Page 44 of Destined For The Wolf Daddy

“I know,” I said with a little chuckle.

“Do you?” she asked. “Like, do you really have it internalized just how proud of you I am?”

I looked over at her, finding her eyes serious and clear despite the wine we’d drunk. I blinked and found myself getting a little flustered by Lana’s sudden seriousness. It was common for her to be sort of snarky and tongue-in-cheek. She often couched her compliments in sarcasm, avoiding the vulnerability it required to give the compliment in the first place. But she was looking at me now, her gaze uncompromising.

“You know, when I met you by chance in that bus station, when I bought you the ticket for the seat next to mine, you were just a shell of yourself,” she said. “You looked like a ghost. Even as I helped you get yourself back together, I kept wondering if the shoe would drop, if you’d chicken out and go back running to Wyatt. I know that’s kind of shitty of me, but you know how I am. Cynicism bordering on nihilism.”

I nodded. “I don’t blame you, you didn’t know anything about me, after all. To be honest, I kept wondering when the other shoe would drop, too. Kept wondering if you’d get tired of me and kick me to the curb. Back then, I was so down on myself, it was hard for me to believe someone could just be kind to me for no reason. I still find myself surprised by it sometimes.”

“Sometimes, I wonder if it was fate that brought us together like that,” Lana said, looking down at Paulette. “Like I said. I’m a cynic, but…sometimes, things are too uncanny to be a coincidence. I mean, what are the chances my flight would have been canceled the very same day I needed to get home for work? The same day you found yourself with nothing at the bus station after being turned away by everyone. It just feels like everything aligned.”

“It did,” I said, nodding. “I actually think about that stuff a lot, about the way things just sort of happened that way. How everything fell into place. Sometimes, I wonder if that’s an indication that I’m on the right track for once.”

“What do you mean?”

I paused to put my thoughts in order. “You know how you go through life, and it just feels like things refuse to work out like they should? Like every turn you take is just difficulty after difficulty. Struggle after struggle. Hurdle after hurdle. My whole life felt that way up until the point I met you.”

I looked over at her, seeing her hands had paused, resting gently in Paulette’s hair.

“After meeting you, things just felt easy. I had a place to live, room to rest and heal, and finally, a job that was the easiest to get out of any other job I’d ever had. I literally careened right into the love of my life and fell in love with his family. His family accepted and loved me like my own never had. Now I’m married, cuddling with my girlfriends in a giant bed in a beautiful lakeside home. It’s like I blinked, and I’m suddenly here. It’s still hard for me to believe sometimes.”

My eyesight blurred with some traitorous tears that had suddenly decided to appear. I lifted my hand from Rosie’s brow to catch the tears before they fell, sniffing quietly as the gratitude hit me like a truck.

“I’m just…so, so glad you were the one I met that day. I’m so proud to call you my friend. And I’m so happy you chose to be in my life and continue to choose it,” I said.

Lana’s eyes had welled up, too, and she put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me in against her. “Me too,” she said. “Your compassion, your sweetness, your perseverance—they’re so inspiring to me. I’m constantly trying to figure out how to be more like you—softer and kinder. More forgiving.”

“And I’m constantly trying to be a badass like you,” I said through a tearful laugh. “You know, sometimes when I have to be a real hardass, I try to just channel my inner Lana. If I’m pretending to be you, I almost always find the ability to toughen up.”

“Fuck off, do you really?” Lana asked through her own wet laugh. “You’re so fucking cute. I’m so glad you’re my friend.”

“You’re practically my sister at this point,” I said.

“Yeah, sisters,” she said, swiping some tears from her face. “You know, I always wanted a sister.”

“Well, now you’re stuck with one,” I quipped. “Sorry for your loss.”

She snorted a laugh and turned her head to kiss my temple. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

I leaned my head against her shoulder and exhaled softly, closing my eyes. Yeah. Everything I’d been through had brought me here.

And even though things were still so hard and scary, even though there was so much still up in the air, I wouldn’t have it any other way, either.

Chapter 9

Cole

“Hey, so what do you think about hosting a campaign event for Lana?” Travis asked me.

“Huh?” I asked, somewhat distracted by the research I was doing on the adoption process for Noah.

Travis and I were sitting in the beach house, waiting for my mom to bring Noah over. My parents had been a godsend when it came to Noah, honestly. When the three of us had moved to spending most of our time up the hill, I was worried I would have to take Noah out and move him to the local school or do homeschooling. It wouldn’t have been hard, with Marley already qualified, but I hadn’t wanted to take him away from his friends.

My mother and father, though, loved having an excuse to spoil their grandson. They’d been picking him up each day and holding onto him, keeping him busy until I could get myself to New Middle Bluff to pick him up.

“Say again?” I asked Travis once more. “I didn’t catch it.”

“Lana? My girlfriend? Your friend? Campaign event?” he asked again.

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