Page 82 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

I laughed again, but softer. Then my phone rang.

Maeve’s eyes dropped to the screen before mine did, and Damien’s name lit between us.

Every soft thing inside me tightened.

“Don’t answer,” Maeve said.

“I should.”

“Why?”

“Because if I keep avoiding him, he’ll keep finding new numbers.”

Maeve’s jaw set hard. “Put it on speaker.”

“Bossy.”

“Yes.”

I answered and pressed the speaker before I could change my mind.

“What?” I hissed.

There was a beat of silence. Then Damien’s voice filled the room, careful and too familiar. “Marli.” I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. “I miss you.”

Maeve’s hand tightened around mine.

“Did you run out of cheerleaders to fuck?”

Maeve’s eyebrows went up.

Damien swore under his breath. “Why do you have to be like this?”

“Hormones, probably. Or personality. Hard to know.”

“You don’t have to be a bitch.”

Maeve’s face closed over.

I pulled my hand free before she could seize the phone and turn the call into a crime report.

“Stop calling me that,” I said.

“Then stop acting like one.”

“I’ll stop acting like one when you stop calling, and perhaps we’ll both have a personality transplant in time for Christmas.”

He exhaled hard. “Jesus, Marli. I’m trying here.”

“No, you’re trying to make yourself feel better.”

“I miss you.”

“You said that.”

“I made a mistake.”

“Several. There was a theme.”