Page 117 of She Wolf

She plays with the delicate bracelet around her wrist, eyes locked on it. “Actually, if it’s not too much trouble, can I get the Wi-Fi code?”

“Yeah course.” She passes me her phone and I type in the password.

44-H-O-T-4-C-O-R-A-L-I-E—courtesy of Adam. And for the life of me, I can’t change it.

“You’re all set. Anything else?”

“No, I’m just going to go and catch up with Hadley. He sent a text saying he was free to talk so-” She shrugs. “I’m going to fill him in and then probably get an early night.”

“Okay, we’ll be downstairs if you need us,” Coralie tells her.

“Night everyone.”

“Good night, Kate. See you in the morning. We’ll have pancakes and then make a plan for the day,” Jack tells her.

“Alright, super star, that sounds great.”

“Nighty, night, night,” he sing songs, and then she slips back into her room.

I understand that I keep referring to the spare rooms as theirs after only eight hours but I can’t tell you how good this feels to have the house so full. In a couple of weeks, it will be pre-season and I won’t have the time like I have now.

I hope they stay. I really do.

***

“Okay, I’ve got it!” Jack says as I levitate off the bed having been startled awake by the sleep stealer. Again. The door swings off its hinges as he jumps onto the bed and then scoots up the middle, finally landing in between me and his mom.

A sleepy smile sweeps across her face while Jack waves a bunch of papers in mine.

“I—hang on.” I sit up and plump the pillows behind me, scrubbing my hand over my face. He sits up on his knees and lays them out.

“What’s this?” A week has gone by with us all living under one roof and every morning something new happens. It didn’t occur to me that anyone else on the planet would wake up earlier than I do for pre-preseason training, but here he is, bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

“It’s our project for the yard. You said not a pool but something just as cool,” he points to the first sheet.

“A treehouse?” I say as I study the drawing.

“Yes, but cooler. Look. It’s on sticks!”

“Huh?” It is too early for this.

“Stilts,” Coralie whispers, eyes still closed. He passes me the other drawings, each one more detailed than the last. Like he had his initial idea, and it must have snowballed from there. By the time I get to the fifth sketch, I’m impressed.

“Oh. Okay. I see it now.” I gotta say this does look cool. He starts to chatter on as I try to work out how feasible this is.

“…because your trees are too fancy and not big or strong enough.”

That catches me off guard and I laugh. “We can work on it when you have time, but we should start before I go back to school. It needs to be big Gunner because you have to be able to fit in it. I drew this version, but I don’t think a slide will work for us. We’ll just go old school and have ladders.” And at that Coralie erupts in a fit of giggles. This kid, he’s something else entirely.

“Come on then. What else?”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Gunner

Lying in bed with my girlfriend is my new favorite way to spend my time and it’s one of the things I’ll miss most when I’m on the road. She’s next to me—not naked—due to the seven-year-old alarm clock we have, but I already heard him go wake up Kate, so I know he’s not coming in here for a while.

We really should talk to him about that, the girl needs her space. I smile though, thinking of how incredible their relationship is considering she’s only been in his life for three weeks.

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