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  It wasn’t a long or especially complicated message, but Scott read it twice, then again before going in to meet his attorney. And every time, it made him feel good.

  On a whim, he texted, ‘Welcome! How’s your day going?’

  Frederica didn’t text back before it was time for his appointment to begin.

  The meeting with the attorney didn’t go well. He was honest, Scott would give him that much. But the lawyer didn’t think it was worth it to try to oppose the condemnation of Scott’s house, and he said that Scott had no standing to challenge the development of the undeveloped land behind his house. The attorney was more interested in helping Scott to get as much as he could for his property – including his own attorney’s fees, naturally.

  They weren’t a good match, and Scott politely declined to retain him. In the parking lot, Scott called the bar association again and then the phone number of the new attorney that they recommended to him. After that, he ran a few errands and hit the beach. Surfing always cheered him up.

  Scott was pulling into his driveway, when his cell phone dinged to alert him to a new text message. Parking the car, he fished his cell phone out of his pocket. Scott’s heart tripped in his chest when he saw that it was from Frederica.

  Swiping his thumb to the side, Scott pulled up Frederica’s text message. It read, ‘Busy! Got a lot done today! You?’

  ‘Errands,’ Scott texted back to her. ‘Then surfing.’

  Frederica’s response was quicker this time. ‘Fun! What are you doing now?’

  ‘Making dinner,’ wrote Scott. ‘You?’

  ‘Eating the rest of my lunch for dinner,’ replied Frederica.

  Scott sent her a frowny face.

  ‘It’s still good!’

  ‘Have you eaten anything hot today?’

  ‘Coffee!’

  ‘Coffee doesn’t count!’

  Frederica sent him two frowny faces and a crying face.

  ‘How can you say that?!’

  ‘Because it’s true.’

  ‘Mean,’ accused Frederica.

  ‘Call them like I see them.’

  ‘You see wrong! Coffee is wonderful!’

  ‘You don’t even drink good coffee!’

  ‘How dare you!’

  “Easily,’ Scott quickly texted back. By then he was smiling.

  ‘LOL!’

  They texted to each other the rest of the evening, Frederica saying goodnight when she turned in for bed at nine-thirty. It made Scott laugh.

  Over the next few weeks, Scott went to a lot of attorneys. None of them ever said what he wanted to hear. They all said the same thing: don’t bother fighting the county. Take the payout, and let them condemn his home and the land around it.

  He correspondingly also spent a lot of his free time surfing, texting with Frederica, and ordering lot of takeout, none of it for him. Scott just had the nagging suspicion that Frederica was working herself too hard and that she needed someone to take care of her. Sometimes, he could almost feel her tiredness – and her anticipation – dragging through him too. Whatever she was working on, to her it was all consuming.

  To Scott, it was worrying. They were too far apart for Scott to do a proper job of looking after her, but he regularly sent takeout to her office and apartment in Tallahassee. Some nights, he even had to remind her that she should have been in bed hours ago.

  As the full moon drew nearer, Scott was more restless and short tempered than usual. Full moons could be hard, and his transformation that night was one of his hardest.

  The night of the full moon found Scott rambling through his beloved bit of forest feeling oddly untouched by the night or the majesty of the sleeping trees or even his place among them. Even finding (and devouring) a patch of his favorite berries failed to cheer Scott up. He had always loved this bit of wilderness, and he still loved it, but somehow it had lost its shine.

  And the entire time he worried about Frederica and what she was doing – or rather, probably not doing for herself – in Tallahassee.

  He was complaining about Frederica and her ongoing personal neglect to his brother, Wade, when his brother said, “Wait a minute… Is this about that woman you told me about last time? The one from out of town who let you pick her up in a bar?”

  “Yes.”

  “Didn’t you say that she was the legal arm behind the university that’s going to be built over your house and your forest?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “And you’re worrying yourself sick that she might not be taking care of herself properly, which in turn might make her lawyering less efficient than usual?”

  “I wish you wouldn’t put it that way.”

  “I call ‘em like I see ‘em,” said Wade, unrepentant. “But seriously: if you could only have one – the lady lawyer or the forest – which would you pick?”

  Well, when Wade put it like that, everything came into focus.

  Scott knew what he wanted.

  Chapter 14 – Frederica

  In the weeks following her return to Tallahassee, Frederica missed Scott dreadfully.

  Frederica told herself that she was too busy – with work and catching up on life stuff after being away for the better part of a week – to bother about Scott, but the truth was that she was too afraid to go after him. She wanted to go right back to Scott and try to hash it out again, but she was afraid that her soul mate might reject her again. Frederica didn’t know if she could handle being rejected by him twice.

  Instead, she buried herself in her new project. It really was very extensive, although that was mostly her own fault, and all its various parts required her utmost care and attention.

  Very quickly, Frederica’s life settled into its previous predictable routine. She ate a breakfast bar and drank black coffee when she had breakfast at home or got a black coffee and a breakfast burrito on the go when she grabbed breakfast on the way to work. Lunch was usually a different meal replacement bar, something that she felt comfortable eating at her desk. Then she worked late before heading to the nearest swimming pool for a little stress relief. Dinner was a little more varied, but there was never much time to unwind before bed so that she could get up and work equally hard the next morning.

  And through it all pulled her bond with Scott, acknowledged to her mate but apparently unwanted by him. It sat heavily on her, making Frederica feel simultaneously more and less lonely. The strain in it made her ache.

  It haunted her waking hours, dogging her as closely as Scott’s lingering sense of unhappiness. It also drove her forward, inspiring her to work harder and come back to work more after her swimming break. When she got home from those days at work, Frederica was so tired that she was lucky if she had the energy to heat up a can of soup.

  The things that she wanted to do could be done, but there was just so much paperwork inherent to getting it done.

  And then one day, maybe a week or so after she had left Mermaid County, Frederica grudgingly answered her cell phone to an unknown voice saying, “Your delivery is here!”

  “My delivery?” parroted Frederica blankly.

  “From Sandra’s Sandwiches!” said the man’s voice. “I’ve got your order, and I’m standing in the lobby of your office building.”

  “I…” Frederica quickly racked her brain. “I don’t think that I ordered any takeout.”

  Although now she wished that she had. Now that her attention had been drawn to it, Frederica realized that she was ravenous. At the mere thought of food, her stomach twisted and gurgled.

  A brief pause and the sound of rustling paper, and then the man’s voice said, “You didn’t. Someone named Scott Behr did. He sent it over for you.”

  At Scott’s name, Frederica drew in a sharp breath. Shock, disbelief, and finally hope wrenched through her, setting her heart to pounding and her hands to shaking.

  “Look, do you want the food or not? If it matters, it’s already been paid for.”

  “I want it!” yelped Frederica quickly. �
��There should be a bank of elevators across from the front door. Get on one of those elevators and come up to the fourth floor. I’ll come and meet you there.”

  By then Frederica was on her feet and heading out of her office.

  The offices that Frederica’s legal division worked out of were at the back of the building, and their corridor was guarded by a shared receptionist. Frederica hurried down the corridor and past their receptionist, waving at Marshall in passing. She made her way through the maze of grey walls at a brisk clip, the thump of her high heels muffled by the thin darker grey carpeting.

  Frederica arrived at the bank of elevators that led up from the lobby just in time to see the doors open on a swarthy man with an insulated blue bag over his shoulder. Printed on the bag in white lettering were the words, ‘Sandra’s Sandwiches!’

  Into Frederica’s hands, the delivery man shoved a sub sandwich and then a smaller sandwich, both wrapped in long, white paper bags. With them came another package, this one double bagged and damp in one corner from condensation.

  In that moment, Frederica felt so loved.

  “Thank you so much!” gasped Frederica. She was smiling so widely that her cheeks hurt. Frederica was so happy that she felt incandescent.

  She carried her treasures back to her office, arranging them on her desk so that she could see what all Scott had bought for her.

  He had sent Frederica her favorite sandwich, a lettuce wrap that she had never quite worked up the courage to try, despite like all of the ingredients, as well as a couple of cookies, a bag of chips, and a bottle of orange-flavored water, the last of which had been the source of the condensation.

  Seeing it all laid out like that on her desk, Frederica could still hardly believe it. Scott had sent her lunch!

  Does he miss me too? Frederica wondered, daring to hope. Can he feel me through the bond? Is that how he knew that I was hungry? Has he forgiven me yet? Or is he at least on his way to forgiving me?

  Frederica didn’t know, and her own emotional response was too strong for her to be able to feel him out through their bond.

  She dithered awhile – and ate half of the lettuce wrap. It was really very good – before scraping up the nerve to risk a brief reply to Scott. It read ‘Thanks! I was hungry!’ Feeling very bold, Frederica even included a little red heart.

  There. That put the ball in his court. If he wanted to ignore her, he could. And if he didn’t… if he didn’t ignore her, then she would be very, very happy. Just thinking about the possibility of it made her very happy.

  Frederica had eaten – and thoroughly enjoyed – half of her Happy Harmony Sub and one of her cookies, when her cell phone dinged with Scott’s response.

  ‘Welcome! How’s your day going?’

  It wasn’t an especially complicated message, but it made Frederica’s heart so warm that it practically glowed. All afternoon, when she needed a pick me up, Frederica would look at the neatly bagged leftovers on the corner of her desk or reread his brief message and get a little boost of happiness.

  Toward the end of her workday, Frederica texted Scott again.

  And he texted back!

  And then they were off and talking again!

  It was wonderful!

  They texted back and forth for the rest of the evening, then across the next day, and the day after that. The days flew by, turning into weeks filled with work and Scott and her rising hope that she could manage this. She could have the man and the university. And dinner, apparently, if Scott had anything to do with it.

  Scott, reflected Frederica, as she ate her General Tso’s chicken, is like a good cup of coffee: strong, exhilarating, and sexy. He really gets me going.

  Every time takeout appeared at her home or office – unordered, unexpected, and unsought – Frederica knew that Scott loved her. Getting those little boxes and bags of food made Frederica feel like she could do anything. Sometimes, she even dared to hope that he was beginning to feel her too through their shared bond.

  To Frederica, each box of takeout was like Scott saying that he loved her, cared about her, and worried about her when they were apart. It was like a concentrated shot of love, one that filled her with renewed energy and made her even more determined to push through and give Scott the thing that he wanted most: room to ramble on the full moon.

  It was Frederica’s hope to get everything in place by the next community meeting in Mermaid County. She wanted to address everyone’s concerns while she had the floor.

  One evening, as Frederica was reviewing a motion that she had drafted earlier in the week, she felt a wave of Scott’s sadness pull through her. Saving her draft, Frederica closed her office door and then went to fish her cell phone out of her purse. She called him, only realizing while she listened to his cell phone ring that if he picked up, then it would be the first time that they had actually spoken directly to one another since their fight.

  “Hello?” asked Scott. He sounded tired.

  “Hi,” rasped Frederica around the lump in her throat. She suspected that it was her heart. “It’s me, Frederica. How – How are you? You sound bummed.”

  “Frederica?” Scott sounded momentarily surprised – and gratifyingly happy to hear from her. Then he said, “I’m fine. It’s just been a really rough afternoon.”

  “Want to tell me about it?” asked Frederica, settling into her chair. Spinning around in it, she turned her back to her work, instead choosing to look out her window.

  It was a surprisingly nice view.

  “There’s nothing really to tell,” said Scott. “I’ve just been to a lot of attorneys since that last community meeting, and they all said the same.”

  He hesitated a beat there. Frederica, uncertain what to say, kept quiet and listened hard.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me what they said about my house?”

  “Should I?” asked Frederica warily.

  Scott snorted.

  “Never mind,” he said. “You can probably already guess.”

  She could.

  “It hasn’t been going well then,” ventured Frederica.

  “No, they all said the same thing,” said Scott unhappily. “Frederica, be honest with me? Is it really that hopeless?”

  “Yes,” said Frederica. “Get a good attorney and try to get as much as you can for your property. There are other ways to get what you want.”

  Scott snorted. Almost angrily, he said, “I doubt it. Lately, I’ve found that I only want one thing. Nothing else.”

  Frederica’s heart sank. She was crushed.

  Scott had always been very open about what he wanted. If he only wanted one thing now, it probably wasn’t her. Apparently, she really was destined to die alone and lonely.

  “Hey, are you all right?” demanded Scott sharply.

  “Fine,” sniffled Frederica. Her eyes were hot and tears were rolling down her cheeks. “I – I just stubbed my toe.”

  “That doesn’t feel like a stubbed toe.”

  “Well it was,” said Frederica, sharply she hoped. At least her voice didn’t wobble. “Look, I’ve got to go. But I’m glad that you’re all right.”

  Damn it! Her voice wavered on that last bit. She had to wrap this up quick.

  “Frederica –”

  “Bye, Scott.”

  Quickly, Frederica hung up. Dropping her face into her hands, Frederica wept.

  And outside, it began to storm.

  Chapter 15 – Scott

  Frederica was lying. Worse, she was lying about being hurt.

  Scowling, Scott called JC, who was both his employee and the other head chef for his restaurant. JC was entirely amenable to picking up more hours at work, and with that sorted Scott was free to make a thermos of coffee and hop in his car. It was a long drive to Tallahassee, but the sooner he left, the sooner he would arrive.

  Scott drove all night, following the tug on his heart toward Frederica. He stopped once at a darkened gas station to refuel his car, take a whizz, and stretch his legs, but
otherwise he drove all night, arriving at a low apartment building in the wee hours of the morning.

  Getting out of the car, Scott stretched out his limbs and torso, ignoring the rain. He rolled his shoulders, and tried to think what he was going to say when he next saw Frederica.

  Scott had been trying to figure that out all the way up from his place, but he was no nearer a witty opener than he had been when he had pulled out of his driveway. He had figured that something would come to him when he was nearer to his destination. Now that the moment was upon him, Scott still had no idea what he should say to her, except maybe, ‘I’m sorry,’ and ‘I love you,’ and ‘Why are you so sad? Please don’t be sad.’

  Thinking of Frederica’s sadness, Scott knew where she was – sort of. Without thinking about it too hard, Scott walked past the first half of the apartment building without giving it a second glance. He went up the staircase in the middle of the building, passing the second floor apartments without giving them a second look. On the third floor, he went right and knocked at the first door that he came to.

  No one answered.

  Scott kept knocking.

  Inside the apartment, there was a low thump. There was a small window next to the apartment’s door. A few moments after the thumping noise, light began to filter around the edges of the small window’s blinds.

  The door swung open, and suddenly Frederica was standing there, backlit by the bright lights on in the apartment. She was mussed, her hair wild and the collar of her thin robe twisted against her neck. Her dark eyes were sleepy; the skin around them puffy and pink.

  She’s been crying, Scott realized, feeling shocked and angry. She maybe even cried herself to sleep.

  No one should ever be allowed to make his Frederica cry.

  At the sight of him, Frederica’s eyes widened. Her tiredness melted away.

  “Scott? What are you doing here?”