Page 33 of Midlife Wolf Captured My Heart

Dakota smiled.I’ll be there in twenty.

He stopped by his house to grab his computer and visited the liquor store. Exactly twenty minutes later he was on her doorstep.

She hugged him, took the beer, and invited him in. The pizza arrived five minutes later. He told her about the ordeal on the mountain.

Sadie put her hand on his arm. “You must have been terrified.”

“Let’s just say that I was a little nervous.” He grinned.

“Mm-hmm. I should let Matthias know.”

“I sent an email to Zac with the picture of one of the men I managed to get. I’m sure that he’ll send it to Matthias and Lucious. If you want to let Matthias know, though, it couldn’t hurt. If I get his email, I can send him the pic as well.”

Sadie grabbed her phone and quickly tapped out a text to Matthias.

“I’m amazed at how fast you can text. It takes me a lot longer.”

She grinned wickedly. “I’m of the cell phone generation, sir. Not the rotary phone generation.”

“Ouch. That might have hurt my feelings.”

Her phone buzzed with a message from Matthias.Thanks for letting me know. Zac filled me in. I sent out emails to everyone.

After they ate, he opened his computer and let her read the first chapter of his wolf book.

“Wow. This is really terrific. Even people who don’t care about animals will be captivated by this. I can picture your photographs with just your words.”

“Thank you. That means a lot to me.”

“I’d better get a signed copy when it comes out. As a matter of fact, I’d better get an advanced signed copy.”

“You got it.”

A few minutes later her phone buzzed again. “I wonder if Matthias has an update.”

She frowned when she saw who the text was from. “I’ve told him twice that I’m not interested in rekindling a relationship.”

Dakota raised his eyebrows.

“It’s Billy. He came to the house and asked if I would give us a second chance. I told him ‘no.’ Then, he asked again at the ceremony honoring his grandfather. I told him ‘no.’ He just texted me and asked if he could take me out to dinner tomorrow night.”

“You’re not telling him no because of me, are you? Because you know that we’re not…”

A look of pain crossed Sadie’s face, which she quickly banished. She shook her head. “No. It has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with the fact that I don’t have any feelings for him at all. What we had was puppy love. Neither of us is the same person we were before. He is in love with what was and who I was. He doesn’t know the Sadie I am today.”

“It is easy to get caught up in memories and a longing for what was. However, as they say, whoever they are, you can never come back home, because while home might not have changed, you have, and you’ll see it from a new light.”

“Yep. It makes me think of Deanna Carter’s song,Strawberry Wine.Part of the song asks whether she misses her old lover or if she misses her innocence. It’s too easy to mistake the two because the old lover represents part of that innocence.”

“It could be.”

“It might also just be that I’m familiar. Before he left, we were together. Now that he’s back, it is comfortable that we are together, especially since he just lost his grandfather.”

“That makes sense.”

Sadie shook her head and typed two words: “No.”

“Abrupt.”

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