JASON
Jason lined up the chopping board on the kitchen counter, the knife smooth and familiar in his hand. His body still felt loose from earlier, as if the imprint of Riley’s touch lingered on his skin, soft and sure.
They’d ended up skipping lunch in favor of Riley’s motel room, where their time together had been urgent yet interspersed with soft touches and kisses—a kind of intimacy even more meaningful than the sex had been.
He’d never have guessed at the things Riley was struggling with. Now, he couldn’t stop thinking about them. He wanted to hunt down Riley’s parents and shake them, demand to know how they could ever have thrown away the most wonderful man they could hope to have as their son. For them to make him feel unloved was bad enough. To make him feel unlovable went so far beyond that, Jason didn’t have words.
You gotta be useful in some way or another.Riley’s words kept echoing around his head as he listened to Dave and Christian chatting quietly out on the back porch.
Jason knew how lucky he’d been to find Matt’s pack. If he hadn’t come to Elk Ridge, if he hadn’t stayed in town long enough for Bryce to find him, he didn’t know where he’d be now.
He was lucky, no question. But maybe he’d been so grateful that he’d thought he had to make himself indispensable. That’s what Riley had said he’d done—things he wasn’t proud of, just to fit in. Had Jason been so careful to stay inside the guardrails, to fill the role he thought he had in the pack, that he’d never truly believed what he’d told Riley about belonging to the pack? Maybe family wasn’t about being needed. Maybe it was about being wanted.
The back door banged open, and Jesse arrived, heading straight for the pantry.
“Cookies are on the bottom shelf,” Jason said, knowing Jesse’s habits, and also knowing that when he discovered they’d been moved, he’d root impatiently through everything in Jason’s nice, orderly pantry until he found them.
“Thanks,” Jesse said through a full mouth, cheeks bulging. He hoisted himself up onto the counter—onto Jason’s nice, clean counter—and kicked his boots against the cupboard. “I’m hoping the fact I’ve barely seen you means you and the travel guy are gettin’ on well.”
Jason couldn’t prevent the enormous, goofy grin that split his face at the thought of Riley. Jesse let out a laugh that sounded like a crow of triumph.
“About damn time,” he said around another mouthful of cookie, as he slid off the counter and headed for the door.
Jason was still smiling as he looked back down at the chopping board. Maybe he should reconsider his pot roast. Today deserved something better.
* * *
Tristan scanned the food on the table—braised short ribs, truffle mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and roasted carrots with maple and bacon glaze—and his eyes opened wide.
“This isawesome,Jason, like Thanksgiving or Christmas or something. What’s the occasion?”
Tristan had never been exactly tactful, but Jason hadn’t expectedquitesuch a pointed question. And he hadn’t even seen the pumpkin and key lime pies yet.
“Just wanted to test-run a few dishes for the diner,” he lied, and concentrated on his plate.
“Anytime you want to test any more, just let me know,” Tristan said, happily if indistinctly through a mouthful of buttermilk biscuit.
“More chewing, less talking.” Bryce shot a disapproving look at Tristan, who rolled his eyes and concentrated on swallowing his mouthful.
Jason had never thought of their pack beta as a surrogate father, not really. But watching the way Bryce looked out for Tristan, the way Tristan responded to him, there were moments when Jason felt the ache of wanting. Wanting something like that for himself. Wanting to have known his own father, even for a little while.
It wasn’t an ever-present feeling, but when it hit, it hit hard.
Jason pushed the thought aside, turning his attention back to the table just in time to catch Christian’s smirk at Bryce.
“Look at you, all fancy manners and shit,” Christian jibed. “Not like anyone here’s going to be impressed.”
“Hate to break it to you, Christian, but his manners aren’t for your benefit,” Bryce said. “It’s so Tristan can go out into the world without seeming as if he was raised by wolves.”
Jason groaned softly at the lousy joke, and Matt closed his eyes as if in pain. He must have hadyearsof this.
Bryce gave them both a long-suffering look before turning back to Christian. “No one with a shred of class is going to want someone who eats their peas off their knife.”
“Just as well Dave’s got low standards, then,” Christian said cheerfully. “Anyway, if you stick them on with honey, they don’t fall off.”
“What’s in this gravy?” Dave asked Jason, thankfully interrupting the playful squabbling that otherwise would have lasted all night. “Your nut roast is always amazing, but this is sublime.”
Christian snorted. He didn’tmeanto insult Jason’s cooking. He just found it funny whenever Dave dropped into the vocabulary of the elderly woman who’d raised him.
