Around four o’clock, two pups showed up. Both teenagers. One was Kristan, the daughter of Maylin, and the other Johnny, wolf and adopted son of Jess. Much bigger than any of the dogs who currently ruled Johnny’s life, Gwen wondered if the pup appreciated that Jess had married another wolf. Maybe he felt a little less alone? Gwen could relate after having spent her whole life surrounded by lions who were much taller and never understood Gwen’s desire to not constantly hang out with her cousins.
Not surprisingly, Kristan eventually wandered over to Gwen and started chatting with her. Like fellow wolfdog Blayne, Kristan was a happy girl with a big smile, but Gwen also felt a kinship to the sixteen-year-old canine because they were both half Asian. Although Gwen knew more about her Irish side and her ancient druid relatives who may have liberated the people of their small village from the Romans or…uh…enslaved them. It wasn’t really clear, and it depended on who you talked to.
None of that mattered to Gwen and Kristan because, just as it was between Gwen and Blayne, they were outsiders among outsiders, making them instant allies. So before Gwen knew it, she’d grabbed what Blayne called her “magic case,” which held all of Gwen’s favorite hair and beauty products, wet the teen’s multicolored wild dog hair and, with the reluctant blessing of her mother, Gwen began to remove a lot of the length to give Kristan’s hair more body and shape and make her look more like she was sixteen rather than twelve.
While Gwen worked with a blow-dryer and curling iron, Kristan sitting at her feet, one of the wild dogs pulled out his MP3 player and attached it to speakers. Great eighties music pumped while Blayne had fun on her skates with a few of the other wild dogs on their skateboards.
“She’s good, isn’t she?” Kristan asked, not even bothering with the mirror Gwen had given her to watch the progress of her hair. Her immediate trust in Gwen was humbling, if not daunting.
“She’s very good. She’ll get even better.”
“Are you on the team, too?”
“Me? Nah.”
“How come? I bet you two would make an awesome team. And you guys could have your own nicknames like the Terrible Twosome or the Battling Bitches.”
Laughing, Gwen finished with the curling iron, unplugging it before setting it aside to cool. “Oh, yeah. That sounds like us.”
“I’m serious!” Of course, she was serious. Wolfdogs were always serious, even when they had no idea what they were talking about.
Gwen worked her hands through Kristan’s hair, playing with the curls until they fell the way she wanted them to. She stood and walked around, crouching in front of her. She fussed with the multicolored locks for a bit longer, wondering how long before Kristan would start dyeing her hair so she didn’t stick out as much.
Leaning back and looking Kristan over, Gwen had to admit she’d done a pretty good job.
Gwen picked up the mirror and held it up for her. “What do you think?”
Kristan glanced at herself, began to smile pleasantly and look away, but her gaze shot back and she snatched the mirror from Gwen. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God! I look amazing!” She jumped to her feet, forcing Gwen to scramble out of her way.
“Mom! Oh, my God, look!”
May’s hands covered her mouth as she stared at her oldest daughter. “You look—”
“Older,” Blayne muttered in Gwen’s ear after she’d rolled up behind her.
“It had to happen sometime,” Gwen muttered back.
“Yeah, but that young pup over there is a lot more fascinated with her than he was when he walked in.” The friends peered over at Johnny, and Gwen had to bite back her smile. Blayne was right. He was really interested. Kristan threw her arms around Gwen’s neck. “Thank you so much! I love it! You’re a miracle worker!”
“I always thought so,” a voice said from the doorway and both Gwen and Blayne went tense.
Looking over her shoulder, Gwen stared at her mother and—betraying bastard, son of a bitch, hope he burns in hell—Mitch.
With a walk that made men stop whatever they were doing to watch, Roxy O’Neill sauntered over, her purse swinging from her hand, her hips moving from side to side. To anyone who didn’t know her, she looked too busy being sexy to be worried about anything else.
But Gwen knew her.
Drawing her hands through Kristan’s hair, Roxy nodded in approval. “Nice. Very nice. It fits her face and lets her look her age rather than too young or too old. You’ve always had an eye, baby-girl.”
Looking around, Roxy smiled. “I see the plumbing biz is keeping you busy.”
Gwen’s jaw clenched at the direct hit, and Blayne immediately put her arm around Gwen’s shoulders.
“Early afternoon,” the wolfdog explained. “It’s been a long week.”
“Uh-huh.” After turning in a complete circle, Roxy focused again on her daughter. “I’d love to see your office, baby-girl.”
“Absolutely!” Blayne said and stepping forward, she took Roxy’s arm and steered her back to the double doors that led to the building elevator. “Let’s go see it. Gwen will be along in a bit.”
As Blayne walked with Roxy, she managed to slam her skate-wearing foot on Mitch’s instep as she passed him.
“Ow!” As he lifted his foot to rub it, Blayne turned into him, knocking the lion to the ground. “Ow!”
“Oh, Mitch! I’m so sorry!” No, she wasn’t. Nor did she stop propelling Roxy toward that elevator.
Once they were gone, Gwen realized she was clutching her hands together. Jess approached her, reaching out to touch her shoulder. Immediately Gwen stepped away. “Don’t…”
Jess pulled back and the dogs gave Gwen her distance.
Determined to face her mother, Gwen let out a breath and headed toward the elevator. Although she did stop long enough to kick her brother in the balls before moving on.
Roxy watched her daughter walk into the office. She didn’t look like any of her cousins, yet she was naturally more beautiful than all of them. A face like her father’s, she had. With those bright gold eyes and that sweet grin, when she bothered to use it. Which, to be honest, was also like her father.
“Can you leave us alone for a minute, Blayne?”
“But I haven’t finished showing you how our billing system—”
“Out.”
Unlike the good old days, when her daughter and canine friend used to jump at Roxy’s orders, Blayne didn’t move until Gwen motioned toward the door. “Give us a minute, would ya?”
“Sure.” Blayne got up and rolled out the door.
Roxy couldn’t help but study the quads on those tiny dog feet. The four-wheeled skates derby girls played in, unlike those ridiculous inline skates for the masses.
Roxy remembered when her daughter wore the black and gold skates of the Philly Phangs. And she’d worn them for all of one bout. She never thought Gwenie would quit so easily, even with all the injuries she’d suffered that day. Never had she quit anything before or since, but something else must have happened, because her daughter never went back and she would never discuss it. Not with her, Roxy’s sisters, not even Cally, whom she held in highest esteem among the O’Neills.
“How is she?”
Gwen frowned. “How is who?”
“Blayne.” When Gwen frowned, she added, “I saw what you two were doing in the basement. That’s derby training, baby-girl.”
Gwen shrugged. “She’s good. But that’s not why you’re here.”
She moved around her daughter. “Can’t a mother come visit her only daughter?”