“Did you?” she asked, not acknowledging that he was only here out of pity. That somehow only made all of this worse.
“Yes and no. I was out at the junkyard looking for a part. I didn’t find one, but my guy got on the line with someone he knows and they’ve got a line on one for me. I should have it tomorrow.”
“That’s good. You said Marshall is gone. It doesn’t seem that someone like him would just bail on something he wanted, especially if he had plans like you said.”
“Well, he wasn’t so keen to hang around after our little chat when I returned.”
“I see,” she replied. She was hugely curious, but she didn’t want to act like it.
“This steak is delicious,” he told her, apparently accepting that she wasn’t much for conversation.
Finishing up, he helped her clear away the dishes. The silence between them was awkward as they emptied plates and put them in the dishwasher. When they were done, she excused herself to go upstairs, intent on toying with the tablet she had purchased earlier. After the day’s events, she just needed to wind down a bit before the twins were up again. She had missed their playtime earlier, so she’d not get much time with them before bedtime, other than their night-time feeding.
A part of her hoped that Tucker would come in, that he would say something that would change how she felt, but she couldn’t really say how that was. It was odd, but all she could really grasp was that she felt incredibly sad. It enveloped her like a dark shroud. She focused her time instead on downloading some books onto her Kindle app and catching up on her reading. Soon, she hoped to begin taking classes, but she wanted to wait until her work here was done and the girls were just a bit older so that she could concentrate on her studies.CHAPTER SIXTEENLeslie woke up feeling like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Somewhere in the night, a dam had burst within her and she woke to the sunlight streaming in her window. She laid there, looking at it for a moment, surprised that the girls weren’t yet awake. Though Marla would be here by now, she should have heard them over the monitor.
She stepped out of the bed, putting on her robe and slippers to walk next door. She was surprised to find it empty. A sense of panic flooded over her as she hurried down to Marla’s room to see if she were there. Finding it empty, she ran downstairs, only to find that the girls were all spread out on a large blanket in the floor, laughing and reaching for the toys hanging from several jungle gyms.
“I didn’t even hear them crying,” she said to Marla as she stepped inside the door.
Marla sat in a nearby chair, flipping through a magazine while she watched them play. She smiled up at Leslie as she entered.
“They didn’t. I came in to find them all just lying awake in their cribs, cooing back and forth to one another. It was the oddest thing. I was feeding them when Tucker came in. He turned off the monitor and said to let you sleep in for a bit.”
“Where did the jungle gyms come from?”
“Tucker bought them. He said he had them in his other car when it broke down and forgot to get them out. He brought them home last night and put them together as a surprise for when you got up.”
Leslie looked a bit confused for a moment, wondering what this was all about - what it meant.
“Is something wrong?” Marla asked.
“No, not at all. Thanks.”
Though Marla was aware that she and Tucker kept separate bedrooms, she wasn’t aware that their marriage was fake. She had been told that it was just easier with the feedings this way, so that Tucker didn’t have to get up during the night when he had so much work to do. It would come across as misogynistic to a human, but in the shifter world, it was just accepted that women were the primary caregiver for their children. It was the reason there had been no questions about Leslie having spent the night in Tucker’s room recently. Marla would have just assumed such things would happen between man and wife.
“Where is he?” she asked.
“He’s gone. He said he had to meet a guy with a part for the car and get it fixed this morning. He said to tell you that he’d be back to pick you up after lunch so that you could join him for the family confirmation of him as Alpha.”
“Oh, of course. I forgot that was today. I’ll need to have the triplets ready.”
“No. He said there was no need to bring them for this.”