Page 68 of Harvest Moon

“We’ve gotten ourselves in a real bind here, Banjo,” I whispered. But the cat wasn’t bothered. He was picking his claws at Alexis’s blanket, burying into the warm spot I’d left behind. Nobody appreciated a nice warm spot like a barn cat.

I was just working up my nerve to go out and greet everybody, the bedroom door swung open and Alexis stuck his head in.

“Oh. You’re up.” His smile was a little nervous, but that might have something to do with the sweat that’d broken out on my forehead. “Breakfast is ready.”

“Thanks.” My voice caught and went then. “They—um, your cousin and her husband—they out there?”

“Yeah?” Alexis’s gaze searched my face, and I caught his eye. I wasn’t backing down, but you couldn’t blame a man for being a little nervous.

“And they... know I’m here?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Birch and I made a bunch of bacon. Plenty for two alphas.”

Birch Wilson knew I was there in his house, had had my way with his cousin by marriage, and he’d made me a plate of bacon.

Son of a freaking biscuit.

“Is something wrong?” Alexis asked, a bitter edge coming into his tone. He stepped in and shut the door behind him, his arms raising at once to cross his chest.

Holy hell, I didn’t want to make him mad at me again.

“No. No, it’s notwrong, I just—I wanted to make a good impression with your family.” Alexis’s ma already didn’t like me, and if you looked at my bank statements, I wasn’t any kind of good match for anybody. If I went around whisking Alexis to bed before I’d even had a proper conversation with Birch and Claudia—was there any coming back from that?

“They like you,” Alexis insisted.

“They did. But we—”

“Do you regret last night?”

“No.” Already, this was getting all twisted up, and the bacon smell was making my mouth water and my brain useless. “No,” I repeated, gripping the tops of his arms. “Last night was perfect.”

“But you think we went too fast?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

I sighed. “If anything, I think I went too slow. But it’s not that, Lex. I—I wanted last night more than anything. But I should’ve done it different. Taken you out for dinner somewhere nice a couple times first.”

“That’s ridiculous.” He narrowed his eyes up at me. “I don’t need you to bribe me to be with you.”

“No, I know that. But I want your family to think I mean to court you proper. I should’ve brought a gift for Mrs. Claudia.”

“Like a hostess gift?”

“Yeah.”

Finally, we were starting to understand each other.

“So now you’re trying to bribe my cousin so you can be with me?”

Or not.

I huffed, dropping my head, but when Alexis reached out and tilted my chin up again, he was smiling.

“I appreciate you worrying. Really, it’s sweet. But you don’t need to. Do you care more about their opinion of you or mine?”

I grimaced. “Can I say both?”

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