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Hey, M. My occupational therapist just gave me the all-clear to go home.Any chance you can come spring me from hospital jail and take me grocery shopping before I head to my place? I don’t have any food in my fridge.
If Rob was contacting her, it meant that Dad was away somewhere on a job site for his construction business. She knew that Mom was over at the county courthouse in Salmon today.
She quickly typed her reply.
Of course.I’m on my lunch break, so the timing is good. Be there in fifteen minutes.
Rob was already waiting for her in the downstairs lobby when she arrived. He was dressed in pale blue medical scrubs. His long, dark-brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck, and he looked a heck of a lot better than he had the first night she’d seen him.
The deep lacerations left by the blackberry thorns were healed into thin pink lines now. Only his arm remained visibly injured, still enclosed in a structure of pins and connecting metal strips.
“Malia!” her brother exclaimed when she entered. He bent to kiss her cheek. He was easily a head taller than she was, with a bear shifter’s typical broad-shouldered build. “Thank God you’re here to rescue me from this place!”
“Hah! He’s a troublemaker, and we’re glad to be rid of him,” joked Gabby Tringstad, the clinic’s senior receptionist and a pack member. “Once the drugs wore off, all he did was complain about the food and the lack of entertainment. Even though the clinic subscribes to all of the major streaming services.”
“Life’s too short to lie in bed, watching TV,” Rob informed her. “I want to get out there and live! I can watch TV when I’m ninety and stuck in assisted living somewhere.”
Malia laughed, relieved to see her twin back to his usual lively self.
“C’mon, let me take this delinquent off your hands,” she said to Gabby, then made a show of surveying his injured arm. “Doesn’t look like it’s safe to cuff him yet, so I guess I’ll just take him to lunch.”
“Ha, ha, very funny, M,” Rob said. “Bye, Gabby! And tell the night shift nurses thank you for putting up with me, okay?”
“Take care, Rob,” Gabby responded, smiling. “And no offense, but I don’t want to see you back here anytime soon.”
* * *
“Look, I love and respect Great Uncle Bill, too,” Rob said fifteen minutes later, after Malia had told him about Lucas and what had happened in the wake of their dinner together. “But so far, I’ve only heard what other people want. Have you even stopped and asked yourself whatyouwant?”
“Well, actually…” Malia began.
“You haven’t, have you?” Rob waved a breadstick accusingly in front of her face.
They were seated on the patio of Al Fresco, an Italian restaurant located across the street from the riverside park, and waiting on their order of a large carnivore supreme pizza.
“The pack hates him,” Malia confessed. “Great Uncle Bill gave me that look when he heard about my date. You know the one. And you should have seen the text that Kymberlie sent me this morning! She thinks Lucas is the scum of the earth!”
Rob shook his head and sighed. “Who cares what they think?”
Malia couldn’t disguise her shock. Ignore the pack alpha? Or the cousin she admired?
“Seriously, you shouldn’t always be such a good little rule-follower,” Rob chided her. “Get in touch with your inner rebel once in a while. Like I did.” He tapped her nose with the breadstick. “Look, forget about all those old busybodies in the pack for a minute. What doyouwant from this Lucas fellow?”
Malia took a long sip from her iced tea, considering her answer. She and Rob might be complete opposites in personality, but she could always count on her twin to have her back.
“Just a fling,” she confessed. “I want my first time to be with someone who knows what he’s doing, and Lucas is perfect. We have amazing chemistry, I really like him, and he’s only going to be around for a week. So, no messy relationship stuff to deal with afterwards.”
Yes, her wolf agreed.You want him. He wants you.Then the beast urged,Court him.
No courting,she reminded her wolf sternly.Just a little bit of fun before he goes away.
She had the distinct impression of a canine grin, all parted jaws and lolling tongue.Lucas is fun. Not boring.
“That’s a good plan.” Rob nodded, his expression serious now. At least he wasn’t giving her crap about still being a virgin. “I wishmyfirst time had been with someone experienced. I mean, it was good, but it could have been spectacular. If you have a chance at ‘spectacular,’ I say go for it, and everyone else be damned.”
“But what if Lucas turns me down?” Malia asked, voicing the worry that had been plaguing her since he sent her that text. “I’ll look stupid. Pathetic.”
“No way.” Rob shook his head. “If you play it right, dude won’t have a chance. He may be trying to act all noble and shit, but M, you already know he wants you.” Her brother’s smile widened. “Just let him know that you want him, too, no strings attached, and let things play out. And don’t forget to use protection,” he added.
