Spectrum (Stone Society #14) - Faith Gibson Page 0,20

to say…” Sheila looked at Zeke. Really looked at him. “I can’t get over how much you look like your father. I understand sometimes genes are strong, but my god, it’s like looking at him all over again.”

“You aren’t wrong, but it has been thirty years, so I’m sure you are forgetting subtle differences.” Zeke hated himself a little, but there was no way Sheila would understand. Hell, Stella might not once he admitted the truth, but he was counting on the mate bond to help.

“Anyway, I called her to say I’m okay with the two of you dating. It was weird at first. Remembering the date I went on with Ezekiel and how he ghosted me afterward. I thought it was because of Stella. That your father didn’t want me because of her, then Stella and I talked about it. Why wouldn’t he be okay with her since he had a child of his own?” Sheila wiped a tear from under her eye, and Zeke’s heart went out to the woman. She had truly cared for him, and as she said, he ghosted her after that second date. But he had transitioned shortly after. He kept to himself those first few weeks.

“Sheila, I’m sorry for what you went through back then. I am one of those who believes everything happens for a reason, no matter whether we understand it at the time or not. I believe fate brought Stella and me together at the airport because she and I are meant to be. Yes, we just met, but I know in here” — Zeke thumped his chest above his heart — “she is my forever. I have spent my whole life looking for my other half, and Stella is that for me. There won’t be ‘one date’ and then everything falls apart. There will be a lifetime of me doing everything in my power to take care of her, provide for her, love her. Make her happy. What happened yesterday…” Zeke brushed a strand of hair off Stella’s mottled cheek. “That will never happen again. The fact that it did happen tears me up inside, but I want to make sure whoever did this to her pays for it. I need to know everything.”

Sheila sighed. “I only know what Bradley told the cops. That he was driving home from the store and saw Stella on the side of the road. He called for an ambulance. I’m her emergency contact, so when the hospital called me, it took a couple hours to get here, and he was in the waiting room since she was still in the ER. Bradley is fixated on Stella. He came to the high school as principal about two years ago and immediately asked her out. Stella put him off for quite a while, then finally gave in. It only took one date to know there wouldn’t be a second. She has been in a couple of relationships over the years, but for whatever reason, they didn’t work out. I think seeing me accept men into my life who are less than what I deserve made her leery of letting herself remain with those men when it was less than perfect. She didn’t want to end up like me.”

“Or maybe what you went through taught her how to wait for the perfect male to come along. Waiting isn’t a bad thing. Whatever the reason her past relationships didn’t work out, I’m thankful for it. But I am concerned about this fixation Calhoun has with Stella. If the date was a year ago, he hasn’t moved on. Has he harassed her at work? Does he interfere with her classes?” There was so much Zeke didn’t know about his mate.

“If he has, Stella hasn’t mentioned it. She doesn’t want me to worry about her.”

“I can understand that, but until she can tell us more about what he has or hasn’t been doing, I don’t want him anywhere near her. Since I’m new in her life, I don’t know her routines. I’m not familiar with the area she was driving, but I do find it suspect he just happened to be in the right place at the right time to find her.”

Sheila gasped, clutching at her throat. “You think he did this to her?”

“Anything is possible.” Zeke picked up Stella’s hand and examined it. “Her nails are jagged, which means she fought her attacker. No doubt a forensic specialist swabbed under her nails for skin cells. If the attacker