Page 37 of She Wolf

“Adorable? Ovary bursting?” A laugh breaks free from us both.

“Yes, to both of those,” I say turning serious. “But with that comes serious hesitation. Look how close they are. What if I mess it up? What happens to Jack then? What happens to Casey?”

“You have to stop with that. It’s not all about them. Do something for you, for once in your life. You think Gunner’s just gonna throw away years of friendship or mess up the team if you don’t work out? Stop pretending like you don’t know him. He’s a good guy, one of the best. You’re safe with him. It’s not just that though, is it?” Chloe’s eyes scan me, like she can see through me.

I bite my lip and buy myself a bit of time by refilling our glasses from the half empty bottle I brought outside.

Closing my eyes, I exhale a breath. “I want to try it on my own for a while. Curse about the piles of laundry because I haven’t got a Rosie to rely on. Not do the dishes for one whole night because it’s my place and I’m not there as a favor…”

I hesitate, unsure of whether I should say the rest of my thoughts out loud as they’re pretty weird. Then I look at her sweet, kind face and know I’m safe to share with her as I do most things.

“I also wish after things ended with Nick and after I’d worked through some of the trauma that I would have just gone out and just had some…sex.”

She inhales the gulp of wine she just took causing her to start coughing. I reach for her glass, and she fans her face as she drags down a few breaths.

“You don’t want your first time in forever to be with Gunner?”

I sigh. “More than anything and that’s exactly why I feel that way. I’m scared I’ll jump into this with Gunner because I know he’s my forever and because I’m too eager to rewrite everything that went wrong in my life.”

“Oh, Coralie.” She takes my hand and I try to keep the tears at bay.

“And he’s the reason I couldn’t even try and date. I only wanted Gunner. I don’t know what I would have done if I had found out the divorce was finally over, and Gunner had found someone else he wanted to be with.”

“There's no way that was ever going to happen. That man has been waiting for you for years.”

I scoff.

“No listen, honestly, he has,” she says seriously. “Rex and I used to talk about it all the time.”

“You did? Really?”

“We did. It was so obvious. He watches you when you aren’t looking. I even know there was this one time when he went a bit alpha over you.”

“He did not.” I say but my curiosity gets the better of me. “When?” I ask as heat fills my cheeks.

Chloe giggles. “Rex said that Adam was trying to poke him so that Casey would finally see that Gunner was pining after you. Adam said something crass but harmless and Gunner kind of lost it.”

Oh, wow I had no idea. I can’t help but be intrigued by this.Alpha-Gunner, umm yes, please!

“There was another time, but Rex wasn’t there. Adam told him—” I go to interrupt, but she holds up her hand.

“And Callan confirmed!” Okay now I’m all ears. Adam and Rex can be a little high-spirited about most things in life but if Callan says it happened, it happened.

“Okay, so apparently you and Anna were talking about going out with Lex. You got excited and were saying how you couldn’t wait to get all dressed up, show off your legs and get a little drunk.”

I search my brain and I’ve gotta be honest, I’m drawing a blank.

“I do not remember this conversation but continue.”

“Well, again poor Gunner nearly had a heart attack or was about to drag you off to his cave or something. The boys had to jump in and break you and Anna up,” she cracks up laughing.

“You’re too much,” I chuckle.

“I am. Now, tell me about the kiss again,” she insists.

“Which one? The first one or the second one thatIinitiated?” I say with a small smile at her over the lip of my glass.

Her eyes go wide. “More kisses? I wish you could be that bold all the time. Why are you sitting here doubting yourself if you are capable of making those kinds of moves.”

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