Emma shrugged. “Garfield was too obvious.” The fact that she said it like it made perfect sense was all Emma. “And Heathcliff was too tragic.”
“I think you should have gone with Nermal. I mean, look at him.” Becky smiled down at her godson with a besotted expression.
Emma just stared at her. “He looks like Winston Churchill and Lady Gaga had a drunken one-night stand.”
Chloe almost sprayed capicola and salami all over the table. “Emma!”
“What?”
The bell over the door jangled, announcing they had a customer. Chloe turned to find Jim and the wheelchair man coming into the store. Jim held the door open for the man, who quietly thanked him. “Geez. You didn’t say it was like estrogen central in here, Jimbo.”
Jim rolled his eyes, but Chloe could see the nervousness in his expression. “They’re going to love you, bro.”
Emma started. “Um.” Her brows rose as she stared at Spencer. “Bro?”
Jim nodded, smiling shyly. It was oddly endearing. “Yes. This is Spencer, my half brother.”
“Yo.” Spencer waved. He then hitched his thumb toward Jim. “This is my brother from another mother.”
Jim totally face-palmed at his brother’s irreverent words.
“Wait a sec.” Emma held up her hand. “You’re serious?”
Jim nodded, lifting his head from his palms. “Dad had an affair with a woman in Chicago about twenty-five years ago. Twenty-four years ago this weirdo was spawned.”
“We didn’t find out about each other until about a year ago. Seems Daddy wanted nothing to do with me when Mom died. Lucky for me, this big galoot found out about me and came for a visit.”
The sour expression on Spencer’s face was not echoed by Jim, who patted his brother’s shoulder. “I’m glad I did, or I would never have met you.” Jim’s gaze darted toward Chloe. “We need to talk.”
“Hallelujah,” Emma muttered.
“About damn time.” Becky glared at Jim.
“Hmph.” Sheri crossed her arms over her chest and sniffed.
Chloe ignored them all. She continued to eat her sandwich, studiously avoiding making eye contact with either Jim or his brother.
Jim sighed. “There’s a lot more going on than you know.”
“You said that fast time.” Chloe caught a glimpse of the confusion on Spencer’s face. Jim must not have told him about her paraphasia.
Jim sighed. “And we were attacked, remember? I never got to tell you what you…no, what I needed to.”
Chloe refused to feel sorry for the son of a bitch. Being changed against your will, being bitten by a shifter who wasn’t your mate, was an extremely painful way to be turned. But if he’d just accepted their mating none of that would have happened to him. He would have been a Fox instead of a Wolf, mated to her before the attack.
“Chloe? Are you ever going to speak to me again?” His tone was soft and disappointed.
As if he had the right to be anything but on his knees, begging for forgiveness. She sniffed. “I’m tinkling about it.”