“I wanted to thank you for letting us use your cabin. Hillary loaned me the key.”
“Hey man, happy to. I love that it gets used, since I don’t get out that way as often as I’d like. Especially while I’m single.”
Adam wasn’t a huge fan of apple pie, but this was served with good ice cream so he was relatively satisfied. But he ate fast. He glanced up at Myra and found she was on pace with him and telling Hillary thanks but no thanks on the offer of coffee. Oh yeah, she was with him all the way. When he finished, he set his fork down with more of a clatter than he’d intended. Myra didn’t look at him but she smiled.
Hillary did look at him, laughter in her eyes. “You guys should head out soon, it’s a bit of a drive.”
He rolled his eyes, but didn’t contradict her.
When they finally made it to the car, he had to laugh. He’d hadn’t been in a situation like that since he’d been in college. Of course, he hadn’t exactly had a group of friends since he’d become the wolf. Suddenly, he missed his brother. He wasn’t sure how he would have handled the situation if his brother had still been alive, but it would’ve been interesting.
A soft wave of compassion washed over him as Myra reached over and put her hand on his arm. It should probably bother him that she could send stuff at him. But it was nice.
“Why are you sad?” she asked.
“I was just thinking about my brother. What he would have been like with that lot.”
“A good thought?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you believe in an afterlife?”
“I did. Even though my parents were religious assholes, I did believe in God and heaven.”
“But.”
“But I didn’t believe in werewolves. So, then I wondered if I maybe had it backwards. Now I’m leaning more toward neutral. And I remind myself that people should be good regardless of what they claim to believe in. It’s their actions that matter.”
“Well said.”
“How come you’re staying on your side over there?” he asked.
She laughed. “I don’t trust myself to be closer. I might get ideas.”
“Oh yeah? What kind of ideas?”
“The kind that could make us crash and die.”
“We’re kind of hard to kill,” he reminded her.
She chuckled. “Well, I might be willing to risk it, but I find I’m not much willing to risk you.”
A fist squeezed his heart tightly, but he reached over and pulled her hand into his.
“I was thinking earlier that a lot has changed for me in the last week, but I guess you’re in a similar boat. Ending your term, making the big move, starting a whole new pack. That’s all pretty big. Making time with a dirty old werewolf.”
“It is. But it’s all good things, even though some of it will be a lot of hard work.”
He didn’t make the easy joke. “I know you’ll put your heart and soul into doing it right.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “All of it.”
“You said your friend is planning on going with you?”
“Yes, Cindy. She’s my bestie, as they say these days. She’s amazing, and it was talking to her that really sealed the deal for me on what had only been a vague thought before. And she’d been thinking the same thing, so it really worked perfectly.”
“Is she hierarchy?”
