiences, but at the same time, motorbikes were dangerous. I didn’t want her to get hurt. We didn’t have the best track record with motor vehicles, given that fact that I caused her car crash the time I jumped out in front of her. I had to ensure things would go much differently this time.
“Alright let’s do this,” she said once we got in the garage. She clapped her hands and rubbed them together.
“Easy, girl, first things first”— I walked over to a shelf and pulled off a helmet— “Lesson Number One: ‘The Importance of Safety.’”
She rolled eyes. “Nope, sorry,” she declared, “I’m not risking the helmet hair.”
“It’s non-negotiable, I’m afraid,” I replied, not at all sorry.
“If I wear one of these, you wear one of these.” She crossed her arms and met my eyes, daring me to make a comment again about how a helmet was futile for a shifter.
Instead, I shrugged and placed it right on top of my head. It was two sizes too small and I knew I looked completely ridiculous, but it was worth seeing her eyes soften at the gesture.
“One for me, one for you, then,” I said, handing her another.
She bit back a smile as I placed it on her head and buckled the straps beneath her chin.
“Okay,” she said, putting my hands on my hips and pushing me playfully, “What’s lesson two?”
I lightly bumped my helmet against hers before pulling out a motorbike from the rack. It was one my favorites, and I secretly wondered whether I should be giving my clumsy girl one of Frankie’s bikes instead.
“Lesson Two is ‘The Basics,’” I said, pulling the bike out of the garage and taking it over to a patch of safe, even ground.
She followed me and quickly lifted a leg to mount it. I threw out a hand to stop her, causing her to stumble backward.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked.
“Getting on? Learning ‘the basics?’” she replied as if it were obvious.
“Sophia Rose,” I scolded, “You can’t just mount it, you’ve got to get to know it first.”
She blushed and I failed to hide my responding smirk.
“Stop being a jerk and just teach me,” she said, shoving my arm and sitting on the seat in protest.
I obliged and walked through the different parts of the bike: the clutch, the gas, the kick-starter. Then I reviewed safe practices for good measure.
“Oh my God,” she groaned, after I reviewed the safety pointers a third time, “I get it. Let me get my vroom vroom on!” She flexed her fingers on the handlebars for emphasis and rocked the bike back and forth in excitement.
“There will be no vroom vroom, dear,” I said with my sternest instructor voice, “You will go at a glacial pace until you are completely comfortable, and then you may go up to 10 mph.”
“Call me dear one more time, and I’ll take off as fast as this baby will go— whether you have time to move out of the way or not,” she spoke through her teeth while her honey eyes flared. She hated that term of endearment, and I loved to use it to ruffle her feathers.
I bit back a smile at her ferocity.
“What do we have here?” a voice interrupted us.
I turned with a smile at the sound, seeing Ma walking over to where we were positioned outside the garage. She was dressed in real clothes and her hair was pulled up into a tight bun.
“Adeline!” Sophie removed her helmet and dismounted, suddenly no longer interested in ‘taking off.’ “It’s so good to see you!”
She ran over to meet her and they hugged, making my stomach flip. Seeing Sophie and my mother get along so well was overwhelming for the Arrow.
“Riding lessons?” Ma asked, when they separated. She held an arm around Sophie’s back as they made their way back over.
“If you could call it that. He’s barely even let me turn on the ignition,” Sophie lamented with a roll of her eyes.
“That’s the final step.” I crossed my arms in disapproval.
“The final step should be to ride,” Ma retorted, “This poor girl won’t learn anything from you if you act like such a scaredy-cat.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying!” Sophie agreed.
I looked between the two of them, feeling ganged up on. Maybe their budding relationship wasn’t without its downsides.
“Let me know if Mr. Motocross here keeps you on the kick stand,” Ma told her before sending a wink in my direction, “I’ll show you how to really ride. It’s been some time, but I’ve got a feeling I still got it.”
“Thank you,” Sophie said, smiling smugly, “I’d love that!”
“Heck, I’ll even teach you,” Benji’s voice came from the shadows of the garage. We all turned to see my annoying younger cousin sitting in a chair, spinning a spare wheel. He let out a loud huff. “This is boring as hell.”
“Who asked you to watch?” I shouted to him. How long had he even been there?
He ignored me and turned to Sophie. “When him and Frankie taught me, they barely even ran through the braking system. Just slapped me on the ass and sent me on my way.”
“I didn’t slap his ass,” I murmured to her. I raised my voice to him, “That’s because you’re so brain damaged we figured a crash couldn’t do you any worse!”
“Let me teach you,” he continued, ignoring me again, “I’ll show you the ride of your life.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and despite her amused laugh, I felt my blood begin to boil. He was always overstepping his boundaries and being too flirtatious her, and all because he knew it bothered me.
“So, Sophie, when do you start school?” Ma asked conversationally.
“Next Monday,” she replied, turning away from Benji who had mounted a bike and was rocking it back and forth with exaggerated body rolls.
“We should have a dinner,” Ma said, glancing to me for approval, “Sunday.”
I nodded fervently. “Yeah, Ma! That’s a great idea!”
“Oh, wow, thank you! That’s too much.” Sophie raised her hands to her cheeks in embarrassed gratitude.
“Nonsense,” Ma replied, “First day of classes is an occasion to celebrate. We used to do it with Noah every year, I say we keep the tradition going.”
“That’s so sweet,” Sophie insisted, “Thank you.”
“Of course,” Ma said with a wave of her hand, “This is what family does.”
A sudden crash caught our attention and we all turned to find Benji on the floor, crouched over in pain. He must have tried to step up his dance routine with a more complicated move, and had clumsily fallen in the process. The bike hit him directly between the legs and he was moaning from the immense pain.
“Sunday’s good for me,” Sophie said, turning back to Ma as if she’d seen nothing out of the ordinary.
“Lovely.”
Chapter Six
Sophia
I leaned my back against the counter and fought my umpteenth yawn. Work was exceptionally slow, and Mark’s parents had put him on restocking duty so I was all alone at the front of the store, dying of boredom.
Shifts without Mark by my side were miserable. I was beginning to question what had even attracted me to the job in the first place. At the time, I guessed I was just hoping to settle into a routine in a new town. I thought the best way to build a sense of a home was to do simple work that felt normal and predictable. After all the events the summer had delivered, I was surprisingly starting to feel more attracted to the danger and excitement.
My phone buzzed from my vest pocket and I pulled it out hastily, grateful for the distraction.
Tristan had invited me to play another round of our favorite word game. As happy as I was to have something to do, it bothered me that he wanted to play games instead of talk about the mugging.
Maybe we weren’t as close as I’d originally thought.
When I told him how well the conversation with my dad had gone, he was immediately so supportive. I wanted so badly to do the same for him. I was tempted to say, “Yup, moving out is a big scary change. How about you? Anything big happen in your life recently, something also scary perhaps?”
I refrained because I knew I couldn’t force him to tell me about it. There was a reason he hadn’t confided in me, and whatever it was I had to respect it. I also didn’t want to get Mollie in trouble for gossiping (even though she was infamous for it already).
Transparency in my relationships was becoming increasingly important. After the drawn-out battle for truth with Noah, I was tired of secret sand people around me hiding things from me. Things were so much better when the ugly truth was out there in the open. It wasn’t always easy, but ultimately, it was better. I didn’t want to push Tristan, but I didn’t think I could keep myself from at least acknowledging the truth much longer.
“How’re you holding up?” Mark asked, hopping up on the conveyor belt at his station. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
“Your parents are really putting you to work, huh?” I asked, fighting a smile at his reddened cheeks. The poor guy was out of breath.
“I hate slow days,” he moaned, “I can’t wait for school to start.”
“I’m pretty excited for that too,” I agreed, “I miss having something to read every night.”
“That’s not what I meant at all,” he disagreed, scrunching up his nose, “I meant I’m excited for a more packed social calendar and a less packed work schedule.”
“Oh, right,” I said, waggling my eyebrows in mockery, “Parties.”
“Hey, we may not be the Big Apple, but we can get pretty crazy here,” he insisted, “Just you wait until the Fall Ball, you’ll see.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
His eyebrows shot up. “You don’t know? I figured Akemi would have told you about it by now, and that you’d even have your dresses and purses picked out already.”
“So, it’s like a function?” I pressed, getting a little more excited. As clumsy of a dancer as I was, I loved going to campus events at school in New York. I loved dressing up with Wes and Mollie, and taking over the dance floor with our ridiculous moves.
“It’s a formal dance to celebrate the start of the semester,” he explained, “but don’t let the dress code fool you. It’s been coined the ‘Fall Over Ball’ for a reason— it gets wild.”
“Oh, wow,” I replied, acting impressed to humor him. I wasn’t one to get sloppy while drinking, but I enjoyed watching others make a fool of themselves.
“What’s ‘wow?’” I heard a familiar voice come from behind us.
I turned with excitement to see Noah coming over to my checkout aisle with an apple in his hand.
“Just this, please,” he said simply, placing it down on the conveyor belt.
“What are you doing here?” I asked in excitement, running around the counter to jump in his arms. He laughed, lifting me up and spinning me around. By our vehement enthusiasm for each other, you’d think we hadn’t just seen each other in the morning.
“I wrapped up a riding lesson and was hungry for a snack before I hit the course with Milo,” he replied with a shrug when he placed me back on the ground.
“You couldn’t just head to the kitchen?” I inquired with a smirk.
“No way,” he disagreed, “This is the best spot to get an apple.”
“Thank you,” Mark spoke up on behalf of his parents.
Noah turned to him and gave him a weak nod of recognition before returning to me with a smile. “So…what’s so ‘wow?’”
“Mark was just telling me all about the Fall Ball,” I explained, moving to resume my post behind the counter. I didn’t want to just stand in front of Mark while locked in an embrace with my boyfriend.
“Ah,” Noah replied knowingly with a nod, casually tossing the apple from one hand to another. He didn’t seem too enthusiastic over the idea.
“I’m sure you’ve gotten your fill of it,” Mark commented, clearly getting the same sense of nonchalance.
“Never went to it,“ Noah replied with a shrug.
Mark scowled with judgment but the more I gave it some thought the more it made sense to me. Dating casually or fraternizing too closely with humans was extremely discouraged in the shifter world, and without a soulmate to speak of Noah simply didn’t have a date to bring. It was hard to imagine him and Milo going to a dance as solo bachelors.
“Would you want to go this year?” I asked him, trying to keep my excitement at bay in case it wasn’t something he’d be interested in.
“Are you asking me to a dance?” His eyes sparkled as he leaned over the counter. “This weakly? Without a written sign, flowers, or flash mob?”
