Page 41 of Wolf Lost

So much sex.

They might have actually had sex on the kitchen counter when Sawyer had first decided he wanted the peanut butter, but also Dez at the same time. Maybe. They sure weren’t telling the guys about that.

But it might not have mattered. There had been no turned up noses or childish jokes about all the sex he and Dez had just finished having. It had been straight back to life as usual.

Asher wanted them to use the kitchen more—hence the groceries—Gavin wanted to talk about plans for the shop, and Dez rolled his eyes and looked grouchy but did whatever they asked him to.

“So, Ash and I went and got the red paint for the walls of the shop,” Gavin said as he started helping Sawyer put things away. He pulled out a bag of sugar and looked at Sawyer, eyebrows lifted in question, so Sawyer pointed him to the cupboard with the other baking stuff.

Warmth suffused Sawyer, shaking the last of the heat’s chill out of his bones. “You guys decided on the crimson I suggested?”

“Of course. You were right—it’s cozy. Plus it’ll be easy to decorate for pretty much any holiday.” Gavin uncovered a cache of frozen vegetables and knelt in front of the fridge to pile them into a bin in the freezer. “You feel up to painting this afternoon?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sawyer agreed. Dez looked up at him, as though needing a visual confirmation that Sawyer wasn’t only agreeing in order to make Gavin happy.

He hugged the box of pasta in his hands against his chest. It was really as simple as that. Heat over, back to life, with no funny looks or snide comments.

And he was right. Those walls were going to look awesome in crimson.

22

In My Mind

Ash rapped on the last table as he set it in place across from the counter, its black laminate that resembled the granite main counter giving a hollow thump. Dez could almost see Gavin frowning at it, like it would have been better to get black granite-topped tables or something silly like that.

Ash turned and held his hands up with a flourish. “Well? That’s it. Last one.”

Kareni Noble gave him a round of applause. “Very nicely done. The Kozlowskis would have been impressed. They were always talking about remodeling the shop.”

“You should see the kitchen,” Ash said. Before he could get too excited and drag the woman off to give her a tour, Gavin cleared his throat. Ash sighed but didn’t insist that she needed to see his amazing kitchen appliances.

She gave him a knowing smile but turned back to Gavin. “So when are you planning to open?”

“As soon as someone can figure out how to work that thing,” Dez broke in, motioning to the coffee maker. At least, that was what he assumed it was, and not some kind of medieval torture device.

Ash scowled at him, then gave Kareni a tight smile. “So soon, since I’ve almost figured it out.”

Dez loved Ash. He really did. He would die to protect the man—had, in fact, almost done so. But he hadn’t fallen off the turnip truck the night before. “Yeah? Then how about a round of coffee?”

At that, Gavin choked down a laugh, lowering his head and bringing his hand up to try to cover it, but not even Kareni, the human who knew them least well, was fooled.

“I suppose they didn’t find a manual while they were doing the remodeling?” She bit her lip and looked back in the direction of her store. Dez wondered whether she was trying to think of another book to help, or if she only wanted to escape.

Ash hopped the counter and walked over to the machine, looking at it like it was, well, a medieval torture device. He knocked on a book sitting next to the machine and looked at her. “The book you had helped, I think. See, this is for frothing milk. And that’s the ‘on’ button. And it has three, um, groups.”

“Groups of what?” Sawyer asked, joining Ash behind the counter and poking at the machine.

“You don’t want to touch that. It gets hot when you turn the machine on.”

Sawyer yanked his hand back, but just as quickly found his courage again. He grabbed something that looked like a handle and moved it around until he figured which way it was supposed to go. It came away from the machine with what looked a little like a circular silver mallet at the end, except that it was hollow.

Tellingly, Ash looked a little horrified.

Dez sighed and shook his head, then turned to Gavin. “I have an idea. Help me pick it up?”

“Pick it up?” Ash asked, even more bothered. He looked like he was going to throw his arms around the thing, despite the fact that he also clearly didn’t want to touch it. “You can’t get rid of it. I looked it up, and it’s, like, a twenty-thousand-dollar machine. It’s worth more than my car, you guys.”

Gavin quirked a brow at Dez, who scoffed, and motioned him over to the machine. “Help me lift this edge up,” he instructed. Together, they hefted one edge of the thing off the counter.

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