How he wanted that to be true. The best wolf he could be. The best person for Kelsey. If only. “So… I know what you’ve been up to, generally speaking, but I don’t get how you do it. Maybe it’s my Tennessee-mountains-and-temperamental-Wi-Fi upbringing, but making a living off an online platform seems…well, kind of incredible.”
“Itisincredible. I have to pinch myself sometimes. But yeah, I don’t need another income source anymore. Sponsors fight for my ad space.”
“How are you keeping up with it right now?”
“Scheduled posts, a greatest hits throwback series. It’ll give me a few weeks at least, and I have a pinned post about helping a family member so people don’t expect my replies to come as fast as usual.”
He shook his head. She was amazing, his Kelsey. “And you like it? Posting every day…the articles and videos and stuff?”
“Oh yeah. I can’t imagine a better job. I’ve seen so many places.”
Her eyes sparkled for the life she had built. Her lips curved, and before he’d thought about it Trevor reached out and traced them with his thumb. She leaned in and kissed the corner of his mouth, and he ached to set dinner aside and feed a different kind of hunger. But no, this wasn’t the time or place.
They took turns choosing sushi rolls until the tray was empty. Trevor lifted the basket lid and brought out two barely steaming black plastic containers from a foil insulation layer. He popped one open. Crap, he should up his presentation for the second date.
Kelsey’s pleased gasp erased his sudden self-consciousness. “Chicken lo mein and—” Before he could stop her, she snatched the second container. “Is this beef and broccoli? Ooh, is there dessert too?”
“Woman,” he said with a huff, “don’t spoil the fun.”
“Impossible. You brought all my favorites.”
“Well.” He grinned. “Yes, beef and broccoli. Yes, banana spring rolls. I’ve got the ice cream separate with a cold pack layer. Here’s hoping it’s not totally melted.”
Kelsey gave a cheer and threw her arms around him. He nearly dropped the lo mein, set it aside on the blanket, and hugged her back.
“You remember everything,” she said.
“You’re vocal about your favorites.”
“You’re my favorite.”
She tucked herself into his shoulder and gave a little sigh. Maybe all this kept hitting her afresh, the way it did to him. She was his mate, and she knew it, and she was glad. He wasn’t sure how that had happened. He cupped her head in one hand and let his thumb stroke her hair.
Then Kelsey sat up and grinned. “Come on, let’s eat.”
They dug together into both containers of food, sharing alike, their forks occasionally clinking against one another. The quiet between them held nothing but ease. He’d forgotten how this felt, simply being with her, not having to say anything, do anything, be anything but himself. Always with Kelsey he’d felt the most accepted, the most safe, and that safety welled up in him now, a deep calm no longer lost.
In the lull between main course and dessert, she moved to sit across from him again, the picnic basket between them. Then she studied him, her gaze direct, until he fidgeted.
“What?” he said.
“It should be harder than this, shouldn’t it?”
Harder than it already was, not knowing if his gifts would ever return…or if he’d keep fading, too long apart from her…or if he could possibly make his mate happy… “Uh, not sure what you mean.”
“Awkwardness or something. We haven’t talked in nine years. A third of our lives. But it’s like…like the minute I saw you standing in Maggie’s kitchen balancing those dishes…I wanted to come home. Not to Harmony Ridge. To you.”
With her words, the world around him seemed to sharpen. No, wait, it did sharpen. A flapping of wings, two powerful beats catching the wind, then soaring. He looked up. A hawk circled, probably had been for a while without his or Kelsey’s notice.
Years ago he’d have heard those wings. A few days ago he wouldn’t have.
His heart pounded. His blood surged. He stared up into the sky, squinted at the sunlit blue expanse. The hawk rose on an air current, soaring, and then gave one more mighty beat of its wings, and Trevor heard it.
Kelsey couldn’t have caused this simply by calling him her home. The wolf gifts weren’t literal magic, and the affirmation of a mate wasn’t some kind of incantation. More likely his sense of hearing had begun to return over the last few days, so slowly he hadn’t noticed until this moment. He’d ask Arlo. Maybe.
“Trevor? Did you become a birdwatcher after…?” The twinkle faded from her eyes. “I don’t know how to refer to it. After the breakup? After I moved away? Everything sounds…well, awful. Which I guess is appropriate. It was awful.”
“The in-between?”
