“Depends on if you’re getting distracted from the reason why you called again,” I said a little devilishly.
Ben clicked his tongue, and I almost felt a little sorry for pouring a metaphorical bucket of cold water on the heat we’d been building. But I was in a professional setting, so it wasn’t the place for it.
Besides, I always liked to give Ben an out. I would never decide what he could handle or not, so I wanted him to have a graceful exit whenever he needed it.
“Right. Focus. The reason why I called is because Mrs. Hayashi is a matriarch of a very small kitsune community of immigrants who live deep in the city, just a little west of Chinatown. She and several other smaller packs of various types are getting together for a jamboree in the Morellos’ pack lands to celebrate the nice weather and reconnect with other shifters. She invited me and mine, so… so I wanted to know if you would like to come.”
“A jamboree?” I repeated, mostly as a stopgap to give myself a moment to think.
I was being invited to an actual factual shifter event? That seemed like a huge deal. A real big beacon of trust that made me wanna kick my feet and cry at the same time. Surely, this was a great sign for our relationship, and for how he was feeling in general. He was far from a social butterfly, so the fact that he waswilling to go to a large community event? That had to be growth. That had to be healing.
Honestly, it was thrilling. I hated that Ben had such deep wounds from trauma no one should ever have to experience, but I loved being able to pick up on tiny bits of evidence that showed he was making progress. I wasn’t foolhardy enough to think those wounds would ever be gone. That wasn’t how it worked. But I did hope that eventually they would simply be scars he needed to be mindful of instead of the deep chasms that pulled him under.
“It’s kind of a thing. I’ve only been to one in my life, sort of as a mixer event when I was a new alpha to introduce myself to other packs, but I never really had the time to go again. Always so busy, you know?”
“Believe you me, I do know how that is.”
“Exactly, I knew you would. But yeah, there’s a whole ton of food from several different cultures. Dancing. A big old bonfire. It can be really fun, but a bit exhausting.”
“Not too overwhelming to have me there along with the kids?”
“Well, Natalie is coming, and she gets burned out on socialization really fast, so when I mentioned inviting you, she suggested she could take the kids home an hour or so after sundown when they’ve really tuckered themselves out, and that way you and I can come home whenever we want to. Whether that’s before, later, or what have you.”
“And they would be okay with the fact that I was a human?”
Maybe I was wrong, but Ben had made it seem like a pretty big deal when I was exposed to his world. Granted, maybe that was more how the exposure happened than because it had happened. I was sure he would probably have preferred a calm explanation over a nice bowl of ice cream rather than me beingkidnapped and having to horrifically maim someone with my medical bracelet.
“Oh, yeah. And you won’t be the only one there. There are always a handful or so.”
“Well, I’d love to go!”
“You sure? You don’t want to think about it?”
“No, I don’t need to. I’d really like to come. It sounds fun!”
“All right then. I’ll text you the details so you can get back to work. It’s a date!”
I couldn’t help but smile to myself, and this time I did kick my feet under my desk. “It sounds like a date!”
“Areyou sure this is enough ice?” Nox asked as they emptied the last bag into the oversized cooler Simon had hauled up from the basement. You’d think my siblings were coming to the jamboree too with how excited they were acting. Ever since I’d told them about it, they’d been abuzz with excitement and had started planning how to prepare. Nox even got someone to cover their Friday night shift so they could come spend the night and help pack the cooler of supplies they insisted I bring.
“You put her Ensures in there, right?” my father asked from where he was sitting at our small breakfast table in the kitchen, pretending he was nonchalant by reading the paper when I could tell he was really anything but.
“What do you think this is?” Nox scoffed. “Rookie hour? You bet I put those bad boys in.” They gave me a toothy grin. “I know you only technically need three, but I put nine in. An extra three in case, ya know, you need to spend the night somewhere, and then another three just because.”
I smiled and nodded, sipping my tea. The mornings were still a little cool and damp, and with Ben picking me up right around nine in the morning, the sun definitely wouldn’t have had time to warm the earth and evaporate all the dew that covered everything.
I was a little bit worried about my energy levels. Going to such a long event seemed like it demanded a lot of physicality, but Ben had explained that it was a little over a ninety-minute drive, so I’d have plenty of time to sleep in the car. Which I wasquitehappy to do. Although I didn’t often get the chance to be a passenger princess, the few times I had let me know that there was something about long road trips that was inherently relaxing when one wasn’t driving.
“You left room for the veggie plate, right?” Simon asked as he came down the stairs from his shower. “Those are all fresh from the Sedgewick community garden.”
I was well aware, as when I’d first come down to the kitchen, Simon had been washing, peeling, and cutting carrots of various colors.
“I still don’t get how you got them to give so much free food,” I mused. While I was so grateful that we had at least three sizeable community gardens in a half-hour radius, I always thought that food was for people who needed the extra help. We weren’t exactly prospering, but we could cover our bills every month, afford food, and save a hundred or so dollars for emergencies—like me being hospitalized after passing out in my classroom.
Oh God, I still couldn’t believe that had happened. It was embarrassing as all hell, but I wouldn’t change it for the world because that was how I met Ben. Also, Benny had become a bit of a rock star in class after that, and he’d really come out of his shell. He hadn’t been shy before, but he hadn’t been a socialbutterfly either. And from what Ben told me about the after-school art therapy program, Benny was flourishing there too.
“These are all their colder weather crops, so they started them in their beds with some sort of plastic cover as soon as our hard frosts were over.”
