Moira Rogers - Impulse

“I’m worried about him, okay? And he’s your best friend’s brother, so I figured you might know.

I’m worried about Patrick and Kat too.”

Lily folded her napkin in her lap. “I don’t know if you realize it, but Julio might be more likely to be honest with you than with Carmen when it comes to how he’s feeling.”

“Me? Or just anyone but Carmen?” The former made her heart skip, but the latter seemed more likely.

The blonde shrugged, though the movement looked anything but nonchalant. “That’s another thing you’ll have to ask him.”

She could ask if Lily knew something, but the very act would prove she cared far too much.

She liked Lily, trusted her, but there were some things Sera didn’t want getting back to her father.

So she mirrored the other woman’s shrug and lifted her sweet tea. “I’ll do that the next time I see him.”

“Excellent.” Lily gestured to the menu. “How’s the cheesesteak?”

“It’s good. Hell, everything’s good.” Sera lifted a hand and waved over the waitress on duty.

“Teri, can you tell my friend the specials?”

She leaned over to flip a page on the menu. “As long as a little spice is okay, it’s a travesty if you come to Dixie John’s and don’t do something Cajun.”

Lily’s eyes lit up. “Give me the fried shrimp and a bowl of red beans and rice, then.”

Teri scribbled the order on her pad. “Sera?”

Sera didn’t even look at the menu before pushing it toward Teri. “The usual. How busy has it been? Do you think John’s going to need me tonight?”

“He could,” she admitted. “New ad’s running in the visitors’ guide. Lots of tourists finding their way in.”

Thursdays weren’t usually busy, but Teri was new, one of the lion pride who’d taken time settling in New Orleans before finding a job. “If it gets bad, shout for me. I’m done with classes for the summer.”

“Yeah?” She grinned as she tucked her pen behind her ear. “I might take you up on that.”

Teri left with both menus, and Sera glanced at Lily. “You’re not going to lecture me about working too much, are you?”

“Honey, that’d make me the biggest hypocrite in town. I put in insane hours and still take work home with me.”

“I know.” Someday, she might even think about her father the surgeon and his girlfriend the assistant district attorney without feeling like a complete loser. “Maybe I’ll talk to Dad when he gets back about letting him pick up some of the slack in the fall. The sooner I finish school, the better off I’ll be, right?”

Lily smiled gently. “The sooner you finish, the sooner you can do what you really want to do.”

Somehow, Lily understood. That finishing school and starting a catering business wasn’t the dream, it was the goal. The dream was independence.

For a submissive shapeshifter, sometimes it never got to be more than a dream.

Julio stared at Callum, the empath who had become his therapist.

Callum stared back.

Callum always did that, even when Julio dedicated himself to avoiding eye contact. It was impossible not to feel the appraising weight of the man’s gaze, the prickling sensation that said you were being catalogued. Studied.

Julio shifted in the plush chair and looked away. “Have you figured me out yet, Dr. Tyler?”

“Do you think that’s what I’m here to do?” came the infuriatingly calm response. “Figure you out?”

“Isn’t it?”

Callum’s mouth twitched. “No. If I had any particular need to figure you out, Mr. Mendoza, I’d unshield and find out what makes you tick. It wouldn’t take long, but it also wouldn’t do you much good. You need to figure yourself out.”

“What if I don’t want to?” It was the first honest thing he’d said in a long time, and as soon as it slipped out he wanted to call it back.

“That’s worth figuring out too.”

Julio focused his attention on a Rubik’s Cube perched on the edge of Callum’s desk. “Maybe I need a vacation.”

Callum sat back and folded his hands together, his body language precise and casual.

“When’s the last time you took a holiday?”

“I don’t know. When I lived in Charleston, I guess.” He stared at a green square. “I came down to New Orleans and helped Miguel move from the dorms to his apartment.”

“Mmm.” Even without words, Callum always managed to sound like he’d had a minor revelation. “Well, if you could go on one now, what would you do?”

That, at least, was easy to answer. “I’d go someplace where no one knows who I am.”

“Among humans, then.” Callum’s smile held more than a little self-deprecation. “I understand how exhausting it can be to have one’s reputation precede oneself.”

“It’s…work,” Julio corrected. “There’s always work.”

“Yes.” Callum leaned forward and braced his elbows on his desk. “Work you didn’t ask for.”

Work he didn’t really want. “Doesn’t matter, does it? It still has to get done.”

“Yes,” the empath agreed readily. “But this is the problem with a city full of dominant shapeshifters. You take care of everyone else, but not each other. And no one takes care of you.”

Julio stifled a laugh. “And here I thought the problem was more complicated than that.”

“Oh, it always is.” Callum lifted one eyebrow. “But am I wrong, Julio? This city is out of balance, and nature abhors such things.”

“I thought nature abhorred a vacuum.”

“Making you all miserable isn’t an appropriate expression of nature’s hatred?”

“I don’t think nature needs to intervene. We do a damn good job on our own.”

“Maybe you do.” After a moment of silence, Callum’s smile faded. “You talk to me because it makes everyone else feel better.”

Julio pasted on a cocky grin. “I talk to you because I know otherwise you’d miss our times together.”

Callum stared at him.

“We might have to break up anyway, though, because you obviously can’t take a joke.”

“Not particularly.” The empath continued to watch him with that unwavering stare. “We can keep doing this. We can have these meetings because it makes everyone in your life feel better, and you need that. But you don’t want to be here, and you don’t want to talk. The only honest thing you’ve said to me in three months is that you need a vacation.”

“And you’re just now catching on to that?” Julio sighed.

“No, I’m only pointing out that maybe you should sincerely consider taking that vacation.”

If it were remotely a possibility, Julio would be on the first ship to Mexico or the Bahamas.

“Too much work, Callum. I can’t leave people hanging.”

“Then start small. A night off?”

Even that was easier said than done. Unless he avoided Mahalia’s and Dixie John’s, chances were good someone would come to him with a problem, like Don Corleone on his kid’s wedding day. “I’ll try, okay?”

Apparently satisfied, Callum nodded once. “Good. I’ll be in New Orleans for another few weeks before I have to return to London for a month. I’d like to see you once more before I leave, but if you’d rather not…”

“Who knows?” Julio rose. “I might be on vacation.”

“I sincerely hope you are.” His tone made it clear he doubted it would happen.

It sparked a surprising irritation. “I may not be an empath, Dr. Tyler, but I can tell when you think I’m full of shit.”

Callum smiled. “So prove me wrong.”

Julio picked up the Rubik’s Cube and twisted it. “Is that what they call reverse psychology?”

“I’m not your therapist. I’m an empath, and you’re a shapeshifter. There aren’t rules and guidelines for this.” For the first time in months, Callum unbent enough to sigh and run a hand through his hair. “I know what you went through in January because I’ve seen Kat, and she felt it. Therefore, I’ve felt it. But feeling isn’t experiencing. So think about it, Julio. Think about if you want to talk about that experience. With me, with anyone. Just think.”