“Do you love me?”
Roscoe’s eyes shifted, but he kept his face forward. “That’s a loaded question.”
“Really? Seems pretty straightforward to me.”
“We should just enjoy the day,” he said, turning the burner to medium. “It’s real pretty outside.”
My face grew hot. That had come off a bit forced, and I kind of understood why he avoided answering. Things would get awkward regardless, and I wasn’t sure how I’d react to it. To lighten the mood, I quickly changed the subject.
“So… What the hell is a hoecake?”
Later that evening we all gathered around the fire pit, and Austin gazed silently into the flames with Adam in the chair next to him.
“I can’t take this anymore,” Adam said, breaking the silence. “I want to get him to the ferals tomorrow, but I don’t know where they are.”
“Neither do we,” I said, looking over at Roscoe. “We still have Austin’s beer in the garage refrigerator. We might be able to attract them.”
“Uhh…”
“You drank all the beer, didn’t you?”
“Darryl helped!”
“What else do they like?” Adam asked. “We’ve got those porterhouse steaks in the freezer.”
Roscoe slinked forward in his seat, showing all the signs of a dog that had just chewed up an expensive duvet. Adam and I glared at him.
“Sorry! I get hungry when I’m stressed.”
“And happy. And sad. And horny,” Adam added. “Maybe you could talk Willa into another barbeque discount.”
Roscoe’s ears perked up.
“You’re getting nothing,” I said. “In fact, you’re not even allowed to help us carry it into the woods.”
“What if we don’t find them tomorrow, and we have to sleep out there?” Adam asked. “And Boss Hog decides to have a midnight snack?”
“I ain’t gonna eat any of it.” Roscoe gritted his teeth. “Could I at least eat the French fries? They don’t keep well.”
“We’re not ordering fries,” I said.
“They come with the meal. Yer gettin’ the meal, ain’t ya?”
“We are getting meat.”
“No soda?” Roscoe asked. “Remember how much they liked the bubbles?”
“It’ll go flat by the time we find them. We’ll pick up some two liters at the store.” The bit of drool hanging from Austin’s mouth made me remember something else. “We should get a few bags of white cheddar popcorn, too.”
“We’ve got like five bags of that stuff in the pantry,” Adam said.
Roscoe’s eyes widened as he turned to the smaller werewolf and shook his head.
“What?”
“We do?” I asked. “I didn’t see any.”
“Roscoe hides them, but I smelled one of the open bags on the top shelf behind the oatmeal.”
