"We lucked out." Kellen suddenly turned contemplative, and a little sad. "Turns out her husband and two sons were in the resistance."
"That's how she got the gun," Stephen added.
"She had lost her husband and one of her sons. She didn't know what happened to the other one. After blistering our ears for ten minutes about our foolishness?—"
"—unfortunately we knew enough French at that point to understand her."
"—with the wine and stupidity of passing out in her pasture, she said she understood that young men sometimes did stupid things."
"Her husband and sons were about our size, so she gave us their clothes, and said she expected us to honor their memory by doing better."
"Oh, that's terrible." Samara's good mood burst like a balloon.
Kellen gave her shoulders a squeeze. "Some friends of ours at Army headquarters did some research for us and found out what happened to her second son. We returned a month later and gave her and her daughter closure."
"It was the least we could do?—"
"—for disturbing—" Kellen tried to keep his laughter in but couldn't “—her bull."
They all had another sip of wine, each taking another look at Leo's empty seat.
"I'm still worried about him." She hadn't known Leo long but felt the emptiness of their table without the blond wolf shifter sitting there acting both cocky and charming at the same time.
Kellen kissed her temple, leaving the scent of wine on her skin.
"This isn't unusual," Stephen said. "We have taken breaks from the brotherhood in the past?—"
"—usually for a month or two," Kellen added. "We always come back though. That will never change."
Would it, though, now that she was a part of the brotherhood?
Talking about the details of their relationship had taken a back seat this past week to figuring out where they were going to live. With the restaurant under construction, Kellen had to scramble to find them a hotel room in the middle of tourist season.
Carlie and George had offered all of them rooms in their house. They'd returned to Winterbourne the second they saw the ad on the New-Journal's website.
Why should you pay all that money for a hotel? Our kids are out of the house. We have plenty of room. Carlie wasn't reading the room, so George pointed out that both of them had at least a month before they could return to work. Carlie had harrumphed and said something about how she better be getting roses and foot massages out of this.
Kellen must have taken that as inspiration because the next thing Samara knew, he too had fresh red roses delivered to the room they’d rented, and oh, man, the things he could do to a woman's foot. When asked where he acquired that talent, he just said a man never kisses and tells.
A pleasant moment passed, then Grace not so delicately stated what they'd all avoided for the past week. "Josiah will come back, you know. If we're going to stay in Winterbourne until Leo returns, we need to plan for that."
It was a mood-killer for sure, but one they needed to talk about. Samara had made it a point to help Grace adjust to life outside of Riverstone.
“It’s so odd,” Grace had said. “I know how the world is supposed to work, but I don’t know how to live in it. I can fix a flat tire, but I’ve never driven a car. I’ve seen movies on TV, but I’ve never been to a movie theater.”
Samara asked Kellen if she could borrow his credit card so she and Grace could go clothes shopping. They both needed heavier winter clothes, with weather threatening snow.
Grace had made one position clear: she wasn't going anywhere. Now that she had Kellen back in her life, she wasn't going to abandon him again.
On the surface, Samara hadn't minded much. She hoped the brotherhood would be stronger, if not the same, with both of them in it.
"We can't plan anything until we clear the air between us, define our positions." She avoided saying the word pack because this wasn't her story to tell. She looked at Stephen, though, who avoided her eyes by putting the cork back into the empty wine bottle. He sat down and fiddled with his glass, saying nothing.
Grace’s lips drew into a hard line, but Samara continued. "If you don't tell him then I will. You and Leo have been lying to him long enough and this brotherhood can't evolve without the truth being told."
There was no turning back now.
Next to her Kellen leaned away, his brows furrowed together in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
