“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
Burke turned and dragged his golden gaze up and down her legging-clad, UGG boot-wearing body. “It was a long time ago.”
“How long?”
“Seven years. I’m finally feeling steady again.”
She didn’t know why that made her heart so sad. Seven years. Seven years, it took for him to feel steady again, and she realized she really didn’t know how it was for shifters, other than the basics she’d researched when Leslie had paired up with Kieran. “I thought you were only allowed to Turn one mate in a lifetime,” she whispered.
“Yeah.” His smile was so sad. “That’s what I meant about being scared of dying before I’ve really lived. I spent my Turn card, and she moved on and found a husband. She Turned him, and now they have two cubs, while I’m stuck here. Alone.”
Her heart felt shredded. That was his future? To be alone for always? A woman had done that to him? Lion shifters mated for life, and she’d left him?
“I’m sorry,” she murmured.
Another sad smile. “Don’t be.” He pushed her jacket off her shoulders and pulled the hoodie over her sweater. “Everything is as it is supposed to be.”
And that right there told her of the type of man he was. He didn’t hold a grudge or let a tragedy rule his life. He just bore the weight on his shoulders and marched on. Here they stood in the snow, two people who had lost the person they were supposed to be with forever. Braden would move on and be happy. Burke’s mate had already moved on and was happy, but what about them? What about each of them?
“Don’t be weirded out,” he said, “but I’m going to take a picture of you. This is a historic day. Kimberly Wilson is wearing UGGs and a hoodie and leggings.”
She inhaled the frigid air and struck a pose as he lifted his phone and took a picture. “Do I look okay?” she asked.
He turned his camera and showed her the picture. “You know what my favorite part of this picture is?” he asked.
“What?”
Burke zoomed into her face. “It’s that smile. It’s a real one.”
He was right. How long since she had seen that smile on her face? It wasn’t posed or frozen there for the perfect Wilson picture. Or the fancy professional ones she’d had done with Braden every year at Christmas time. It was just here in a parking lot, dressed casually, out in the snow beside an old jacked-up Bronco, grinning from ear-to-ear at a man who was snapping the picture.
The UGGs and the leggings and the hoodie weren’t the biggest gift Burke had given her.
It was the feeling inside her chest and the beaming smile on her lips.
It was the feeling that, for a minute, everything was okay.
Chapter Six
Bison hash was amazing.
Kimberly, however, couldn’t fit a full pound of it into her body. She’d done well to eat two-thirds of the meal. “I can’t physically finish this,” she told Burke in between stories of him and Kieran growing up as little lion shifter hellions.
“You did good,” he murmured, sliding the remainder of her food in front of him. He began eating the remnants of her dinner without question, and she loved it. Loved the familiarity of him finishing her food for her without shaming her for ordering more than she could eat.
Kimberly stretched her legs under the table and fidgeted with an unpainted moose ornament someone had left on the table. Outside, snow was falling but in Leslie’s little pottery shop, it was warm and safe and comfortable. Perhaps the good company added to that atmosphere.
“Okay, Kimberly’s turn,” Burke said. “What shit can you tell us about Leslie growing up?”
Dread filled her stomach. There weren’t any funny stories. There were a dozen memories where Leslie had looked sad, though. “We weren’t close like that,” Kimberly murmured.
Leslie’s smile was slow and soft when she crossed her arms. “When I was ten and Kimberly was fourteen, she came into my room one night, said she was sneaking out of the house, and not to tell. She asked if she could borrow one of my shirts.”
“Oh, my God, I remember this,” Kimberly uttered. She was shocked that Leslie remembered. God, she wished she hadn’t. Kimberly had been a terrible older sister and she hated where this story would end up. She’d yelled at her for all her clothes being ugly and then yelled at her the next morning because Leslie had tattled on her.
“Kimberly grabbed my favorite shirt from the closet, took a pair of scissors to it, and cut it into a crop-top. She snuck out to meet up with this idiot boy who was throwing rocks at my window so hard, I thought it would shatter. She left, and I stayed up all night, paranoid that Mom and Dad would figure out she was gone. Kimberly’s room was right across the hall from mine, so I kept my door open a crack to see if Mom or Dad checked on her. I stayed up all night. I started to think she’d gotten away with it until Beth went into her room for a stash of candy bars Kimberly kept hidden under her bed. She came into my room and asked me where Kimberly was. I told her she was in the bathroom. I didn’t know what else to say. I was the worst liar. So, she punched me in the arm before she checked the bathroom and came back yelling that Kimberly had run away. She woke up Mom and Dad, and then they all asked me where Kimberly was. I told them you had a stomachache and had to use the bathroom downstairs. So right around the time they were searching the bathroom, Kimberly came home, and everyone freaked out. There was yelling, and I think Mom cried.”
“Yeah, because you tattled on me.”
“I didn’t tattle. I told everyone you had diarrhea downstairs. Beth was the little bloodhound trying to discover your whereabouts.”
“Wait…what?”
“Yeah. I never gave up that you’d snuck out. I was stressed as hell trying to cover for you. I remember how mad you were at me, but I didn’t understand why. You threw my cut-up shirt at me, but after that fight, I wore it sometimes. It was so cute I wore it when I wanted to feel pretty because you had looked so good in it. You were so cool. You were my big sister.”
Kimberly was stunned into silence. She’d always held a grudge against Leslie for ratting her out, but she hadn’t. She’d gone up against Mom, who was terrifying when they were kids, and Dad and Beth. She’d tried to cover for her and still looked up to her even after Kimberly had been so angry with her.
She couldn’t feel any lower than she did right now. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“It’s okay,” Leslie said softly.
“No, it’s not. I’m so, so sorry. I was a shitty big sister.”
Leslie’s eyes filled with emotion, and she shrugged up a shoulder. “I still thought you were cool, Kimberly. You were pretty and well-spoken and you were so good at managing everyone’s attention. I wished I could be more like you.”
Kimberly’s eyes burned with tears. “And now look, Leslie. It’s me who wants to be more like you.”
Leslie set her beer on the table and stood, pulled Kimberly up out of her chair, and hugged her tighter than Kimberly had ever been hugged before. “Everything is okay. I’m still proud you are my big sister.”
“Why?” she asked thickly.