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Something deeper that we haven’t seen yet.
Whatever that something is, we’ve got a week to find it.
I’m hopeful that we can start to bond with her in some way.
If we need to be patient for a little longer until she’s ready to get serious, we’ll find a way to do that, but I know we can’t go another week feeling like we’re invisible in her eyes. It’s not the way things are supposed to go between fated mates, and it’s driving us all crazy.
“Is lunch almost ready?” Gus asks, his low, rumbling voice behind me taking me by surprise.
I realize the chili has thickened up a little more than I intended, and I turn off the heat.
“It is now,” I tell my grumpiest pack brother.
Rueben’s usually the one complaining if food is taking too long, but, clearly, today we all have other things on our minds.
Gus waits by my side while I dish up the food into bowls.
We’re both six foot tall, but Gus has dark brown hair that grows fast enough to need a trim every few weeks. He has a permanent five o’clock shadow, and he rarely smiles.
He’s also the only one of my brothers who denies any feeling of connection to Scarlett. I’m honestly not sure if that’s the truth, or if he’s just so resistant to the idea that he doesn’t want what he felt for her to be real.
He takes two of the bowls to the table, and I pick up the other two.
Rueben already has the tortilla chips over there, and we’ll be lucky if there are a few left to dip in our food. He’s crunching on one as Gus puts his bowl down in front of him.
Our resident redhead, and the last probie we took on at this station, is a couple inches taller than me, and he’s almost always talking whenever he’s not eating or sleeping.
He barely has that last chip swallowed before he opens his mouth.
“I was just telling Scout, I don’t know why we can’t all be off for the entire week,” he complains, as he picks up a fork. “It’s not like we have too much work on our hands. The guys in Silver Lake could easily send a couple men out to cover for us for the extra couple days if we asked.”
I glance at Scout as I sit down.
He shrugs at me in apology.
“Don’t mention our lack of vacation days. I already tried,” Scout murmurs.
Our quietest pack brother is a few inches shorter than me, but he’s built a lot more solidly. With the lightest blond hair that I’ve ever seen in real life, and the palest blue eyes, he probably could have been a model when he was kid. Before he grew up and bulked up with thick layers of muscle. He looks like a wrestler now, or a quarterback, but he’s the sweetest, friendliest guy I know. That’s why Rueben tends to spend a lot of his time talking with him, which mainly means rambling on until he’s gotten all the words out of his head. Scout lets him do that, and we all appreciate it.
“We’ve got six days off each, Rueben,” I remind him. “That’s practically a week.”
“Practically, Shmactically,” he mutters.
Gus snorts. “None of us need to be off at all.”
“Oh, come on,” Rueben scoffs. “You can’t seriously still be thinking Scarlett isn’t our true mate. We’ve all felt a connection to her. There’s no way three of us are wrong about this. No way.”
I look at Gus, wondering once again what he’s really thinking whenever he insists she’s not ours. His expression doesn’t give anything away. Instinctively, I know he’s holding something back, but I have no idea what that something might be.
He rolls his eyes at Rueben. “She’s a reckless musician, and she’s not the slightest bit interested in any of us. Whatever you three felt … Whatever that was, clearly, she doesn’t feel it, and if she doesn’t feel it, that means it’s not a true mate match.”
Rueben shakes his head. “We just haven’t given her the chance to get to know us, and we haven’t had much time to get to know her, either. This next week fixes that problem. She’s meant to be with us, and she’ll realize that herself soon enough.”
“Whatever you say,” Gus mutters, starting to eat his food.
“Soon enough is not soon enough,” Rueben adds, letting out a sad sigh.
Scout gives him a sympathetic smile. “One more day for you.”
