“Oh.” Aaron tugged her in for a side-hug this time. “Well, we’ll take what we can get then.”
She leaned into Aaron’s warmth for a moment, but Ezra retreated a step, his face still shut down. Kelsey stepped back from both of them. “How’ve you boys been?”
Ezra shook his head. “I can’t do the casual catching-up thing, Kelsey, not after nine years.” To Aaron he said, “I’ll take care of the truck.” Then he returned to the pickup.
The spear sank deeper. Kelsey blinked hard. This wasn’t fair. Yeah, it had been a long time, but that hadn’t been her choice, and the boys knew why…didn’t they?
Before she could decide to retreat, Aaron said with a grin that lit his whole self, “Well, I won’t try to summarize Ezra’s life for him, but I’m married.”
“Oh!” Kelsey grabbed his hand and swung it between them as if they were middle-schoolers again. “What’s her name? What’s she like? Oh, Aaron, congratulations.”
“Her name’s Ember, and you can meet her this weekend.” He was swinging her hand too. “She’s…well, she’s…” A blush seeped up his neck into his cheeks, further whitening the old scar. “She’s Ember. She’s hard to describe.”
A laugh bubbled out of her, washing away the sting of Ezra’s rebuff. Her dear friend, always the squishiest teddy bear of their group, had found a woman who left him speechless.
“I’d love to meet her. I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks.”
“What about Jeremy? Did he and Lucy end up together?”
“Married almost seven years, have four kids.”
“Four…?” Impossible. Wait, no, it wasn’t. They were late-twenties now. In fact… “You’re twenty-nine years old.”
Aaron laughed. “Yep.”
“So Jeremy is too. Wow, we grew up.”
While they talked, Ezra replaced the pump, screwed the gas cap back on, hit a key on the display and took the receipt. Then he ambled to the other side of the truck, out of sight. Aaron rolled his eyes.
“What’s going on?” Kelsey whispered—pointlessly given the hearing range of both men was over a mile.
“No idea, Kels. Sorry he’s being…” He shrugged, confused frustration brewing in his eyes.
“It’s okay,” she said.
It wasn’t okay, and she’d deal with it, but not after driving for a day, in need of caffeine as surely as her car needed gas. Aaron cocked his head, knowing her well enough to see the fudged truth. Or smelling it. Probably both.
Kelsey returned his shrug. “Never mind for now. So Jeremy and Lucy— Hold on, do you have kids too?”
“Biologically no, but we’re in the process of becoming guardians for Ember’s nephew. He’s thirteen, a new wolf pup.”
“And how long have you been together?”
“Married for about six weeks, known each other for…about seven weeks.” His amusement rumbled in his chest.
“Aaron Reed, you’re kidding me.”
“Nope.”
“Nine years isn’t enough time to make you flippant about love or anything else.”
“It wasn’t flippant. It was… Well, it’s a real story. We’ll tell you the whole thing this weekend. You’ll come to the cookout, won’t you?”
“Wow, so the weekend wolf cookout is still a thing.”
“You know how wolves are.” He winked.
