Page 68 of Hunter Moon

Maybe it was just the last of my heat convincing me that I needed him there, his hands so easy to grab, his fingers on my body almost idly, like he sensed my need and wanted me too.

A little grin broke out on his face as he took a sip and lowered his glass again. “Sounds good. The Cider House?”

“Absolutely.” Right then, nothing was as tempting as a basket of deep-fried goodness, and since the place had Ridge Paterson’s seal of approval, I figured we’d be okay eating there. It was nice to know omegas could still have some junk food, so long as it wasn’t Sterling-brand garbage. Talin wasn’t going to do anybody any harm if she could help it—least of all Shiloh’s disaster of a big brother.

We finished off our lemonades and when we got back to the living room, I announced, “We’re going out. Anybody want anything from The Cider House?”

“No, thank you,” Mom said.

Harmony grunted.

Shiloh gave me a half smile. “I get enough of our stuff on shift, but thanks.”

“Okay. Lemme know if you change your mind.” I went for my jacket, held my hand out for Aspen’s, but we hadn’t even gotten to the door before Harmony cleared her throat. She held up a small, folded piece of paper between her first two fingers and stared at Aspen.

Weirdly, he went right over and snatched the thing out of her hands. “You have my number if you think of anything else you need.”

“Uh huh.”

When he turned back to me, he was wearing the strangest look on his face, like he’d won a prize or something.

“Mind if I drive?” he asked halfway to his car.

“Right now, I barely trust my legs to hold me upright, much less operate Dad’s old truck. So go for it.”

There it was, that shit-eating, prideful grin of his that said he haddefinitelywon something big. “Worn out, huh?”

I bumped into his shoulder with my full weight, but he barely budged. “Shut up.”

We got to the door, and he opened the passenger side up for me. I dropped into the seat, none too gracefully. With my legs still out and my feet on the curb, I looked up at him. “You gonna tell me what that was, between you and Harm?”

He shrugged, but damn if that smile wasn’t plastered on his face still. This was Aspen, doing what he was made for—stepping up and filling the roles we needed him to.

“She just asked me to pick up a couple things.”

Holy hell, I’d never seen a guy so pleased to be given chores to do. But there he was, he had his marching orders and he was going to see them through.

“Ooh. Lunchanda trip to the grocery store.” My hand fluttered to my chest and I swung my legs into the cab. “Don’t know how I ever got so lucky.”

He shut the door once all my parts were safely inside, and through the door, I heard him mumble, “Me either.”

43

Aspen

It was weird, having lunch with Brook right after his heat, just like old times. I got to smile and lean across the table and make ridiculous jokes, and instead of being annoyed or wanting me gone, he gave me that old indulgent smile.

It wasn’t perfect, and sometimes his eyes drifted to a spot over my shoulder, to a place I couldn’t be there for him. I could only hope that he let me be there when I could. When he could.

Even grocery shopping with him felt right, like something we’d always done together, even though it’d been more than a decade, and back then, it’d been rare. Even when Brook had been playing father to his sisters, Rhonda had done the majority of the shopping, since she’d also still been doing the cooking.

“Seriously, Asp, Mom doesn’t care what kind of butter it is.” Brook was leaning on the shopping-cart handle, arms folded and body bent over the child seat, watching me with more of that indulgent amusement. “It’s just butter.”

I shook my head, putting back the box I’d picked up, and grabbing a tub instead. “Nope. It was this kind she needed. For the muffins this morning.” I glanced back at the case, shrugged, and grabbed the box as well. “Guess she could probably use both anyway.”

He laughed and shook his head, but he didn’t try to stop me from putting both in the cart.

By the time we finished with everything on the list, I had twice as much stuff as Harmony had asked for, and I worried over it as we checked out. Would she be annoyed if I got more than she wanted? Would she see it as me being overbearing? Trying too hard?

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