Page 108 of Talk About… History

“You know what? I’m going to call my mama myself,” I said to Ford, standing up and grabbing my phone.

The phone rang twice before she answered. “There she is! How are you feeling?”

“Hey, Mama,” I said. “I’m good. My heat’s over finally. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be.”

“I’m glad, sweetheart. You deserve that. Heats are meant to be something amazing. Now, tell me why you’re calling your mama post-heat?”

“Because I’m feeling better, everything’s back to normal, and I want to see my family. Can we have a cookout tonight? We’ll bring the food.”

She paused for a moment and I almost thought she’d tell me no.

“I think that’s a great idea. Do you think I could bring a date?”

Laughter bubbled out of me at the thought. “I think the better question is, can your date handle coming to our cookout?”

“No better way to find out than throwing him in the deep end,” she hummed. “I think he’ll be able to handle it.”

“Then bring it on, Mama.”

“Okay, bye, I’ve got a house to clean and your brothers to call. Love you,” she said in a rush before ending the call.

Shaking my head, I grabbed the notebook that Cohen kept in the kitchen drawer and started a list. The nice thing to do would be to call my brothers and let them know what was coming their way, but I thought it would be more fun to watch it unfold.

There were already several cars in front of the house when we pulled up. I stepped out of the car and voices drifted in from the backyard.

The sight of my brothers sitting with surly looks on their faces and arms crossed nearly sent me into a fit of laughter. They were definitely playing up the ‘protective sons’ role, and Mama was just ignoring them.

There was an older alpha at her side. He had silver hair combed back and styled to perfection. Even though he was dressed casually, he looked well-dressed—his jeans perfectly pressed, his button-down shirt folded up to the elbows, and the top few buttons unbuttoned.

He had a nice smile and a slight dimple, and the way he looked at my mama made me feel a whole lot better about the situation, especially when she gave him the same smile back.

“Avery,” my mama said the moment I walked in. She rushed over and pulled me into a hug. Her new beau walked up behind her, giving us space to greet each other.

“Hey, Mama. I’m so happy to see you,” I said, giving her a squeeze. “And who is this behind you?”

“This is Charlie. Isn’t he adorable?” she said. I’d never seen a grown man blush quite so furiously, but he did. His smile was smug and happy. They were definitely already taken with each other.

“Nice to meet you, Charlie. I’m Avery.”

“This is a much warmer greeting than I got from your siblings,” he joked. “Do you think they’ll ever come around?”

“If we give them time,” I reassured him, “treat my mama well and you’ll never have to worry about any of us.”

He gave a self-satisfied smile. “I really plan to, Avery. Your mom is fantastic.”

“She is,” I agreed, but I wasn’t going to let him get off that easily. “Tell me about yourself.”

“Well, I just retired recently. I was working in a law firm in the city and needed some fresh air, so I moved this way. I lost my pack pretty early in my thirties and stayed married to my job instead. Now that I have the freedom, I thought it was time to get on the apps. Oddly enough, we created our profiles the same day and matched right away.”

“We deleted them the same day, too,” my mama joked. “I really didn’t expect my first date to be so compatible, but here we are.”

“That’s amazing,” I gushed, giving her another hug. “I’m so happy for you. You deserve this, Mama.”

“I do, don’t I?” she said with a contented smile. “You know, you deserve them, too.” She nodded towards my pack, who were never far from me.

“You’re right,” I agreed. She stepped away with her date, and my pack took their place next to me. Though, Sidney rushed right in to steal me away.

“You’re not going to give me any details on this heat, are you?” she accused with a dramatic sigh.

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