“She does like to sleep in on a Sunday.” She grinned. “I told her when I get home we can go driving around, explore the area.”
“We’ll be doing that a bit, as well, after breakfast. We’ll have to compare notes later,” Cindy told her.
“Definitely.” Olivia turned towards Adam. “You said you wanted to ask me about my impressions from the party later, but since you’re here, can’t we just talk now?”
“I wanted you to be able to talk in private.”
Olivia frowned. “I can’t think of anything I would tell you that I’m not perfectly happy to say in front of Cindy and Jonas. I only have a few minutes, but unless you have a lot of questions for me, it won’t take long to tell you that I liked everyone except Janet and Brenda. I found them both to be fairly negative.” She sighed. “And I know that’s hypocritical of me, as I can be—have been—fairly negative, so if the pack decides to invite them to join, I’m completely fine with that, and will make it a point to spend some time getting to know them and hoping that there’s a reason for their negativity.”
“Ditto,” Jonas said.
“Exactly,” Cindy said.
“Fair enough,” Adam said. “Let’s eat,” he suggested as the waitress brought the three meals to the table.
Olivia seemed surprised that there was no further reaction to her statement, but Adam had moved on, telling Cindy again how much he’d enjoyed the food at the party.
They chatted for a few minutes, and when Cindy asked about how she was finding the work, Olivia said she actually needed to get back to it, so they said their goodbyes and tucked into their eggs.
“Myra and I are thinking things have progressed well enough that it seems likely we’ll stay in Alicante,” Adam said after he’d eaten half his breakfast. “What do you guys think?”
“It feels right to me. We’ll always have to consider the difficulty of jobs, but that’s going to be true of any of the small towns we try, and I don’t feel like we should be a big-city pack.”
“What she said,” Jonas added.
Adam nodded “We’re going to start looking around at real estate. Sounds like you guys already decided the same.”
“Yes,” Cindy said. “We’ve seen one place we like okay, but don’t totally love. We’re going to try out another today. If I remember correctly—”
“Which, of course, she does,” Jonas interrupted.
“—there are a few parcels in the same general area, so one might work for you guys as well.”
“Okay, let us know what you think. The rental house works pretty well for a pack house. Joe said he’d consider moving in if we get our own place.”
“He’d be great at running the pack house,” Cindy said.
“And since the house is out on the edge of town, some of the land that butts up to it hasn’t been developed. I’m going to check into the properties, see if maybe we can talk some owners into selling.”
“That would be awesome. The spot we’re going to look at first is pretty close to there.” Cindy wiped up the last of the egg yolk with her bread. “And I’m definitely adding this place to my list of possible job opportunities for new pack members.”
“Speaking of lists,” Jonas said. “Do you have one about what we need to do to get married? I’m assuming you don’t want a wedding, since you haven’t said anything, but I should probably ask, just to be sure. But we should get official in the eyes of the government.”
She laughed. “No, I’m good without a wedding—and yes, I have a list for the steps we need to take to get married. I’ll show you tonight. I have a mental note that the next time either of us goes to the city, we need to check a couple of things off that list.”
“Gotcha.”
They drank some coffee with Adam then said their goodbyes. Cindy drove back towards the pack house, then a ways past it. When she’d parked, she grabbed a printout and walked him about fifty yards before studying the paper and nodding. “I think this is it.”
Jonas took the paper but didn’t look at it, instead looking around at the land and the view. “Okay. Our house is about two miles that way,” he pointed. “And there’s the pack house, over there. Right?”
“Right.”
“Nice view.”
“Nice enough for a house?”
He did a slow three-sixty. “A lot of work. A lot of lists,” he teased. But his gut was telling him they were in the right spot. She took his hand and squeezed.
