There you are, you sexy tall drink you. In her mind, Jessie was rubbing her hands with glee and cackling like a top class cartoon villain. On the outside, she was very much on the prowl. Her eyes were on the prize (Dorian’s tight ass and thick thighs), and her trusty bank of come home with me pickup lines were primed and ready to go. It’s a good job we’re outside so I can get some fresh air, because you took my breath away. Hmm. Nah. Too cheesy for this stud. Ooo, how about this one? Let’s flip a coin. Heads, you’re mine, and tails, I’m yours? Nah, he’s too classy for that one. Oh! Damn, do you have a band-aid? I hurt my knees when I fell for you. 

As Jessie mentally sorted through what would increase her chances of ending the night under Dorian, he was pretending not to know that she was following him back to his escalade. Her lilac smell wasn’t as strong as a werewolf scent, but it was stronger on the wind after dancing with Emma. It was cute, the way she giggled and stumbled over the various line dancing moves she and Emma tried to emulate. She was so full of energy and mischief, he found his lips curling into a rare smile as he watched her. She is certainly good for our Luna. I can’t remember ever witnessing Emma behave like a happy young woman like that. Like she didn’t have a care in the world. 

But then Jessie caught him looking and sent him a look like she was happily imagining him naked, and all over her. Dorian sighed and decided to leave, but her hungry stare simply followed him. And then she did. She is an attractive woman, and she knows it, but this sex pest routine does nothing for me. She was far from his type, and he doubted very much that he was hers. He cringed mentally as she declared for all the pack to hear, repeatedly, how much she wanted to fuck him. Sure, Jessie had no idea that the rest of the pack could hear her, but that didn’t stop the sniggers and amused looks Dorian received. Absolutely no class, whatsoever. I imagine she’s never been told ‘no’ in her life. He imagined her, a trust fund baby, doted on and throwing a tantrum whenever she didn’t get her own way. She’s a brat, but she’s best friends with my Luna, and will soon become a pack sister. It is in my best interests not to let that pup come sniffing at my-

A cellphone rang, and Dorian turned to look over his shoulder at the sound. Jessie blushed, having been spotted before she was ready, and her hands instinctively went to her boot. 

“Oh, erm, hold that thought.” She chuckled awkwardly, hopped on one boot as she fished her cellphone from the other, and glanced down at the caller ID. Dorian was about to use this distraction to escape, as his car door was within reach, when he saw her face not just fall, but utterly crumble. Jessie seemed haunted by the caller ID, and she hid her cell to her chest with both hands. After a moment, when her cell stopped ringing, she looked up at Dorian and she’d never seemed to small to him. Or so vulnerable. “Erm. I-” Her cell started ringing again, and she flinched. She flinched. “I better take this. I’ll catch you around.” 

I should go. Dorian knew he should. His right hand hovered near the car door handle, but he was unable to turn away from Jessie. He watched her shuffle away from him, her shoulders raised defensively and her hands cupping her cell phone. This is none of my business. He curled his hand into a fist, and he willed his body to move, but it wouldn’t. 

Across the parking lot, Jessie stood beneath a street light and stared down at her cell phone. It’s been, what? Four months since he last called? What does he want now? On the third time her cell rang, she knew there would be no waiting him out. She took in a deep breath to steady her nerves, which Dorian heard across the lot, and she answered the phone. 

“Hi Dad. I-”

“Three times I had to call you before you picked up the phone. What on Earth are you doing?” 

“…” She closed her eyes, took another breath, and plastered a smile on her face. “I’m out with Emma at the moment. It was loud in the dance hall, so I had to come outside to answer the call. Gee, how long has it been since you called me Dad? Four months? Hows-”

“Why am I standing outside your apartment and you’re no longer living in it?” Jessie closed her eyes and hung her head forward. 

“You know why, Dad. I tried repeatedly to call you over the last three weeks, but your PA told me to leave a message.” She shifted her weight onto her right foot. “So I did, and the message said I was moving.”

“The the ass-end of nowhere?”

“It’s called Gl-”

“All to chase after that Carter girl?!” 

“Emma is my best friend, and has been since I was in training bras, so you know her name.” Jessie snapped under her breath, and she held her elbow with the hand that wasn’t holding her cell to her ear. 

“Are you seriously telling me you left your apartment, and your job, to follow after your childhood friend?”

“Well I-”

“After I told you I was arranging for you to work with the Davidsons practice?” Jessie pursed her lips together, lifted her head and closed her eyes. That’s what this is about. His golf buddy’s firm and trying to get me to A, work there, and B, return to the fold. “I came by to tell you that you have an interview with Davidson tomorrow morning, and to make sure you represent yourself well. Coming to your apartment to find out you no longer live here, is utterly ridiculous.” Jessie rubbed her face with her free hand and held back her desire to scream down her cell at her father. 

“Dad, you never answer your cell when I call you, and your PA had the message to tell you I was moving away weeks ago. I also left multiple voicemail messages. Listening to either your PA or my messages would have saved you the journey.” But as usual, Dad is interested in me unless he needs something from me. 

“How far away is this place you’ve moved to? Davidson has practices in Seattle and Portland.” Her jaw hung open for a moment and she couldn’t believe what he was expecting her to do. 

“Dad, I am not interviewing for a nursing post under your friend. I have a job here already, and an apartment. I’m settled.” Not strictly speaking true on the job front, but I’ll make sure to talk to Jake in the morning. If the general practice can’t hire me, I’ll ask Emma and I’m sure she’ll let me work at the clinic. Even if it’s short-term. There was no way in hell was she going under her father’s thumb. Never again. 

“Jessica, enough. It’s about time you grew up and conducted yourself with at least an ounce of consideration for your family.” Oh, sure, because you’ve always had consideration for me? Asshole. “Do you have any idea how much of a fool I’m now going to look? I’m going to have to tell Davidson that you can’t attend the interview tomorrow, because you’ve what? What reason should I give a very distinguished, wealthy, influential owner of a medical practice that you don’t want to work for?” 

“Oh? What can you tell him?” Jessie’s eyes welled with tears, angry and thick as they slugged down her cheeks. “You can tell him that the daughter you barely speak to three times a year, and never on her birthday or when she’s ill, has no intention of being manipulated or bullied. Again.” She hissed quietly, wary of this conversation being in the parking lot. 

She had no idea that Dorian was standing right behind her. “The last time you made me work at a practice one of your friends owned, you micromanaged my entire life, from what I ate, when I ate, who I saw, what I wore, and almost walked me down the isle to marry one of your other friends. So no, Dad. I won’t be going to that interview.” She shook with anger and grief. Emma’s absence from her life happened at the worst time in her life, but she hadn’t planned to think about any of that. Her father calling her was more than rude reminder. When she was so desperate, so lost, she wished her best friend was there to comfort her. Emma had moved away, and then it occurred to Jessie, she could just do the same. Hand in her notice, pack her shit and leave that clusterfuck behind. She threw the engagement ring back at her parents to return to the fiancé they chose for her, and ran. 

Here, in Glen Valley, it felt like none of it had happened. This phone call? It reminded her how helpless she felt, and how little her parents truly cared for her happiness. 

“You selfish little brat. After everything your mother and I have done for you. I will cut you off.” He threatened, and she simply laughed through her tears. 

“You have done nothing for me, but bully me, and I’ve had enough. I know what a real family is supposed to look like, and as far as that threat to cut me off? I haven’t touched a single dollar of that trust fund. Ever.”

“God, why are you so difficult? Your sister is already a doctor, and she’s married. Felicity and her husband are regularly present at the country club, and she’s expecting. You?” Jessie braced herself, and knew exactly what her father was about to say. Word for word, as he’d said it many times before. “Jessica, you’re a nurse who can’t decide if she wants to treat people or animals. You aren’t even a specialist yet, and you care more about being that Carter girl’s shadow than taking responsibility for your own life. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is when people ask us about you, and nothing has changed since you went to university? Still only a nurse. Still single. Still an embarrassment to the Garland name.” 

“I-I.” Jessie’s head hung forward, and she sobbed. Her forehead pressed to the street lamp, and she trembled with grief. Jessie so desperately wanted to scream down the cell at her father that she wasn’t an embarrassment. She was a good nurse. She was a great best friend. She was a good person, and a daughter worth being proud of. At the same time, old wounds were pried open so wide, she felt like they were swallowing her whole. “That’s n-ot. I’m not-”

“Oh God, pull yourself together and grow up. Now is not the time for crocodile tears. You’re not a silly little girl anymore, Jessica. Now you will get your bags packed and come home immediately.” Jessie shook her head, and terror filled her. No. I can’t go back. I won’t. “I mean it, Jessica. You will-”

Dorian took the cell from her ear, and she span around in horror.