“Hi,” she said, and the single syllable held paragraphs of warning.
“Kelsey,” Ezra said. “Do you know why Trevor left?”
She shook her head. “Left?”
“Yeah, Arlo took him somewhere.”
“We were talking about…about old times. And he said he’d be back in a minute.”
“It hasn’t been a minute. It’s been half an hour.”
“I don’t know, Ezra.”
He stared past the house, toward the road, as though willing Trevor and Arlo’s return, as though he were really worried. Then he sighed. “Maybe he’s fine. Sorry to interrupt.”
But when he turned to go, Kelsey stood too, glanced to Sydney then back at him. “Look, obviously you all thought I did the heartbreaking back then, and obviously there’s some kind of grudge here, and I’m—I’m sorry about it, but the fact is you had it wrong. And I’d really like to be…”
To be family. To belong to the pack.
“I’d like to be friends again. But it’s up to you.”
Ezra gave a contemplative rumble. Sydney sighed, then said, “It might take me a minute to get there. You’re right about…about the grudge.”
Kelsey said, “Fair enough.”
She couldn’t tell if it were truly fair or not. Ember’s glower suggested it might not be. But this conversation had somehow drained her, both of hope and of energy. She wanted to leave. She loved them all, but she needed to turn off the flurry of her thoughts. She needed to calm her heart with a few episodes of artful baking competition.
When she took a step away from them, Ember seemed to read her decision on her face. “Let me get your care package.”
“That would be great. Thanks.”
“Come with,” the hostess said with a tug on her arm.
Kelsey followed. “I should probably go a round of goodbyes, but I just…”
“You don’t have to.”
“Really?”
“Really. I wish you’d had a better time.”
“Oh, it was good. I loved seeing your husband—um, mate—and the Freemans and their kids, and Robert and Ann, and Malachi…”
“And everybody but Trevor’s siblings.”
“Ezra’s distant, but that’s all. Sydney…I don’t know.”
Ember opened the back door, ushered her in, and led her to the kitchen. “I wasn’t wrong, was I? You still love him.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Well, that was as much an admission asyes. For some reason though, she didn’t want to lie, even knowing any wolf who was paying attention would hear her from the yard.
“It’s a pretty out-there concept for us humans, the mate thing. I am one now, and it’s still weird sometimes. So—what I’m trying to say—maybe there are nuances. I could ask Aaron.”
“No. Thanks.”
Ember opened the refrigerator and brought out a brown paper shopping bag. She lifted it from the bottom, ignoring its handles, then set it on the counter. “Okay. In here are six servings of chicken and dumplings—that’s the bottom dish, Ann made it. The top dish is six servings of chicken stir-fry and veggies. I fried them in butter only, but I included a sweet soy glaze on the side, and I just hope you can have soy, because it’s so good. I know Maggie can eat anything.”
“I can have anything but coconut,” Kelsey said.
