Island Stripe Pride - Chapter 47: Chapter 47

Toni had just closed the large oven where she was roasting six, forty-pound, freaking enormous top rounds for the Thursday special at Any Time Eats Diner & Catering. Along with roast beef for the local carnivores and omnivores, she’d also spent much of her morning preparing grilled eggplant napoleons.
Rabbits were herbivores, and Shifters of that nature were typically vegetarians. It was difficult in Verona Falls, or anywhere really, to find really good vegetarian meals in restaurants.
She and Mara prided themselves on being one of the few local eateries that offered vibrant and tasty specials for the veg crowd. Which was fortunate, seeing as how a good portion of the surrounding community were part of the Cottontail Flock.
Her eggplant napoleons were locally famous. Thin slices of grilled eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes, were layered between crisp puff pastry squares that had been smeared with goat cheese, and a good amount of homemade pesto sauce. Served chilled, they were the perfect meal for these unbearable end of summer days that were always warmer than the height of the season, for some odd reason.
“Hello. Can I speak to your boss?” a deep, masculine voice asked Gary, the only other employee in the restaurant as of yet.
It was still early, and since Toni had opened, Mara would be coming in later and closing that evening.
“Uh, yeah, let me get her,” Gary squeaked.
“There’s a guy out front wants to talk to you. He’s like freaky large,” the young Rabbit male whispered, eyes downcast.
Poor Gary, he was meek and unsure of himself as so many teens were, but he was a good worker, and she would miss him when he went back to school.
“Thanks. I got it. Can you unload the dishwasher till Mena comes in?”
“Okay--- I mean, yes, Chef.”
“Thanks,” she replied, smiling automatically. He was so keen to be a chef one day and he was obsessed with his recent discovery of the show Bear. Toni was a fan herself, but theirs was hardly that type of operation. They were Shifters, not normals.
She wondered who could have scared him so, frowning at the thought as she washed her hands and dried them on a clean towel. Her hair was pulled back in a tight braided bun, and she wore a bandana over the front, keeping with local health codes. Her chef’s coat was fairly clean as she removed her soiled apron, efficiently replacing it with a fresh one over her chef’s pants.
Today’s pair were covered in cartoonish jalapenos with the words hot and spicy scattered throughout in bright red and green font. They were fun and comfortable, and Toni was a fan of both. She didn’t know how women who worked at jobs where they had to wear suits and heels managed, but more power to them. She’d take her bright orange, glittered Crocs any day.
“How can I hel—” Toni stopped as she walked into the dining area.
Holy fucking hell.
“Toni,” the man whispered.
Standing in front of her was the last man she’d ever expected to see back in Verona Falls. Carter Marrow. The only boy she’d ever loved. Time had been kind, she thought wildly, as her eyes ate him up. He was six and a half feet tall, and twice as wide as he’d been the last time, she’d seen him before he’d left for good.
Theirs had always been a friendship that required holidays and vacations from school for them to see one another. He was one of the Pride that came to the mountains to let their fur out since they lived the rest of their time in the crowded city.
She had tried it herself during school, but there was something about it she could not get used to. Maybe it was the prey animal inside of her that objected to all the dangers lurking in every corner. Maybe she just liked her space. At any rate, she’d come home, and with her sister, had taken over the family business.
“Carter,” she replied, watching the light leave his eyes to be replaced by a stern, unyielding mask that tore her heart to shreds.
“I expected your father to be here,” he said easily, and she winced, knowing her father had hated him but had always acted as if he’d been on the Tiger’s side the whole time during that tumultuous summer.
“He passed away,” she said quickly and adding no inflection to her voice.
She’d heard too many whispers about what an ungrateful daughter she’d been after the old man had died, but it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Gio Casabella had been a phenomenal actor. As the Alpha Buck, he was a fan of using his ability to sway others to turn them against his eldest child and he often had. Toni no longer cared.
Oh, but how she wished Carter had known the truth. She had heard the lies her father had told him from upstairs in her room after she’d broken up with Carter. Her father had demanded it, but did the old man stand up to the young Tiger? No. He’d blamed his daughter instead.
“Please, Carter. You must forgive my Antonia, she is not good for you. Always teasing the boys. So young and fickle in her ways. I will punish her for toying with your heart. Don’t you worry,” he’d told a young Carter while Toni listened, heartbroken.
Later, she had gone to confront her father, but the old man had threatened to go after Carter with a rifle if she did not play along. He would send Toni far away to marry some stranger, and young Mara too. She’d had no choice but to remain silent and take the blame for Carter’s suffering.
But he wasn’t the only one who’s heart had been broken. Young Toni had loved Carter Marrow with every fiber of her being. She’d spent hours watching him run in the sunshine with the other Tiger cubs in their youth. And when puberty had hit, and they’d matured enough to start noticing the changes, she’d wanted him with a fierce longing that she’d never felt for anyone else since.
Tigers and bunnies were not natural friends, even in the Shifter world. Once they’d become teenagers, interactions between their kind had slowed. But not for Toni and Carter. They found ways to see each other, leaving secret notes beneath the majestic stand of cedars that separated the lodge from town.
It had been so secret and romantic to a teenage girl who thought the sun rose and set on this one man. Oh, how she’d loved him. Desperately so. But after everything, Toni never expected to see him again.
“I am sorry to hear that. He was a good man,” Carter whispered, his angry brown eyes boring into hers.
“Was he?” she asked, refusing to shy away from his gaze.
His amber eyes glowed gold with his beast, but still Toni held his stare.
“Why are you here, Carter?”
“I’m here on behalf of the Pride. The annual Shifter gathering at the lodge is this weekend, and we need a caterer.”
“This weekend? Ever hear of short notice?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
“Yes, well, I only arrived yesterday and had to fire the general manager for her underwhelming performance. Will you take the job?” he asked.
“Ah, you mean Lynne? Yeah, she’s a piece of work,” Toni muttered. “Still, the answer is no. It’s impossible.”
“Fine,” he growled and stormed out of the place without a backwards glance.
Toni watched him retreat until she could no longer see him before she collapsed into the chair nearest her. Gary came back in a few seconds later.
“Are you okay, chef? Who was that?”
“That? That was the past, Gary, and I can tell you now, revisiting ancient history hurts like a bitch. But that’s done, now. Let’s get started on the lunch orders,” she said.
The hours sped by, and Toni was just giving Mara the rundown on things she needed to see to that evening. Her younger sister rolled her eyes and nodded.
“Oh my gods, Toni, this is not my first day on the job, sheesh,” she growled and booty-bumped Toni jokingly.
“Sorry,” she replied with a grin. “Can’t a girl worry about her little sister?”
“Just beat it already. You look worn out,” Mara replied, starting in on the orders one of their servers just brought in. “By the way, an old friend is out front.”
“Old friend?”
“Yeah.”
“Who?”
“You’ll see,” Mara replied evasively.
Toni’s stomach clenched. No way would it be him. Not twice in one day after twelve long years. She walked into the office she shared with her sister and removed her chef’s coat and pants, adding them to the laundry bin they kept in there. They had a compact washer and dryer too, something Mara would use that evening. Whoever closed was responsible for washing the aprons, chef’s clothes, and hand towels they’d used that day before leaving for the night.
She shook her head and pulled off the bandana, unbraiding the long tresses as she passed the early dinner rush. Any Time Eats served fresh, home cooked meals with locally sourced ingredients from neighboring farms and organic meat from as local as she could get ranches and poultry farms.
Shifters had supernaturally enhanced senses, as such, top quality food was generally a high priority. They did get the odd normal frequenting their establishment and were often praised for their enormous portions. Even made the local papers a time or two.
Humans thought it was a gimmick, but the truth was Shifters, even herbivores, ate a lot. It was necessary to fuel their high metabolisms and supernaturally charged cells. Either way, she was glad business was booming. Turning the corner, Toni faltered in her steps.
She was going to ring her sister’s neck, she thought with a frown. Of course, it wasn’t Mara’s fault. She was probably trying to play Cupid for her seemingly dull older sister. After all, how many men had she taken home in the last decade?
None. Nada. Zilch. Zero.
Fucking some stranger held no interest for her inner Bunny, who was already positive she had met her mate years ago. Toni had quite the rep for being cold, shutting men down and freezing them out a specialty of hers. Why Mara should think this particular Tiger was interested in giving her a second chance, she had no idea.
But she would set her sister straight. Later. Right then, she had to save face. Adopting a carefree air, she ambled over to Carter, using her fingers to comb her long waves over her shoulder. Her hair was her one true asset, coming down to her waist in a flood of platinum like a bolt of silk.
She was too curvy for most. Positively petite at five-foot three inches, and fluffy as her inner Bunny to boot. Her wee beastie objected to the descriptor, snorting, and hissing inside her mind’s eye. Toni ignored the critter, focusing her cobalt blue gaze on Carter’s amber one.
Carter Marrow was polishing off the last of what was three platters of the day’s special served over smashed red bliss potatoes and garlic green beans. That was more beef than she’d seen most full-grown men put away, but he was not just a man. He was Tiger, and she could just imagine the mountains of perfectly rare slices of beef he’d just ingested.
His shaved head was clean and smooth, showing off all that gloriously tanned skin. Toni had always envied Carter his ability to turn that particular shade of toasty bronze from the summer sun. Her family had descended from northern Italy, and she supposed she had more than her fair share of Viking blood. With her silver blonde hair and pale skin, she could not tan to save her life.
She noticed tribal tattoos peeking from his collar and short sleeve in thick black swirls. She had to admit the one creeping up the side of his neck intrigued the fuck out of her.
Toni had known Carter long before he’d been inked. Biting her lip, she wondered what he would say to her own body art. Not that he’d ever see it, she told herself sternly. Besides, it would reveal far too much about her. Things she was not sure she would ever share with anyone.
“You make a good roast beef for a vegan,” he remarked, not bothering to look at her.
Admiring his table manners, Toni walked over, mindful of the fact she owned the place. Predator or not, this was her restaurant, and she could do whatever the fuck she liked, including plopping her fluffy ass in the chair across him.
“Vegetarian not vegan, and thanks for the compliment. Why are you here?” she asked, eyes narrowed at the man who’d once owned her body, heart, and soul.
Carter used the napkin to wipe his mouth carefully. He straightened in his seat, and it was disturbing to note his golden eyes seemed void of all emotion. His face had a smattering of scruff that she knew he would have to shave that night or risk a full-on beard the next morning.
Some Shifters grew hair like crazy. She should know. Even with laser hair tech, if Toni did not visit a certain witch owned salon every month, she’d have to shave her legs three times a day to keep them smooth.
As it was, she ordered a special lotion imbued with magical properties to help curb her furry tendencies. Call it a quirk of hers, but Toni liked her legs, armpits, and other areas to be smooth and devoid of hair. She didn’t mind scruff on a man. Especially this man.
Fucking hell.
He looked good. Too good. Why did men always get better with age? She wondered, nodding at one of her servers to bring her some water.
“I’m here for you,” Carter finally said, and fuck, she almost choked.
“Bullshit.”