I could step back and let them figure themselves out. All I wanted was for Max to be happy. I’d seen how borderline giddy Luca could make him just by existing and being his friend.
Would either of them take any steps toward something romantic if I was in the middle? I doubted it. They wouldn’t want to hurt my feelings or make me feel like an outsider.
Luca’s eyes opened while his body stayed eerily still. Damn vampires.
“Hey,” he mouthed, then held his hand out for me. “Come nap?” he asked very quietly so as not to wake Max up.
I shook my head. “I just got home. I’m going to go shower.”
He nodded, then mouthed, “After?”
My heart clenched a little. Maybe this was the time to step back? So they could get going?
“We’ll see,” I whispered, then ignored the flash of something akin to hurt in Luca’s beautiful eyes as I slipped back out to go take my shower.
When we sat down for dinner, we chatted about our days like usual.
“Anything new at the garage?” Holden asked after telling us about how Holly, the now former Sheriff Gerrell’s very estranged wife, had glared at him while passing on the street earlier.
I wasn’t sure what made me do it. Maybe it was how Luca had come to the kitchen with us and sat on the window seat, watching Max like he knew my brother was special.
I cleared my throat and drank a bit of water. “Do you know Ethan Andrews?” I asked Holden, because as the Deputy Sheriff he probably knew most people around here.
“I think so. Human, mid-twenties, works at the lumber mill off Houston Road, right?”
I nodded, my eyes firmly in the stew on my plate. “He works in the office there, yeah. Turns out he’s a bit of a frequent flyer at the garage.”
“Oh?” Holden asked, his tone curious.
I heard my brother’s breathing get quieter as he listened to what I was saying. Everyone else’s attention was on me, too, but his was the one I cared about the most.
“He’s a bit younger than you think, but not by much. Anyway, a handful of years ago, I was walking past the high school, when I saw a couple of jocks trying to intimidate him. Like crowding him against his car and being all big men, you know?” I shrugged and added, “I couldn’t let them do that, so I went and told themoff.” I glanced at Holden, grinning with humor I wasn’t feeling. “Turns out he might’ve developed a bit of a crush on me.”
Holden chuckled, but I could tell he was reading the room.
The humans weren’t quite as acutely in tune with everything, but everyone else was… tense. Uneasy.
Maybe it was because neither of those things were unfamiliar or intimidating to Holden, he asked, “So he shows up for no reason? Just to see his hero?”
I snorted softly. “Not too often and to be fair, it’s never for absolutely no reason.” I shrugged one shoulder as I picked up my glass again. “Anyway. Driving around with him to figure out the noise he was hearing was the most excitement I had all day.”
I felt the tension from Max. As if tuned into him, Luca slid off the window seat and walked past us, his hand touching Max’s shoulder in passing.
“I’m going to the couch. No offense, Kye, but the stew is offending my new delicate sensibilities.”
Kye chuckled tightly. “Understandable.”
Carys piped up then, and started to chat about the next week’s menu.
One by one, we finished eating and eventually Max left to go find Luca. As I put my fork and knife neatly on my empty plate, Brodie said, “Ben? Let’s do a perimeter check.”
Well,shit.
“Sure.”
In short order, we put on our boots and jackets, then slipped into the cool evening air.
It wasn’t dark with the full moon so close. Part of Carys’ enthusiasm about the menu was that she and Kye liked to cook a feast for full moons when we needed more calories after shifting.
