“Let her eat her meal before you interrogate her,” I joke, but I’m not really laughing. “This is a party, not work.”
Ben and his littermates run a private security firm, Pack Dynamics, and his professional persona can bleed over and make him too gruff and serious sometimes. I can tell his scrutiny is treadingdangerously close to uncomfortable territory for Julia, and I want him to stop.
“It’s fine,” she says, smiling tightly as she glances around the table. “I’m sure you all have a lot of questions about me, and rightfully so. Like…’why is she wearing a wedding ring?’The truth is that our situation is a little complex. More than a little complex. I wasn’t sure how much to tell you all about my life, but I’ve decided to be an open book, so to speak. I have nothing to hide.”
“Do tell.” Ben crosses his arms and leans back in his chair.
She takes a deep breath. “Okay. Before I worked at the bookstore, I was a stay-at-home mom.”
“Oh!” Meg murmurs, sitting forward. “You have kids?”
Julia nods. “Two girls, Molly and Samantha. They’re eighteen and twenty now and attend university in Korea. They live with my mom there. She moved back to Korea after I got married, but I grew up here. Obviously, I am quite a bit older than Ian.” She goes quiet and toys with her fork, pushing food around on her plate.
Ben’s ears are forward. “When did you divorce?”
Julia lifts her eyes to meet him. “I didn’t,” she says simply.
“Is your husband living?”
She nods. “We’ve been married for over two decades.”
“Does he know about Ian?”
Julia nods. I don’t like the turn this has taken. The table is quiet, and instead of celebrating Conall and Meg’s happiness, everyone is gnawing over the bones of what Julia has revealed.
“Enough,” I bark. “This day isn’t about us. And anyway, we’re figuring things out. It might be unconventional, but I’m glad Julia is my mate. That’s all you need to know about her. About us.” This last statement is leveled at Ben, whose narrowed eyes and tense posture tell me that he’s not going to let this go.
“I’m going to go cut up the rest of the persimmons, if that’s all right,” Julia murmurs to me. She needs a breather, and I don’t blame her.
Before I can ask if she wants a hand with it, Meg scrapes back her chair and struggles to her feet. “I’ll come with you! I want to pick your brain about baby books.”
They head off, and I relax. Meg is a sweetheart and will make Julia feel at ease, unlike Ben.
“You didn’t have to be so harsh,” I tell him. “It’s not her fault we’re fated.”
“You’re taking her to Court, right?” he asks, ears flattened.
“That’s what I said,” Conall chimes in, his mouth full of the remnants of Meg’s second slice. I glower at his unhelpful ass.
“First of all, that’s none of your business. Secondly, there’s no need. We’ve already worked out a lot of the details on our own. Like she said, her husband understands the situation.” Her stingy fucking husband who won’t pay for her food if she eats a little more for a few months, but that’s an issue to deal with another time.
“What about pups?” Ben challenges, glancing over at his own mini pack, who are chasing their cousins around the buffet table, tails wagging. It makes my heart squeeze to watch them, imagining my pups joining the fray soon, along with Conall and Meg’s. That’s how things should be, all the Lyalls growing up together.
“She agreed to carry them.”
“And the husband isn’t going to challenge you for custody?”
“We have a contract. Two of them, actually. They’ll have no parental rights. I’ll have sole custody.”
Conall puts down his fork, jaw agape. I don’t know what he’s surprised about since he already knew most of this. “She’s giving up her rights?”
“Isn’t that what you want to hear?” I snap at him and Ben, who’s also looking oddly concerned.
Conall shakes his head. “No, you’ve got it wrong. We want you to be with your mate, dude. We want your pups to know their dam, even if it’s complicated.”
“We want you to be happy. Her, too,” Ben adds unconvincingly.
“I’d be happy if we can focus on Conall’s actual pups instead of my hypothetical ones,” I growl, even though mine might not be so hypothetical anymore. I stab some of the food on my plate and fill my mouth, hoping for someone to change the topic.
