Katsu glances at me, and I finally look at the plate and groan. It’s a dish of literal lettuce with gummy worms.
“I’ll do it,” Fox says. He takes the plate and starts eating.
“Brought to you by the first-grade students of Sunshine Primary,” Katsu says, reading the little card. “They hope we find love and make funny videos.”
We get through that course, and another is brought out. This time, Katsu is forced to eat a plate of undercooked pasta with spaghetti sauce that is too watery.
He’s a good sport about it, though, smiling and eating without complaint, and I think, watching him, that maybe I got really lucky because I could see myself walking with pride with these alphas.
The last dish comes out, and it’s the biggest yet. Cordelia eyes it nervously.
“I’ve got this. I promise, I’ve got this.”
Floyd lifts the dome. “Yolanda and Grigori wish you the very best of dates, and please enjoy the movie.”
There’s four takeaway cups with our names written on the sides and four plates of thick, heavy mud cake with whipped cream.
She hands them out and turns to the front of the hall suddenly because a projector screen suddenly comes alive.
The movie is one that I know well. It’s a movie my friend Lynn Marino told me to watch about a year ago. I have analyzed it left and right, back to front, and finally came to the conclusion that Cordelia felt like this represented us. My only complaint was that I wanted to see them happy. I needed more.
Cordie sighs and sips her drink as she curls up on Fox’s chest. Katsu lays down beside me, and I join him. Within minutes, the big alpha is asleep, and I’m tracing circles on his hip.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but the sudden dragging of Lynn Marino into our date has just brought up a situation that I know we’re going to have to deal with soon.
She has to tell them before someone else finds out and does it for her.
Cordelia is going to have to come clean to the town, too, but I’m still not sure why she is hiding, and I don’t understand why she is so worried they will leave her.
Us.
Because I’m lying to them, too.
Worst-case scenario, they hate us. They pack up and leave. I try to imagine it and feel like I can’t breathe. Katsu rouses from his sleep and blinks open his eyes, lifting a hand to cup my cheek.
“What’s wrong, love?”
I shake my head because I don’t have the words. Now I know why she isn’t telling them.
She’s afraid, and now so am I.
Chapter 18
Cordelia
“Wake up! There’s someone in the backyard!” Fox hisses in my ear. He pulls on a shirt but doesn’t bother with anything else. His movements are frantic and alarmed.
I groan but force myself up.
“Stay here; lock the house,” Fox says protectively. It’s adorable, but I’m not staying inside while he’s outside.
I shake my head, grab a broom and my phone, and walk outside before he can stop me. I hear the sounds, and it’s puzzling. Like someone crunching on the gravel but dropping something, too. What is that? As we get closer, I get more and more concerned that I can’t figure out what the noise is.
Fox prowls into the backyard with his fists clenched, ready to swing. His shirt flaps in the cool breeze, but he’s intent on the hunt. I turn slowly, trying to figure out where the sound is coming from. It’s, like, right here, but how can that be?
Fox screams so loudly I lose a couple of decades off my life.
“Fox?” I shout, rushing forward.
