“Take good care of him, okay?” I rise again. “Have a fun night.”
She makes Larry 2.0 wave goodbye to me with his misshapen paw before they head off. I watch her speaking animatedly to her new toy.
Kady studies me, her head slowly swaying side to side. “You’re full of surprises, Calder.”
I shrug. “One Larry is already enough to handle.”
To my surprise, Kady slips her hand through mine as we stroll, making my stomach flip. We soak in the atmosphere, chatting and laughing. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot her eyeballing the donut stand. I pull her toward the sound of batter sizzling in oil and the smell of hot sugar mixed with a hint of cinnamon.
After I buy us some sugar-dusted treats to eat, we find a bench to sit down at. “I didn’t think I could eat anything else after Winnie’s cobbler.” She sinks her teeth into a mini donut, panting when she discovers how hot it is. “But who can say no to donuts?”
“Did you enjoy meeting Winnie and Nick?” I ask.
“They were lovely, but I can’t stop thinking about…” She shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“No, go on,” I insist. “What were you going to say?”
Her eyebrows lower in a frown. “It’s probably not my place to say.”
“I’m a reporter too, remember?” I take a bite of the sugary treat. “I can tell when people are hiding things.”
“It’s about Hale’s dad’s company.”
“Ahh.” I see where this is going. “I guess Hale finally told you about that, huh?”
“Nick dropped it into the conversation.” I mentally pray I don’t get hard, watching her lick some sugar from her thumb. “I wish someone had told me sooner. When Hale talks about the company, he doesn’t seem…” Her lips twist.
“Happy?” I offer. “Fulfilled?”
“Exactly!” She angrily tears off some donut with her teeth, giving herself a sugar beard. It’s adorable, so I decide not to tell her just yet. “I know he wants to run the company because it’s his dad’s legacy, but at what cost? When we were at Dr. Otto’s, his whole face lit up.”
“Hale is my pack leader, so I have to respect his decisions, but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with them.” I sigh. “Hale loves his father more than anything, and Nick thinks Hale loves the company as much as he does.”
“Why doesn’t he tell his dad the truth?”
“When Nick first got sick, it hit Hale hard. When Hale dropped out of college to take over, it breathed a new sense of life into Nick.” I hand Kady the bag of donuts, losing my appetite. “Hale thinks he’s doing what’s best.”
“He’s wrong.” Kady’s nostrils flare as she inhales loudly. The fact that she hasn’t known us very long but isn’t afraid to speakher mind gives me an even greater respect for her. “All Nick and Winnie seem to want is for their son to be happy.”
“We’ve all told him that a thousand times.” I extend my legs in front of me. “In honesty, we’ve kinda given up now. At this point, we just try to make sure he eats regular meals and takes breaks from his laptop. The time he spent with you today is the longest he’s taken off from work in over a year.”
Kady harrumphs, setting the almost empty bag of donuts down, steepling her fingers as her eyes gaze down at the ground before she says, “Leave it to me.”
“This isn’t the same as campaigning for omega-only workout zones in the gym on a college campus,” I say. “You can’t fix everything.”
“Try me.” She narrows her eyes on me in suspicion. “And how do you know about that campaign?”
Fuck, she caught me there. Time to come clean. “I might have done a little research about you.”
“Research?”
“Well, I had a lot of material at my fingertips when I was reorganizingTheValley Voicearchives.”
What I don’t say is how I specifically sought out anything mentioning her. I’ve read every word she’s ever written for the paper, so I read about how the college gym took her suggestions onboard within a few months of her starting, how she raised funds for improvements to the campus wellbeing center, and how she led a rally to show solidarity for an omega who’d been forced into an arranged bonding.
“Hmm.” I can’t help squirming as her blue eyes sweep over me.
“Come on!” I toss up my hands. “Don’t tell me you haven’t researched me.”
