Rowena couldn't hold back her laughter as they passed the courthouse.
"That's right, baby. Laugh it up." Cross chuckled before he turned his light grey eyes, hidden behind a pair of aviator sunglasses, to her.
Her merriment filled the cab of the vehicle. "I just think it's hilarious. It took three shifters, two cops, and the gardener spraying you both with a water hose to get you and Hector to stop fighting. Should I be worried you're so possessive?"
Cross sighed before reaching over and squeezing her hand. "I'm a wolf-shifter. I can't help it. My wolf-- he gets anxious when you're not around. He hates when other men look at you. Yesterday, when Hector asked you if you would've dated him, he lost it. He's part of me. So, I lost it too."
"We've never really talked about your wolf," Rowena admitted. "You've never described him as a separate being."
Cross shrugged. "You're against turning into a wolf. I thought talking about it made you uncomfortable."
Rowena jerked back. "I'm not against it. I'm just not ready to stop being human."
He pulled her hand so it rested on his thigh. "It's okay. Even if you shift, you'd still be human. You'll just have some extra abilities and a gorgeous she-wolf inside you. My wolf loves the idea of you having a wolf for him to run with."
Rowena lifted a brow. "Just to run with?"
He smirked, acknowledging, "And other things."
"Cross, I'm sorry I'm not ready." Rowena fidgeted in her seat, playing with his fingers. "I know I'll eventually have to decide. I don't want to lose you."
"You're never going to lose me, Rowena."
"What if you find your true mate while waiting on me to decide? All the shifter books have them. Sure, the male leads reject them at first, but then they can't resist the lure of a true mate."
Cross laughed, turning into the circular driveway of Happy Trails Nursing Home. "Baby, true mates are rare and finding your true mate is almost unheard of. I want you to turn into a shifter because only then can you officially be my mate and people like Hector will know they don't stand a chance with you."
"Mates don't cheat?" Rowena's eyes widened.
Cross shook his head. "It happens. You remember Reed's neighbor, don't you? She cheated on her mate."
Rowena met Cross in a roundabout way through her ex-boyfriend, Reed. She still saw him around Howler, but the two never spoke.
"Most mates are true to one another," Cross continued. "I would definitely be true to you."
Rowena grinned.
"Also, being part of the pack would be good for you. You've said it yourself-- your family isn't the most welcoming. My entire town would love you like family. They already do."
"Not the entire town," Rowena admitted. "As your mate, would they all have to listen to me?"
Cross chuckled. "Yeah, but they do that now. Haven't you noticed?"
Rowena's brows rose. She hadn't noticed.
"Baby, your pet cat is treated like a queen in a town of wolves. Last week, someone overheard you say you wanted cupcakes and three of our female shifters got into a fight over who would make them for you."
Rowena gasped. "Is that why there were so many cupcakes at your house last week? I thought you had a secret cupcake addiction like my old neighbor, Benny."
Cross chuckled.
"Don't laugh! It's a real thing. Poor Benny gained fifty pounds and Diabetes before he joined a support group. Are you mad I won't agree to being turned?"
He brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed her wrist. "No. I'll take you any way I can get you. I think you'll love being a wolf-shifter though. We can be your new family."
Cross parked in a spot near the nursing home doors.
Rowena sighed. "Not everyone in my family is totally heinous. My abuela is practically a saint, she's such a sweet woman. Growing up, my cousin Carmen tried to monopolize her attention. Abuela would always make time for me. She taught me how to make tortillas."
He lifted her hand again, lightly biting the fleshy part of her palm. "I'm happy you had that."
"Sometimes, I wonder if I could be more calm and sweet like my abuela. Maybe the rest of my family would've been more accepting of me."
A growling hum erupted from his chest. "Your family doesn't deserve you, Rowena. You're perfect the way you are."
She grinned. "That's right... keep saying sweet things to me, Cross. You're totally worthy to be a book-boyfriend. Did you know that?"
"A what?"
"A book boyfriend. When you read a book and it has a handsome male lead who is super sweet, he becomes a book boyfriend."
"Oookay," Cross said, his tone clearly not understanding. "But you have me. So, you don't have a book boyfriend, right?"
Rowena smirked. "No, I don't have a book boyfriend."
Cross relaxed.
"I have seven," Rowena said, before pushing her door open. "Pick me up in four hours, please."
"Wait! Who are these book boyfriends? Should I be worried?" Cross demanded to know. Rowena shook her head and waved before heading to the nursing home's entrance.
Despite being sentenced to community service, Rowena looked forward to the assignment. She could finally spend some one-on-one time with her grandmother which she hadn't done recently. Perhaps her grandmother could help her learn to control her temper.
Rowena entered the double glass doors when she heard a familiar voice screeching at the top of her lungs.
"Pinche bruja! You think I don't know you snuck into Nicholas' room last night? I'll kill you, you pinche puta, Jasmine!" A woman with gray hair and rose earrings yelled.
Rowena's mouth fell open. Rosa Flores, the grandmother she only knew as a calm and placid woman who wore huipil dresses and read palms, lunged forward as two orderlies held her back.
Across from her, a woman in purple sweat clothes and white curly hair, smirked. A short man in his seventies stood between the two women, clutching his walker, looking confused. He wore a green sweater with a picture of Rudolph on it. A Santa hat sat haphazardly on his head and his blue eyes were wide behind his thick-rimmed glasses.
Behind her abuela, Rowena saw an elderly brunette wearing a rose headband and another familiar-looking woman dressed in a rose-print dress. Both women were urging her grandmother to break Jasmine's hip.
"Nicholas is mine!" Rosa bellowed, throwing a bingo marker at Jasmine. The other woman didn't dodge fast enough, and it hit her head, knocking her white wig askew.
Jasmine huffed and set her wig straight before a tube of arthritis cream smacked her in the cheek. She lifted the whistle around her neck and blew into it, causing Rowena to grimace at the shrill sound.
"Stop picking a fight, Rosa Flores!" Jasmine snapped. "Did you forget I'm the activities director? If you keep this up I'll ban you from bingo nights and pinochle Sundays!"
One of the women behind her grandmother gasped. "No pinochle Sundays? You evil hussy!"
A bottle of baby Asprins went flying toward Jasmine.
"Enough!" A handsome male with light brown hair and dark brown eyes came running into the lobby followed by five other orderlies. His doctor's coat didn't hide his built figure.
"Hello, Dr. Do Me," the woman wearing the rose dress said, grinning. "Are you here for my gynecological appointment?"
The handsome doctor huffed in frustration. "Rose, for the millionth time, my name is not Dr. Do Me. It's Dr. Domé and I'm a psychiatrist, not a gynecologist."
Rose shrugged. "Back in my day, a doctor let you tickle his pickle to keep the hysteria away." She leaned forward in her wheel chair. "What about a--"
Dr. Domé shook his head. "No, I'm not giving you a pap smear, Rose!"
A few nurses snickered, shaking their heads.
Rowena stepped forward. "Abuela?"
Rosa Flores froze.
"Abuela, is that you?" Rowena asked.
Everyone turned at once to see Rowena with her hands on her hips, her mouth still open in shock.
Dr. Domé cleared his throat before stepping forward with his hand stretched out to Rowena. "You must be Rowena Flores. Judge Wiseman's office called about the community service."
"Rosa, your granddaughter is the one who got busted for assault?" the woman wearing a rose headband asked.
"Cállate la boca, Rosita," Rowena's abuela spat, basically telling her friend to shut her mouth.
"I remember her," Rose snapped her bony fingers together. "I saw you stuff a weiner in a clown's ear! You're the hooker!"
Rosa turned a pair of glaring eyes at Rose. Rose gave a weak smile before saying, "Did I call her a hooker? I meant to say she was a looker. Back in my day, that's what we called a beautiful girl."
Dr. Domé sighed before lowering his voice so only Rowena could hear. "Please excuse the Deadly Roses. They are a bullying triad and notorious for starting trouble. The owner tried kicking them out but our lawyers said we couldn't."
Rowena pointed to Rosa. "She's my abuela."
Dr. Domé's smile fell. "I-is that so?"
"Step aside, Dr. Do Me," Rosita demanded as she shoved the psychiatrist to one side. "I've never seen a hooker in real life."
"Rosita, you've seen Jasmine," Rosa, Rowena's abuela reminded her.
Rowena heard someone--presumably Jasmine, gave an affronted gasp of indignation, before stomping off with her tennis shoes squeaking against the tiled floor.
"Abuela, when you told tía Josephine you wanted to enter the nursing home to make friends, we didn't think you'd form a gang of old ladies!"
"Who are you calling old, you hooker?" Rose shouted waving a bottle of Ensure.
Rosa glared at Rose.
"I said, Looker, Rosa! Not hooker! Looker!"
"Rowena, mi nieta. What happens in Happy Trails, stays in Happy Trails. Do you understand?" Rosa asked her granddaughter.
Rowena swallowed. She heard her father say his mother could get scary, but she'd never seen it first-hand. She bobbed her head in agreement.
Rosa patted her hand. "I'll see you later, mi nieta." She turned to Rosita and Rose and jerked her head to one side. The other two women followed her down the hall.
As she spun the wheels of her wheelchair forward, Rose looked back, pointed a bony finger at Rowena and mouthed, "Hooker."
"What just happened?" Rowena whispered to herself.
Dr. Domé leaned forward. "I know she's your grandmother, but try to stay clear of the Deadly Roses when they're together. Jasmine is a fellow resident they've been picking on."
"The woman with the whistle?" Rowena asked.
Dr. Domé nodded. "Nicholas is one of our residents. All the ladies seem to like him and fight over him."
"Nicholas was the man wearing the Santa hat?"
Dr. Domé nodded. "He loves Christmas. One of the nurses told me he likes to sit women on his lap and ask them if they've been good or bad."
Rowena grimaced.
Dr. Domé chuckled. "It wasn't until I started working here that I realized how sexually active this population is."
Not wanting to think of her abuela that way, Rowena didn't comment. She listened as Dr. Domé Took her around the nursing facility, introducing her to staff and residents after having her fill out the volunteer paperwork.
"You have quite a colorful background," Dr. Domé said. "Normally, you wouldn't have passed the background check but we're privately funded and Judge Wiseman knows the owner. Connections can make or break you, right?"
That made Rowena wonder who else worked at Happy Trails with a dubious criminal history.
They entered a large room filled with long rectangular tables. A bald man wearing blue suspenders had his head down on the table, his arms outstretched around him.
"Is he dead?" Rowena gasped.
Dr. Domé frowned and stepped forward, checking the man's pulse. He sighed and gave the man a slight shake. "Paul?"
The old man jerked up with a sharp inhale of air. "I'm not dead, I'm sleeping!"
Dr. Domé turned to Rowena. "This is Paul. He has narcolepsy." The psychiatrist asked Paul, "Did you want to stay here or would you like us to walk you to your room?"
Paul yawned, thinking over his options. "Lead me to my room, please. I can't remember how to get there."
Rowena listened as Dr. Domé showed her the different resident halls. The men were in one wing and the women in another.
They showed Paul to his room and were about to leave when a piercing scream filled the air. A pink-haired nurse in matching pink scrubs exited a room in a panic.
"Holly, what's wrong?" Dr. Domé asked.
The nurse's eyes widened when she saw Dr. Domé. "Doctor! It's Jasmine. She's been murdered!"
"Murdered? Surely, that can't be true," the psychiatrist muttered pushing his way past the gathering crowd.
Rowena followed, her eyes eyes darting around the room, noticing a small rose earring glinting in the light.
Dr. Domé coughed and looked away but Rowena couldn't stop staring. Jasmine laid on her bed, her eyes closed. Rowena would've thought she was sleeping if it weren't for the bloody knife sticking out of her chest.