I looked down at my dress, partly amused by his reaction and partly worried he might make mechange.
“That’s what kids wear these days,” Derek said before pointing to the screen. “Jeb, check out that monsterbass.”
Jeb glanced at the TV, but then his gaze returned to us. “What time will you behome?”
“I’ll have her back here by one,” Sarahsaid.
“One?” he all butsputtered.
“I’m seventeen, Jeb,” I said quietly. Since when was he worried what time I got home? It wasn’t as though he’d cared much back when I was living at theinn.
He rubbed his bearded chin. “Okay.” He hadn’t shaved since Everest’s funeral, as though marking the terrible day by the length of his facial hair. “And, Sarah, if you’re driving, don’t drink. But if you do drink, call me, and I’ll pick you girlsup.”
“We’re wolves, Mr. C. Can’t die in carcrashes.”
We could,though.
A flash of pain illuminated Jeb’sface.
Sarah winced. “Shit.I’m sosorry.”
He wrung his fingers together in his lap and studied them. “Just be careful, all right?” he croaked. Before we could leave, he added, “Are any of the boys going to be at The Dentonight?”
“They’realwaysthere.”
Not that we need boys,I wanted to add, but put a lid on that thought. If the presence of males appeased my uncle, then who was I to rattle his peace ofmind?
Once we were tucked inside Sarah’s Mini, she said, “I really put my foot in my mouth backthere.”
“It’sfine.”
She shook her head and sighed. After a beat, she said, “It’s sort of sweet how protective he’s become ofyou.”
I stabbed my seatbelt into the buckle. “It’s sort of weird. He wasn’t like this before.” I stared at the squares of light in our downstairs neighbor’s place, an ancient woman who only ever came out of her house to water the patch of grass and flowers she called a back yard. “It’s as though I’m his replacementkid.”
“You are. Just like he’s your replacement dad. It’s not a bad thing to have someone care for you likethat.”
“I haveEvelyn.”
“But she’s not living with you anymore, isshe?”
“That wasn’t bychoice.”
“Hey.” She tapped my knuckles. “You have two people who would lay down their lives for yours. That’s a shitload more than mostpeople.”
I sighed deeply before side-eyeing her. “What you’re saying is that you wouldn’t lay down your life forme?”
“To salvage my dress,possibly.”
I grinned and smacked her upper arm, which was firm with lean muscle. I knew she never hit the gym and ate more than the average human guy, so I imagined she shifted into her wolf formoften.
At the thought of shifting, my body thrummed. “Want to run togethersometime?”
“I don’t own sneakers.” She cast a disgruntled look at my feet as though my shoes had somehow wrongedher.
I shifted them out of sight. “I meant in wolfform.”
“Sure. I’ll even slow my pace so you can keepup.”
