Page 35 of Sunshine

Besides, a voice whispered, it wasn’t like we were ever going to date.

“Why did she stay up all night with you?” Julian asked, bringing me back to my other train of thought.

“After my parents died. I didn’t handle it well.”

Losing my parents was hard. The nighttime was the worst. My siblings and cousins would be asleep, and I’d wake up in a cold sweat, my heart pounding in my chest, utterly certain someone I loved had died.

“She would stay up with me, on the phone or Internet, and talk to me about boys we liked, what we wanted to do with our lives, or books we read.”

“Oh, babe.” Julian hugged me. I relaxed into his arms and sighed. He felt so warm and safe.

Some of the jagged edges of the stress dissolved.

“Thanks.” I squeezed him and stepped back.

“Can we talk more about this? Later?” He looked hopeful.

I nodded. “Later sounds good.”

I walked him over to their booth. It was technically two booths in one. One side had the calendar and gift baskets that had been donated by local businesses to be raffled off, and the other had a small, raised stage set up. A plastic tub big enough for two people sat next to a few chairs.

Firefighters roamed around, doing the final touches.

Julian raised his hand and then pointed at me. “Everyone, this is my friend Sunshine. Sunshine, this is everyone.”

A woman rolled her eyes. “Very helpful.” She held her hand out. A beta woman maybe a little older than me, she radiated calm competence. “I’m Chloe.”

The rest of the crew introduced themselves, but I immediately forgot their names. Which was probably why Julian didn’t introduce me to everyone all at once.

The only one I remembered was Chuck, and that was because of Julian’s stories. He was exactly like I’d pictured, a middle-aged alpha man with brown hair and a goatee—handsome in a gym rat sort of way, and very full of himself.

The alpha barely glanced at me before looking at Julian. “Thought you said your pack was closed, Kahele.”

The ice bath station seemed like a harebrained idea, but they had a massive poster talking about the health benefits of ice baths and how sitting in ice would raise money for their charity because local businesses pledged donations.

Julian frowned. “When did I say that?”

“You keep telling everyone that hits on you that you like your pack small.” Chuck made it sound like an accusation.

I stifled a giggle. Maybe Chuck had a thing for Julian, hence all his pissy aggression.

“We do like our pack small.” Julian crossed his arms over his chest. “I never said our pack was closed.”

My brain frizzed out. I’d made the same assumption. I’d heard Julian tell people they liked their pack small plenty of times. My mouth dried up and my mind circled the tone in Julian’s voice, of confusion and annoyance, how he had said, ‘I never said our pack was closed’.

I almost asked about Logan telling me years ago they weren’t dating, and then more recently, Luca echoing the same thoughts. They didn’t need the matchmaking services because they weren’t dating.

“This is the same beta you talk to at work all the time and play games with.” Again, Chuck made it sound like Julian was slacking off.

“Right,” Chloe cut in drily. “And you aren’t always texting like ten people. But you’d prefer not to settle down.”

Chuck huffed and stomped off to move tables around.

Julian turned to me. “I’ll see you around seven?”

I nodded, still feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. He said their pack wasn’t closed, but they didn’t need the dating service from Cosmic Bonds. It didn’t make sense to me, and I wanted to ask him now, before the moment was lost forever.

He looked at the booth. “Things should be winding down around then.”

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