Piper LeVine, A Gypsy's Truth

  Chapter Five

  It was not until the burning stopped that it finally registered that the junk he’d put on me was in a bowl from the kitchen.

  He had been walking around the house?

  Those pants I had assumed he had taken from the work hands but maybe not. On top of that I forgot to bring clean, dry clothes with me into the bathroom.

  I put the robe on and opened the door. It wasn’t that I expected to find him waiting for me, but he was not anywhere in my room.

  Was he roaming around again? He could give my poor grandma a heart attack if he startled her. I grabbed a t-shirt off a hanger and shimmied into the first pair of sweats I got a hold of.

  The house was dark when I opened the door, and I didn’t want to turn the lights on and alert Grandma Sidney. I was tiptoeing down the hall when I heard the refrigerator door close. I hustled to the kitchen to see Nicholas holding a side of ham.

  “What are you doing?”

  He took a bite from the ham. “I love ham and I’m hungry.” He took another big bite and caught the dripping juice with the plate he held beneath it. “Did you think that pink dog drop was going to fill my stomach?”

  “Can’t you go hunting?”

  “Not with Ivan lusting after you. You should have told Sidney to fire him. He’ll try to get you alone again.” That sent a shiver through me. I would tell Sidney in the morning that he needed to go. “Come on.” He flipped on the dining room light, and I about panicked.

  My whisper was more of a hiss. “Are you insane? She’ll come out here and see you.”

  “I’ll change back into my small wolf.” He sat down at the table and pushed the seat out next to him. I leaned against the wall, so I would not keep checking out his torso.

  “So, you can change into a bigger wolf? How big?”

  He grinned. “Can’t tell you that, I’d have to show you, and if I did that you’d wake up Sid.”

  “Ch- I would not.” He was three-quarters of the way through the ham. “How much do you eat?” He burped, and I wrinkled my nose. “Where do you come from? Did a wolf bite you?”

  “Watch a lot of television, don’t you?” The light in the hallway flipped on, and Nicholas changed instantly into his small wolf form. I rolled up his pants and stuffed them into my robe.

  “Piper?” Grandma Sidney stepped into the dining room. “Well, honey.” I followed her gaze to the last quarter remaining of the giant ham hanging off the bone. “You must be terribly upset.”

  “I was really hungry.” I would have kicked Nicholas, but he was in the doorway, and his ears were perked up and his back stiff.

  I hugged my robe tighter, hoping she wouldn’t spot the bulge the pants made. “Well, I’m full now.”

  “Maybe we should talk tonight.”

  “But I’m exhausted.” She looked me in the face, and I prayed she did not think I was on drugs on top of everything else. “Yeah, I’m about to fall asleep standing up. I’m so beat.” Deception went down the hallway to my room and out of sight.

  “I was going to check on you, but I didn’t think I’d find you eating cold ham off the bone.” If my grandma wasn’t such a stickler about feeding animals people food, I would have told her it was Deception.

  My grandma talked to me about depression, and then she moved onto a birds and the bee’s refresher, thanks to Rick and that stupid motel scene. When she wrapped that up, she started in on my parents. I did not want to talk about them.

  “Isn’t what we’ve already talked about enough for one night?”

  “No, we’ve already started we might as well finish. What is going on? Your father was saying that you were doing this to get back at him and he knew it. What is he talking about? Did he do something to you, sweetheart? You haven’t been the same since you’ve been back.”

  Deception still had not come back, and I didn’t know what he could be doing. “I know I haven’t been myself. Dad has just decided that I want to embarrass the family. I don’t, and had I known that Rick was driving me to a cheap motel I would not have gotten out of the truck.”

  “I’ll just bet you were furious. You looked it to me in the photos.” She rubbed my back in big circles. “Your grandpa would be calling that young man out on the carpet. I may just call his father tomorrow.”

  “If you really think you should call him, you can. We broke up, so I don’t see the point. It won’t happen again.”

  She sighed. “Did he break your heart, dear?”

  “I don’t break, Grandma. I’m a LeVine.” I squeezed her shoulder as she laughed at me. “What’s funny about that?”

  “We just keep on living, even if we are broken and try to hide those parts of ourselves that no longer work.” She sighed and held onto my hand. “Your dad wants you to come home.”

  There was no way I was leaving. “If he wants me home he’ll have to come get me and we both know he’s too busy to do that.” I kissed her cheek. “Goodnight, Grandma.” I was too afraid she might want me to go home to stay and see if my fears would come true. I jogged down the hallway to my room. Deception was not there.

  He’s the worst dog ever.

  I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I go look for him? Or should I wait until he came back on his own? Maybe he had to go relieve himself. I sat on my bed and leaned up against the headboard. Did he go and meet others like himself? Are there more like him?