An Unexpected Mate

Chapter 3 - Work-life Balance

Lily was letting her mind wander as she walked to work. As she went through the list of tasks that needed to get done and mentally reviewed when she would need to pick up the kids, her mind all of a sudden flashed back to silver eyes. She thought she had seen the handsome stranger the other day while she was grocery shopping, but when she turned back around it was just a woman with a couple kids. Lily also thought she had seen him when picking up her oldest kid at school, as well as when she was picking up a package from the post office. What was wrong with her? She had other things to be worrying about.

There was only a month left of the semester and she had final exams and projects to finish prepping, along with planning out the summer and what she would be doing. What summer activities would there be for the kids? Should she start that new degree or not? Should she teach some summer classes to make a bit more money? Steve hated her working during the summer, thought she should be relaxing and taking care of the house and kids...but he also liked to spend the extra money that came in when she did take on a class or two.

Walking into her building, she saw her work friend Meredith, or Merry.  

"Hey. You need coffee this morning as much as I do?" Merry yelled from across the hall, waving over at Lily. The building was one of the larger ones on campus. The whole first floor was mostly windows around the outside with lecture halls on the interior. The upper floors held smaller classrooms and offices. Both her department and Merry's were housed in the building, although they were on separate floors.

"Oh my, yes!" Lily wasn't that close to Merry. Mostly they talked at work. She didn't really have time for friends or going out. Her time was divided between work and her kids. With Stephan often traveling for work, the household responsibilities fell on her. She loved her family, but sometimes felt overburdened and unappreciated. Everything seemed to fall on her... She had already had some coffee before coming into work, but she was feeling a pull to go outside and get something.

"Hey! Where did you go?"

Lily blinked and looked back to Merry. "Sorry. My mind wandered away there. I have been feeling pretty stressed lately. So many things to do."

"Oh my. I feel you!" Merry was great to chat with. They often swapped stories about life, but it was pretty superficial at work kind of friendship. As they walked to the coffee shop on campus, Lily's mind wandered. It had been years since she had a real friend...they all seemed to disappear as she turned her attention to Stephan and then to the family that they created. Had she lost herself in there too? What were her hobbies? When did she stop dancing? When was the last time she read a book without pictures or not tied to research? Who was she?

"Hey Lily. I lost you there again. You wanna talk something over? Maybe we need to have a drink sometime?"

As Lily sighed and agreed with Merry that she could use a drink and some adult conversation, she swore she saw mister silver eyes walking into the administration building across the way...as her mind went to drinking and dancing with strong arms, black hair, and silver eyes watching her move. She really needed that drink...

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Braxton quickly ducked into the admin building on the campus. Shit, she almost saw him. He was seriously starting to feel like a stalker, but his work kept seemingly throwing him into her path. Or maybe it was just the pull...

Braxton grabbed his ringing phone. "Yeah. I am here. The paperwork should be done soon. I'm working on making sure we have a segment of the dorms set aside for our admits now."

Lucas asked him a couple more questions as his mind wandered to the last couple of weeks. His company was trying to branch out and diversify. This work, combined with getting additional cooperative agreements and plans settled had been a pain. He wanted to modernize, but this was pretty ridiculous. Maybe he should delegate more.

His phone rang again. "Sure Kristy, I can swing by the grocery store. What do we need now?" At least he wouldn't run into her there again, since he just saw her at the local university. Last time he grabbed a few things while in town, he had found himself following the unique aroma of caramel and coffee through the aisles as his mystery woman picked up a variety of essentials. The pull had been so strong to his wolf that Braxton hadn't even noticed his movements until it was almost too late.

He kept bumping into her. First the grocery store, then dropping some kids off for a soccer intensive at a rival school, once just driving through town, and again at the post office while he was dropping off mail. He even thought he saw her while leaving the bank as well. It was as if the pull was becoming stronger over the last few weeks and he couldn't keep from seeing her. They had more than likely lived in the same town for years and had never met, now he was seeing her everywhere.

Maybe if he just met her, just chatted briefly, he could forget. The elusiveness was what made her alluring, it wasn't like she was his soul mate...she was married already, she had a mate...