“You’re welcome? Why are you—wait. What did you and Carter talk about?”
“Um. Nothing?”
“Really. That’s what you’re going with.”
“Nothing,” I insisted.
“You’re acting weird.”
“You’re acting weird.”
He rolled his eyes. “The smell thing, the going off with Carter in the woods, bringing up the wolf out of nowhere. Don’t even get me started on walking into the side of the house when we came back from….”
He trailed off, and I knew that expression on his face. I knew what that meant. That was the look he got when his mind started racing into overdrive, putting all the little bits and pieces together.
“We should probably go eat,” I said hastily. “We don’t want to keep everyone waiting. It’s very rude.”
His eyes widened.
Well fuck.
“Ox,” he said, a hint of his wolf poking through, eyes flashing. “Anything you’d like to tell me?”
“No,” I said quickly. “Absolutely not.”
“You sure about that?” he asked, his grip on my elbow tightening.
I just barely managed to pull my arm free. “I’m hungry,” I said, voice rough. “We should—”
“Sure,” he said. “Let’s go.”
I blinked.
He smiled at me.
My heart stuttered a bit.
The smile widened.
No one commented as we rounded the corner, though I was sure every single one of them aside from my mother had heard the entire conversation. Carter winked at me. Kelly looked rather pleased. Mark smiled his secret smile. Elizabeth watched me fondly. Mom just looked confused.
Thomas, though. Thomas looked more at ease than I’d ever seen him before.
Joe crowded into my side, sitting down next to me, not leaving any room between us.
The meal was an exercise in torture.
He leaned in often when talking to me, breath on my neck, whispering in my ear.
He touched my arm, my hand, my thigh.
He had a straw in his soda. He never used straws. Never. But he had one now, pulled from somewhere, eyelashes fluttering up at me as he sucked, cheeks hollowing.
I dropped my fork. It clattered loudly onto my plate.
“Joe,” Thomas sighed. “Really?”
“Oops,” Joe said. “Sorry.” He didn’t sound sorry at all.
Kelly said, “Oh man, this makes so much more sense now. And is much more gross.”
“I made pie for dessert,” Elizabeth said, coming back to the table. “Whip cream topping.”
I groaned.
Joe looked delighted.
Even more so when he ran a finger through the cream, licking it from his skin, never taking his eyes off of me.
Carter and Kelly had matching looks of disgust and horror on their faces.
“Stop it,” I hissed at him.
Joe cocked his head at me before leaning in and saying in a low voice, “Oh, Ox. I’m just getting started.”
and a bow tie/anything for you
I SHOULD have known he wasn’t going to drop this.
He let me have three days to worry over it. To fret over every little detail of every interaction we ever had.
Things made sense now. Jessie. The men I’d slept with. The way he’d disappear from my life for days after them.
And Frankie. Frankie had been his attempt at… what. A normal life? Something that wasn’t me?
I didn’t like Frankie, I discovered. At all.
Three days. He let me have three days.
Three days of him smiling at me.
Three days of trying to figure out the hidden meaning of every text he sent me.
Monday and Tuesday, he was waiting for me on the dirt road as I walked home from work.
He said, “Hey, Ox.”
I blushed.
We walked home together, me trying to find the words to say this can’t happen and you deserve so much better than me and you were only ten, how could you do that, you were only ten years old, but unable to speak them aloud.
His hand often brushed mine and I thought to take it every now and then.
The third day, he wasn’t on the road.
I wanted to feel relieved.
Instead, I was disappointed.
Until I got home.
Mom had had the day off, the first in a long while.
So, of course, she was home when I got there.
And so was Joe.
Sitting at our kitchen table.
Wearing dress pants, a dress shirt.
And a bow tie.
Which, unbeknownst to me, turned out to be one of my greatest weaknesses.
I walked into the kitchen door at the sight of that.
“Huh,” Mom said. “Things are starting to make sense now.”
I rubbed my sore nose as I scowled at the both of them. “What’s going on?”
“Joe asked if he could speak with me,” Mom said.
“I brought her flowers!” Joe blurted out, sounding breathless and nervous.
“And he brought me flowers,” Mom agreed, tilting her head toward the vase sitting on the table, filled with irises, her favorites. How he’d found that out, I’d never know.
“Why are you bringing her flowers?” I asked.
“Because Mom said it was nice to do and would get her on my good side when I asked her if it’d be okay that I kept you for the rest of my life,” Joe explained. Then his eyes widened. “Shit. That wasn’t supposed to come out like that.”
“Oh my god,” I said faintly.
“You want to keep him for how long now?” Mom asked, squinting at Joe.
“Uhh,” Joe said. “Crap. This isn’t going like I wanted it to. I had everything I needed to say planned out. Hold on.” He reached down and pulled a notecard from his pocket. It was rumpled, the corner ripped. He stared down at it, mouth moving silently as he read whatever the hell he’d written on it. A drop of sweat trickled down his forehead.
This had to be a dream.
“Joe, maybe we should—” I tried.
But he looked up at my mom, a determined set to his jaw. “Hi, Ms. Callaway,” he said. “These flowers are for you.”
I groaned.
“Thank you, Joe,” Mom said, lips twitching. “Is what I said ten minutes ago when you gave them to me and then sat there staring at me while waiting for Ox to get home.”
“Right,” he said. “You’re welcome. Speaking of Ox, I’ve come to talk to you about him.”
“You’re wearing a bow tie,” I said unnecessarily.
He glanced over at me. “Mom said I had to dress up for this.”
I heard a low snort of laughter coming through the open window above the sink.
And I knew.
I stalked over to the window and looked outside.
There, sitting spread out on the grass, were the rest of the Bennetts.
Goddamn fucking werewolves.
“Hello, Ox,” Elizabeth said without a hint of shame. “Lovely day, isn’t it?”
“I will deal with all of you later,” I said.
“Ooh,” Carter said. “I actually just got chills from that.”
“We’re just here for support,” Kelly said. “And to laugh at how embarrassing Joe is.”