“Why didn’t you walk away?”
“You were obviously a werewolf. I was looking for a werewolf.” I looked down at our laps pointedly. “And you have averynice cucumber.”
His lips stretched in a reluctant grin as he pulled me with him, leaning back against the couch a bit to make himself more comfortable. Whatever tension had remained in his shoulders was gone. “Finally, someone appreciates it.”
I laughed. “Definitely. I appreciate your house, too. This place is gorgeous.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah. Living here would be a dream. Reading a book in front of a fire while birds fly around the lake and the forest? I’m definitely not opposed. It’s too bad my job’s an hour away. There’s no way I’d be able to wake up early enough for that commute.”
“We could live there during the week and here on the weekends.”
“We could.”
Or I could take that online teaching job I’d been itching to accept.
I wasn’t going to bring up that option, though. We weren’t there yet. There was still a chance he could try to murder me.
The likelihood of that was seeming smaller and smaller, but still.
On top of that, my friends were opposed to me taking it.
So, the situation was complicated.
I’d just have to figure it out.
“Tell me about your friends,” Nico said. “You know the basics about my pack. You can meet them tonight, if you want. We usually have dinner together.”
“You saw all of them at the restaurant. Or your wolf did, I guess. It’s going to be an awkward conversation when you meet them in human form and I tell them you have the same name as the wolf.” I made a face.
“It’ll work out.”
“Fingers crossed.” I held mine up, and he did the same.
Then put his hand back on my hip.
“I’m closest with Jade. She teaches Biology 101. She hikes with Stella a lot, so they’re pretty close. I do things with everyone else too, though.” I rattled off their names and what they taught, and Nico listened like it was more interesting than it was. “Stella teaches art. Emmy teaches elementary education. Maya teachescooking. Zoe teaches math. Some people are closer than others, but we all hang out in a group a lot of the time.”
“They’re your pack,” Nico said.
“I guess so. I’ve never really had a pack before, so it’s been nice to have them. I don’t want to lose that if we end up being mates.”
“Wearemates. And that’s not going to happen. You’re not going to lose your friends because of me.”
“Here’s hoping.”
Nico stood up, lifting me off the couch with him. “Do you know what we need?”
“No…”
“Cookies.” He carried me back into the house and to the kitchen, setting me down on the countertop. “My grandma makes cookies for everything. She says they make the hard times easier and the good times better.”
“Then she sounds like a good grandma.”
“She is.”
I asked him questions about his childhood while he added ingredients to a stand mixer easily enough to prove he’d done it dozens of times before.
