“What?”
“First, you accept that I’m going to always try and keep you safe, even if it annoys you.”
My lips twitched. “Okay.”
“Second, I’m going to try and make you happy.”
Was it suddenly hot out here? Because there was real danger of me melting into a puddle. “And the third?”
His lips curved before they met mine. After giving me the sweetest kiss, he pressed our foreheads together, our breath mingling in the frigid air. “The third…you’re not ready to hear.”
“So you’re expecting me to just accept it without knowing what it is?”
He grinned. “Yup. What d’ye say, Reid?”
I chewed on my lip for a second before smiling. “Fuck it, I’m in. But if you’re tying me into naked karaoke or some other bollocks, I reserve the right to make your life a misery.”
Evan’s laughter rang through the woods. “Deal.”
A loud whistle pierced the air. We turned to see everyone staring at us expectantly.
“We doing this, or are you too chicken?” Logan called.
My eyes narrowed. “Oh, it’s so fucking on.”
Chapter 28
Evan
The snowball fight lasted hours. We were too evenly matched and, quite frankly, having too much fun to let the other side win.
It was only when Reid’s lips turned blue that I called a truce. I suspected the only reason Finlay quickly agreed was because he was similarly concerned about Chester.
After warm showers and a mug of Ma’s hot chocolate, we were back outside and walking towards the main house. “We don’t need to do this if you don’t want to.”
“I know. You’ve said that at least ten times now. I don’t mind.”
I was going to keep saying it, too. Reid hadn’t stopped fidgeting in the past hour, and none of it was due to excitement or hyperactivity. Even now as we walked, he was flapping his hands beside him.
‘This’ was dinner at the main house. Finlay had floated the invitation after the snowball fight, and to my surprise, Reid had accepted.
I frowned as he started tugging his zip up and down. “Ifyou feel uncomfortable at all, just give me some kind of signal and we can leave.”
Reid’s lips twisted. “It’s dinner with your closest friends, I don’t think we need a safe word. But thank you for being so considerate. I appreciate it.”
“But it’s inside the clan house,” I pointed out. Either Reid couldn’t see that he was anxious about this, or he was refusing to acknowledge it. “I know you don’t like being in there.”
“I don’t, but you guys all keep telling me how different you are to the Clarksons, and you’re right. But I’m not going to be able to move past my fears if I don’t confront them.”
“There really is nothing to fear.” We made our way up onto the porch, with me gripping Reid’s arm firmly in case he slipped. I winked at him as I opened the door. “Unless Logan did the cooking…in which case, there’s a good chance we’ll get food poisoning.”
Reid inhaled shakily before squaring his shoulders and stepping over the threshold. The tense lines of his shoulders had both my wolf and me on edge.
“I heard that,” Logan bellowed from the depths of house. “Don’t make me humiliate you in front of Reid.”
Reid gave a tiny smirk. It was so small that the alarm bells began to ring louder. “Um, dare I ask how he’d do that?”
Logan popped out of the living room, putting his arm through Reid’s and dragging him away from me. “Oh, just by demonstrating how my fighting skills are superior to Evan’s. Don’t worry though, the council have us on a temporary ban on fighting inside the house. Too many carpets have been ruined, apparently.”
