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After another exchange of farewells, I climbed into the truck's passenger seat and strapped myself in. I sat up with my hands on my knees like I was being watched. That was kind of how it felt as Kiara stood next to her mailbox across the street with her arms crossed over her chest.
She was staring at me. I knew what that meant.
Behave, I thought. It’s just a weekend trip. That’s it.
Ugh, I just hoped hard that I was right about that.
***
The radio crackled with static as Eric turned the dial. Country came through the speakers, the twang of a steel guitar joining the heartbreaking wail of a woman in love.
“I just wanted you to know,” she sang, “I always wanted you to want me.”
Part of me twitched at her siren-like voice, irked by how her words strung around my heart—and then yanked hard.
I pushed the dial to shut the radio off.
Eric coughed a few times. “You, uh, don’t like country or something?”
“No.”
Oh, that was another tale that could grow too tall if I wasn’t watching it.
Eric cleared his throat, shrugged his shoulders, and adjusted his hands on the wheel at ten and two. I stared at his knobby fingers, the light dusting of black hair across his knuckles nearly inviting my touch as I noticed the skin growing taut. He was squeezing the steering wheel.
I faced the road again. “You okay?”
“Peachy keen.”
“Kiki is right. Nobody says that anymore.”
He raised his thumb in the air. Was that agreement or encouragement to keep talking? Perhaps it was simply an acknowledgment. Papa told me about Eric, how they were close pals and all, but hadn’t mentioned much about the guy’s personality.
Eric was a lot like a brick wall sometimes. I could poke and prod it all I wanted without getting much of a response. Yet, at the same time, I could tap a specific area in between the bricks—the tattered clay holding everything together—and watch the structure crumble from the lightest tap.
Today, the bricks were sealed up around him. He wasn’t going to crumble. And I wasn’t exactly looking to make him crumble.
Yet I wondered what the next weak spot might be.
“She just likes to tease me,” Eric explained in a hushed voice. “Kids.”
“Yeah, kids.”
He drummed the wheel a few times. “We never did talk yesterday.”
Well, shoot. He was right about that—we hadn’t talked about the mate mess. Or why his alphas wanted me to suddenly be in their pack. Or why no one else had spoken up. I felt like I was fighting a quiet battle, one I didn’t agree to start or finish.
My stomach gurgled loudly enough to capture his attention. Now, I was upset with myself for shutting off the radio. Bad country was better than a growling stomach any day. Without acknowledging his inquisitive smile, I looked out the window.
I wiggled my shoulders subtly. “Yes, I’m hungry.”
“Let’s get something to eat.”
“I’m a vegetarian.”
The leather of the steering wheel creaked as he gripped and twisted it. “You can’t be serious about that.”
I shot him a playful look, sweeping away the irritated frown that had stolen his handsome features. He looked so much better with a smile. It livened him up, enhanced the wintry blue of his eyes to look like mountain crystals. Some of that residual sadness he carried around seemed to recede as well.
