Page 25 of Knotty, Nice, & Holiday Lights
Good.
Ugh. No, not good. I want Iz to be happy. She deserves to be loved and cared for by Alphas worthy of her.
“Yo dutti sodd,” Asher mutters, looking around the living room, and I think my brain just hiccuped.
“What?”
“Look at this place,” he says with no small amount of disgust. “Look at you,” he waves his arm at me with all the flair of a Broadway actor. “I can’t believe that Izzy still cares for you.”
My mouth falls open, and I blink before shutting it.
She still cares about me?
I mean, she was nice to me at Cuppa the other day, but she’s a good person. I didn’t take it as her being nice to me out of caring for me specifically. More like caring for a fellow human being.
“She and my brother, Will, are inexplicably concerned about your well-being. And that’s why I’m here.” He leans forward in the armchair, cutting me with a death glare. “Will wants me to invite you to the B&B for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. And if I’m honest, I’m not sure this visit is worth my time.”
“Willwants me there?” I ask the question more of myself than to Asher, but he answers anyway.
“Yes. My brother is very kindhearted. Perhaps too much so.” He squints at me. “Are you going to be a man and accept the invitation if I extend it to you? Or are you going to sit here in your filth being miserable for the rest of your life?”
The woman I love and lost still cares for me.
My would-be pack brother is worried about me being alone for the holiday.
Am I even worthy of this kindness?
I look Asher right in his dark eyes. “I need to talk to Iz first. Alone.”
Chapter Sixteen
After dinner, the front door swings open, surprising the hell out of me.
It’s easy to forget that this place is a Bed and Breakfast when it’s been just the three of us the whole time I’ve been here.
Asher moves like lightning, putting himself between me and the door on the couch, and I find my hand gripped in Will’s, until that all-too-familiar patchouli scent carries on the moving air before being neutralized.
Matthew.
He stands in the entryway looking more than uncomfortable in a brown coat and jeans, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he looks at me and clears his throat. “Hey, Iz.”
My heart is racing, and I hadn’t even realized it. “Hey, Matthew.”
Well, aren’t we a pair?
“I, uh… I wondered if you would take a walk with me to… chat. For a little while.”
The awkwardness of the situation is stifling, but when I look at Matthew, all I see is the handsome young man who spat his best game at me when we met at my job. Although he’s much more mature now, more handsome, even.
I smile at him. “Let me get my coat.”
After heading to my room and gearing up for the cold, I come back down the stairs to an odd energy in the living room. No one has said a word—I would have heard it with the door open—yet it’s as if Matthew, Asher, and Will have had a very serious conversation in my absence. The air is heavy.
“Let’s go,” I tell Matthew, maintaining my small smile as I gesture at the door.
Matthew steals a quick glance over my shoulder into the living room, and I turn to look at Will and Asher. “I’ll be back soon.”
“Enjoy your walk,” Will says, his tone and expression jovial.
