“Oh, give me a break, Claire.”
“What. Are. You. Cooking. Tonight.”
Her face flooded with heat. Trust and friendship and being deeply known—it all felt overrated in this moment. She whispered, “Linguine carbonara.”
“Oh, dear Hades.”
“Claire Vanderlaan, if you dare insinuate—”
“Tell me you’re not into him. Say it.”
“It doesn’t even matter!” Ember threw up her hands and then re-gripped the wheel. “He won’t pursue anything serious because I’m leaving. Plus he genuinely thought taking me to a pack cookout was some sort of romantic overture. I set him straight on that one.”
“He won’t pursue you, but he is pursuing you?”
“See? He’s a mess.”
She drove for a few minutes while neither of them spoke. At last Claire said, “If you weren’t leaving.”
“But I am.”
“If you weren’t leaving, if there were no complications between human and apex, if Aaron Reed were a guy you’d met any other way… Is something there, Ember? Really there? Something you could build on?”
Something more than his lovely lupine-enhanced physique, wavy hair falling over his forehead, dark eyes simmering when he looked at her too long. Something more than the languid way he moved across a room. Something more than the rumble in his chest when he found something funny or annoying—two different sounds she’d already learned to distinguish.
“He’s grounded and responsible,” she said. “He likes symphonic metal, and he reads Michael Crichton and Agatha Christie and Dickens. He’s articulate, and he knows himself. His cabin is rustic-gorgeous; I practically could’ve decorated it myself.”
In her pause Claire said softly, “Wow, Em.”
“And he’s compassionate. It’s the last thing I would’ve expected from one of them, but that’s on me. Aaron’s heart is kind, and I trust him with Quinn. I really do.”
“Okay.” Claire cleared her throat. “Okay, listen to me, my friend. Do not let that man get away.”
“It’s been seven freaking days.”
“I don’t care if it’s been seven hours. You try to cultivate. I’m not saying it’ll work out. There are a hundred reasons it might not. But you try. You see where it can go. Just give time for something to grow, Ember.”
“I can’t date a wolf.”
“Why not?”
“My best friend will tell me I smell and never get coffee with me again.”
Claire’s chiming laugh rang out. “First, you already smell. As does every other living organism on the planet. Second, and seriously— If he’s not hostile, it won’t bother me.”
“We could double date.”
“If I ever cease to be single, then yes, we could. Provided my date is equally odor-tolerant.”
Some vampires were not. If Claire ever embraced the rightness of herself and Tai together… Ember didn’t know him well, but she knew he was far from “odor-tolerant.” There would be no double dates including Aaron and Tai Kristiansen. A pity.
What was happening to her brain? She wasn’t dating Aaron. Because Aaron wasn’t dating her.
“I really don’t know about this, Claire. I…” Might as well admit it. “I want to try. But if he doesn’t, there’s no point. Been there, done that, not interested in a reprise.”
“I get it, believe me. And caution isn’t a bad thing here. You can’t really know a person in seven days.”
You almost could if you saw him unguarded with a close friend, weakened with blood loss and rambling without filter. “It isn’t that.”
