His eyes glinted at that, and I was so sure he was going to reply with something flirty, but instead he loaded up another forkful and extended it to me. He had quite a bit more food left than me, but I wasn’t bothered. The fact that he had ordered a second entrée told me I hadn’t beentooinhuman, and it just came across as wanting to try everything and take things home in a doggie bag. And our server offering said doggie bag wasn’t her secretly figuring out that I was a latent shifter and outing me, but rather being proactive with her service.
Whew.
Time blurred, as it always did when I was with Rowan, and the next thing I knew, our food was packed up, and we were one of three couples left in the restaurant. A quick glance at my phone confirmed what I was afraid of: we were just a half hour away from closing.
“Where did the time go?” I asked, actually a bit shocked. When I was younger, I struggled with time blindness, but I’d worked on it and developed a lot of strategies and coping mechanisms to prevent losing hours like that. But I could have sworn we’d only been here for maybe an hour, not more than three!
“You know what they say about good company,” Rowan said with another warm smile that nearly melted me before picking up the bill. I was still swooning when I realized what he was doing, and I reached for my purse.
“I know I ordered a lot, so we can go Dutch!” I said hurriedly.
But Rowan shook his head gently. A consequence of dating too many knotheads meant that I thought he was going to go into how it was his duty or something as a man. “I asked you out on the date, so I’ll cover it. If you’d like to take me out on a date, I’m more than happy for you to treat me.
“And if you’re more traditional, I also don’t mind the privilege of paying for such lovely meals. Whatever makes you the most comfortable, really.”
And there it was. Maybe some people would have called it performative. Maybe even others would think that Rowan was somehow less masculine for being amenable. But to me, I just felt another wave of being soconsidered.
A woman could really get used to this.
But why, ohwhydid I have to wait until my thirties to be so spoiled? If I had known there were humans like this all along, I would have switched species long ago.
A lot of my dating life was me trying to use sex and affection to prove my worthiness despite not having an inner wolf. How sad was that? But I was glad I’d finally realized it and didn’t have to go through that anymore.
Because one thing was abundantly clear.
Rowan liked me forme.
Too bad about that pesky little detail of our entire relationship being based on a massive lie.
Whoopsies.
“Shall I walk you to your car, and we can say our goodnights?”
I wanted to say “It doesn’t have to be goodnight yet if we don’t want it to.”What I wanted to do was take Rowan by the hand and do things to him in my car that could get us permanently banned from the premises. But just when I thought I was going to take the leap, the flirtation died on my tongue.
It was stupid, but I didn’t want him to think I was crass. I wasn’t surprised that Rowan was taking it slow considering how self-conscious he had been about revealing his albinism to me. I was still touched that he trusted me with something so sensitive to him, but also, I just didn’tgetwhy people were so freaked out by it.
Did he look unusual? Yes, but strikingly so. His every feature was exaggerated and emphasized to make him seem mythical. Other than him needing a whole lot of sun protection and possible vision complications as he aged, it didn’t seem like that big of a detractor.
Whatever, people were weird.
“Yes,” I murmured, and my tone confused even me. Rowan didn’t poke at that, though, and instead gathered up our separate bags of leftovers and offered me his arm. It was a bit of an old-fashioned gesture, but I loved it. I liked feeling like a pretty dame holding onto her man during a night on the town, soI eagerly looped my arm through his and leaned my head against his biceps as we walked.
Judging by the firmness against the side of my skull, I was bang on the money about him being ripped like a swimmer or dancer rather than the gym bro build my brothers favored.
“I’ve had a truly lovely time tonight, Naomi. Thank you.”
Happiness bubbled up inside me. “Aw, I didn’t do much but eat.”
“That’s far from true, but I suppose I’ll let you think that.”
“Oh, you’llletme?” I teased. Although I’d heard so many times that I was too willful, too headstrong to be a good mate, Rowan always seemed outright delighted when I challenged him. My verbal banter was appreciated and encouraged rather than seen as a flaw.
“Yes, I am feeling rather magnanimous.”
“I’m sure you are.”
When we were only a few steps away from where I’d parked toward the corner of the lot—I’d taken a wrong turn because of my nerves and entered the place from an adjoining alley—I smelled my brothers. While my senses weren’t nearly as strong as a shifter with an inner animal, they didn’t have to be for me to pick up the telltale scent of my own family.
