Page 22 of Leave Me
“Hey.” I refocused on him and gave him a smirk back to let him know I wasn’t bothered by the kiss or any ensuing gossip. “Sorry I’m late. Are you having fun?”
“It’s great to see everyone grown up and making babies,” he laughed, and it was deeper, but still just as warm as ten years before.
“Everyone being cool?” I asked, fanning myself by pulling my top away from my skin.
Thankfully, the picnic area was shaded. There were multiple dishes laid out on one table with fruit and veggies, meat and cheese spreads, and it looked like someone was barbecuing. Actually, I could smell the hot dogs.
“Yeah, it’s wild,” Fowler rubbed the back of his neck. “You hungry? Thirsty? There’s a drinks cooler over there.”
“I might be a little thirsty,” I told him, biting my lip to hide my smile at the innuendo.
Fowler caught it and grinned back. “I might be more than a little hungry.”
Chapter fifteen
Fowler
At The Barn, I hadn’t really talked to anyone except my friends, so, despite my disappointment when I showed up and Riley wasn’t there, I was enjoying myself. I had played multiple team sports and knew everyone, and they all seemed to take my chosen identity in stride.
Being back home—back in Blue Lake—was easier than I expected. I’d built it up to be this dark, evil place where I would be shunned and booed out of town. I thought the memories of every place and person I met would haunt me.
I also thought I’d leave the morning after my father’s funeral, and yet there I was.
Seeing my sister and Gramps came with guilt, but I also felt how much they loved me. After years of feeling unloved and unwanted, not having anyone in my corner except my friend Hudson Bradley, I didn’t know how to let them love me. Either way, I knew they were there, and I wouldn’t stay away so long again.
Catching up with Ricky and Rel, along with Uncle Clark and Rowen, reminded me why Pack was so important. I had Hudson and his partner Matteo, but there was something different about being around people who swore to protect your family with blood. They’d all been there for Channing and Gramps when I hadn’t.
And then there was Riley.
Riley, who was standing beside me with a cold soda, laughing at something a classmate said. Despite my heightened hearing, I hadn’t heard a word of what she’d said. I smiled because I couldn’t take my eyes off how beautiful this man was.
Riley, who’d kissed me with more passion than I’d felt from a lover in a long time. Possibly ever. And I wanted more.
Riley, who smelled even stronger in the daylight, with sweat dripping from his honey-blond hair that I wanted to lick. But that would probably be inappropriate in the park. Right?
“Weren’t you, King?” asked the man beside the woman who made Riley laugh, and I shook my head to clear it. I knew these people and had been talking to them before Riley showed up.
The woman was Cara Simpson—Cara Hampton, now, since the man was her husband, Artie Hampton. We’d played soccer together, and he was always a friendly guy. They had blue-eyed kids running around, and I wondered if Riley’s children would have blue eyes like him.
“King was a great team captain,” Riley answered for me, and I realized I’d been tuning out a lot to stare at him.
“Thanks, Ri.” I smiled down at him like he’d just said I hung the moon. He might be a little distracting.
Cara asked Riley about his recent travels, and I listened more closely while looking around at everyone in attendance. It was a pretty good turnout for the low-key event. As long as Riley was having fun, I would be there.
“My favorite from last year was probably Bangkok.”
“I loved Thailand, too,” Cara replied.
A bike rumbled up, and my wolf took notice, listening for a possible threat. I’d been on the lookout for two men in particular, Zac and Zed, who were Riley’s biggest bullies in high school.
Before Riley arrived, I’d been grateful there weren’t any classmates from Lakeview. Most of them were backwoods assholes who’d bullied Riley and me when they weren’t joining their dads in annoying our pack. They were bear shifters on the western shore of Blue Lake, and also a rival bike gang to my own family’s pack.
Well, they called themselves a gang and were firmly in the criminal world with rumored arms dealing. The MacTaryn family, led by Jedadiah, was always trying to mess with our pack and lands, but their numbers had dwindled along with all shifter packs in the modern world. The McTaryns were also rumored to be into meth, which I’d heard from Channing. I had no doubt that his twin sons, Zacarias and Zedediah, were following the same path.
Instead of a pair of giant redheads, it was another old friend. Kono Dasan was in the same class as Riley and me, and he was a coyote shifter from the Rancheria in Northlake. His family had been on the lake for centuries before Europeans showed up, and the King pack always respected their right to the land and the lake.
Kono approached with his long, dark hair tied back, and I could appreciate how good he looked in dark jeans and a tight, white tank top that contrasted with his warm umber skin. His shoulders had filled out, and I knew he was next in line to lead his tribe. Most of them were not shifters, but Kono was an alpha like his father. An alpha like me.
