Cindy raised her eyebrows at her.
“Okay, you might be right.”
They drank in silence for a minute before she blurted out, “He called me last night.”
“Is that right?”
“I sort of pushed him into agreeing to me coming out there.”
“How much pushing was involved.”
“Not much.”
“Mm, hmm.”
Myra laughed. “Maybe he is ready. But he doesn’t know it.”
“NowthatI’ll agree with. I mean, it took him a while to recover from what happened. Understandable. And the way he dealt with it was to burrow in, protect himself. Also understandable. But it’s hard to know when the time comes to pull yourself out of that. I’d say it usually takes some outside influence to make that happen.”
She set her drink on the table and hopped off the couch. “Be right back.”
Myra took another healthy sip of her martini and considered her decision to go see Adam, rather than give him more time. The question had popped out of her mouth yesterday before she’d had time to censor herself, but she was glad it had. Especially since he’d said yes. But it was time to admit to herself that she had strong feelings for him, stronger than she’d ever experienced for a wolf that wasn’t her mate, and that had to mean something. She’d be failing herself, and Adam, if she didn’t explore those feelings.
Cindy returned with a carefully balanced plate of fruit, cheese and chocolate. It was beautifully put together, and Myra gave it much appreciation before snatching up a piece of chocolate. Dark-chocolate-covered marzipan, her absolute favorite. It was good having a best friend who was into food.
“Thanks, Cindy.”
“You’re welcome.” Her friend made a couple of cheese-and-cracker combos, then sat back on the couch, popped one into her mouth, and looked at Myra. “I’ve been thinking about change.”
Myra blinked. “Okay. In what way?”
Cindy ate another cracker, looked thoughtful. “It started with the news about Mesa Pack. I was looking on the database to see what information we had about them, you know, just to get an idea?”
Myra nodded. “Sure, I did the same thing.”
“There wasn’t a lot on there, as I’m sure you saw, so I looked online, at the area.”
Myra laughed. “Me, too. I should have asked you to just do the research for me.”
Cindy shook her head. “You would have wanted to see it all for yourself, too.”
“Good point.”
“I guess it was just interesting, looking at the photos of desert and forest, so close together, so unlike here. And I realized I didn’t know any of the people listed on the pack roster, not a single one of them. Which wasn’t surprising, of course, given what we learned, but it made me think how complacent I’ve become, growing up here and never moving more than a few miles from my parents’ house. Going to school nearby and then coming right back home.”
“We’ve traveled,” Myra pointed out, though she understood Cindy’s point. “We went to New York, London, Copenhagen.”
“Yeah, and that was enough to feel like we were doing interesting things, not stuck in a rut. And we’ve done a good job of setting up our lives, becoming good at what we do. We’re successful women, who’ve planned for our futures, our retirements, settled into a good pack that works well and loves us.”
“So what are we going to do with the next forty-plus years of our lives?”
“Exactly!” Cindy said, putting her drink on the table and clasping her hands together. “I mean, I’m sure we’d be happy and there would be new challenges of some sort that we could come up with, but I was looking at my future and it suddenly seemed so…stale. Maybe part of it is that I haven’t found my mate, and that would change things. But I’ve always refused to live my life in a holding pattern, waiting to see what this supposed guy was going to bring to the table. And I realized I’d sort of settled into that, by accident.”
Myra finished off her drink and grabbed some cheese. “Only because you’ve achieved everything you set out to do.”
“Right. So, now I have no more goals?”
There was a reason she and Cindy were best friends, and Myra could feel the tiny tingle of rightness moving through her blood. She scooted closer on the couch.
