“It is not.” Kelsey gestured with one hand, and Trevor’s keys jingled in her palm. “Just because I’m not a big burly wolf doesn’t mean I can’t do what needs to be done around here.”
“I need both of you, Kels,” Maggie said. “Iwantboth of you with me through this.”
Kelsey’s arms fell to her sides. The fight leaked out of her posture as she set the keys on the counter. She closed her eyes a long moment, and a deep breath filled her chest.
For that one long moment, Trevor drank her in.
She smelled like tropical orchids. She was a collection of trim curves he could carve with his eyes closed. Her hazel eyes, her creamy skin, her thick blonde hair he’d run through his fingers countless times, her perky ponytail surprisingly long enough to hit her mid-back. As a kid Kelsey had envied girls with long hair but, in a complete puzzle to him, always said“Oh, I couldn’t pull it off myself though”and kept hers at chin length all through high school. So the length she wore it now was no small change. She’d grown into herself.
Trevor breathed long and slow, his senses filled with his Kelsey. He locked his knees. His body was threatening to fold all the way down to the floor.
She opened her eyes, and her gaze landed on him with scalding intensity. “All this time.”
“Trevor never stopped being family to me,” Maggie said.
“You didn’t have to keep it from me.”
“Well, telling you would’ve meant talking about him, right?”
Kelsey’s easy blush rose in her cheeks, and she looked away. So he was a forbidden subject. That’s how much she despised him. A tremor ran through his body. Maybe he should leave, but…no. Not as long as Maggie wanted him here and he had a job to do for her. He lifted the stack of dishes.
“I’ll get everything set where we talked about,” he said. “Then I’ll go.”
“What happened with Ezra’s roof?” Maggie said.
“Oh, yeah. We got it done. And he was right, he’d lost more than a few since last time we looked at it. I guess that’s why he sounded stressed out.”
“Ezra?” Kelsey’s eyes were wide.
“Yeah.”
“Oh.”
Should he shut up? Should he keep talking, be conversational?
Snap out of it, Trev. He was being ridiculous. Kelsey was here. They were interacting again. No use staying tongue-tied around her.
Yeah, once upon a time he thought he’d get to be with her forever. Once upon a time he’d loved her yet failed to recognize what she was to him as a wolf. Fate had brought Trevor his life mate when he was five years old. At fourteen he hadn’t known what it meant when she suddenly changed to his senses—looked different, smelled different, even her voice and the satin back of her hand magnified in a way that robbed his breath. At eighteen he’d broken their bond, maybe broken her heart. Fate had let him do it, and now he had to live with the stupidity of his youth—his mate lost to him, his wolf gifts fading.
And that was that.
So get it together already. Be his best as long as Kelsey was here. Be good to her. Be wiser at twenty-seven than he’d been at eighteen.
Kelsey said, “I saw Ezra and Aaron at the gas station yesterday.”
Ezra and Aaron. So Aaron had invited Kelsey to the cookout, an over-step he’d have to clear with Malachi given she wasn’t pack. No doubt the alpha wouldn’t mind, though. After all, it was Kelsey.
Maybe Trevor should skip this cookout. A courteous gesture.
“So if Ezra sounded stressed out on the phone, it might have been…um, me. I don’t think he’s thrilled I’m here.”
“He’ll have to get over it,” Maggie said.
Kelsey ducked her head.
From nowhere a spike of white-hot fury burned away the heaviness in Trevor’s chest. He could have punched something. He gave a huff that should have been a growl.
“What?” Kelsey said.
