Saw him shove a fork full of squash into his mouth and chew it, all unhappy like. Burst out laughing at his ‘I’m eating it’ expression, so hilarious, he could always make them laugh, even Harper was chortling at his antics.
She sank down on the lounge next to him, nudged him “You know, you and Aspen need carbs as well as protein to grow up big and strong.”
“Your just trying to make me eat stupid vegetables.” he muttered.
“There good for you.”
“But taste like crap.” He muttered as he put more in his mouth and screwed his face up to show he didn’t like it.
Piper just laughed again, she did try to cater to his needs and only bought vegetables that she knew he would actually eat. Never bought green beans, or any beans for that matter. The boy wouldn’t touch them, regardless of bribery, so she just didn’t buy them.
She retired to her studio to work some more after Brandon went to bed that night, would have to get up and go into the store first thing for Miss Whitmore’s appointment and hoped the girl was over her tantrum from being put off last weekend, to this weekend.
The dress she had ordered was complete.
Unless the girl had put on weight, that was, she’d insisted on a skin-tight gown and it had been adjusted twice now due to her weight change. This would be the last time. If no alteration was necessary, the girl could take it home with her and then she was on her own.
Sat sewing beads into the dress she was currently working on until nearly 2 in the morning, before putting it back on the mannequin, finished it completely, stood and looked at it, smiled to herself, it had turned out lovely and she just knew that the young bride was going to love it, Hope was a sweet natured 25 year old girl, a medical student with lots of debt ahead of her, this dress was a luxury for her, and her parents unbeknownst to her had saved every spare penny for her wedding dress and so she had gotten exactly what she wanted. She would take it into the store tomorrow and call her to tell her it was completed.
Actually recalled Hope crying when her parents had told her she could have any dress in the store she wanted, that they had saved well for her wedding day. She was their only child and they wanted her to have a beautiful day. Piper had thought it was very sweet, and had given them a 15% discount on the dress to help them out, with the actual wedding, they’d tried to refuse her. She’d shrugged it off with a smile. It didn’t bother her, and it was her store, her choice.
Was woken by Brandon at the c0ck of dawn and he was dressed and ready to go for a run, all super excited, yelling at her to get her butt out of bed. She could see Aspen was up and awake the flicker of white in his eyes while they were bouncing around, he was ready for that who’s faster challenge, she got up and dressed in her gym gear, tossed him a Nashi pear for a snack before their run “out in the woods today?”
“Sure and Aspen is going to kick your bvtt mum.” He was grinning so excitedly, likely his wolf was itching for the challenge.
Harper pushed forward and looked right at him, saw Aspen push forward and she taunted him playfully, “Bring it on son.” she grinned right at him.
The second they were done eating, they were out the back door and down the stairs to their small yard, which had four long stone stairs that led straight out into the woods. They had been running in the woods together for a while now, had a nice warn in track from their house that wound through the woods beyond their house all the way down to the Gaf Meadows Park, down to Morgans Run Park and then back again.
Aspen was fast but only young and Harper could keep up with him quite easily, and then once back inside the Emerald Estate Park woods she shot ahead of him, laughing. Heard him actually snarl at her in his displeasure at her running by him and leaving him behind. She’d been holding back and now he knew it.
They stood at the threshold of their property line and grinned right at him. Aspen and Brandon both looked more than annoyed, only made her and Harper chuckle “To slow young man.” She teased him and tossled his hair.
“You got too much practice” Brandon muttered.
“Awe, come on. Aspens only a boy, he’ll grow strong and faster with time. Then one day he will be able to out run me in a heart beat. I imagine,” she’d smiled down at them “You want to go another lap?”
Saw him actually consider it, saw Aspen look right at her, snort and then just stalk off still in control of Brandon’s body. Guess not. She strolled after him, to shower and ready for the day.
He still seemed annoyed at breakfast, but even Harper was happy right this minute, seemed her day had been made, having Aspen challenge her, she really liked it, enjoyed her first real wolfen interaction with her son, the first real interaction with another wolf, she was happy about, since they were 18.
Both she and Harper did know that Brandon and Aspen would out run them at some point. The boy had Alpha genes, so the minute he shifted for the first time, would likely be when he could out run them, wondered if Aspen already knew that, what he was, an Alpha Wolf, might just leave that one alone unless they brought it up. It was likely though, she thought, he had come forward to protect her from another Alpha.
Drove out of her driveway and got that weird feeling she was being watched again, though she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, lived in a house on the corner of two cul-de-sac’s and she saw no unusual cars on the streets, just the usual neighbours about as well, waved and smiled at them as she drove by, and away from her house, even checked the review mirror saw nothing near the house.
Shook it off as just being paranoid, her house and car were registered to her natural name, not attached to her business in anyway, just like Brandon’s last name. Everything away from the business was under Whitlock, but no-one knew that was her real last name, so it was fine.
She also didn’t drive anything super fancy that would draw attention to herself, owned a Nissan Roque, had laughed at it when she’d seen one, thought it was apt, checked it out and found it had lots of cargo space, which was good for her to transport supplies around, and she liked the motion activated lift gate, came in real handy at times.
There was plenty of seating space for driving Brandon and his friends’ places as well.
Dropped Brandon off at his friend Tyson’s place for the boys’ birthday party, told him to have nice time and then quietly reminded him not to let Aspen appear, he’d looked right at her as if to say’ I’m not dumb you know.’ before getting out of the car to head into the party. Drove to her store and parked in the car park a few blocks away like she always did and walked the rest of the way to her store.
Though it was really starting to get weird now, and her paranoia was worse, constantly felt like she was being watched, even Harper was all bristled up inside her mind, knew whatever or whoever it was, that they had been sensing now since yesterday, here at the store and today at their home, this couldn’t be good. Piper didn’t think Bradley would be so pissed off as to track her and send someone outside of her work place.
Though Izzy had said Mr Yummy, had tried to get her to give him her home address. Not that Izzy had done so. Smiled at the thought that lzzy had just wanted to punch him in the face, she was stubborn. Must have ticked Edward off too. There weren’t many that could resist a Gamma and his Charm, especially not a human woman.
A part of her wished she’d been there to actually see it, another part of her wondered what Edward himself made of it. A Gamma’s ability never worked on their own Mate. Just made them irritated, that their Mate would try to sway them into getting what they wanted, and that was how it did appear that Izzy had reacted to him.
Izzy had also told Piper that she had been drawn to the man. Every time that he had walked passed the store window, she couldn’t help herself but look at him. Poor woman could well be his human Mate. She had no idea, hoped not, that would cause Piper and Harper more trouble.
If she was Edwards Mate, Edward would not only take lzzy away but would have her pledge loyalty to Bradley and then that man could pull any and all information out of lzzy where Piper was concerned, if he so chose too.
Walked into her office and headed downstairs, the store was already open, said good morning to the 3 staff already in the store, Laura, who would be taking over from lzzy as the store manager in a months’ time, when they went to Australia, Clare and Dianne, the two girls working on the floor today. There were already customers in the store along with their families to help the women pick out the dress she was looking for.
Piper placed the dress she had finished last night, in the back. It was already in a sealed gown bag and had the owner’s name on it. Then collected the two wedding dresses from that section and moved them to the front of the store so they would be easily accessible when her clients got there, one for the final payment to be made and picked up and one for the final fitting, which she was hoping for no more adjustments.
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