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“And then he invited us to do more business with them in the future, and requested that Miss Eliza over there always accompany me.”
“He likes spirited women,” Eliza said. “You boys are all boring.”
The bartender brought four new glasses with whiskey and set them on the end of the table. Even Lenny got one, and Burke lifted his glass. “To you crazy women, who make every goddamn thing complicated…but also fun.”
Garret smiled knowingly at Eliza, and lifted his new glass. “To you women.”
Lenny had as much heat in her cheeks as Eliza felt in hers. And as the bartender brought out metal plates piled with beef stew thick enough to stand on its own, mashed potatoes, boiled onions, and bread slathered with fresh-churned butter, Eliza settled into the easy talk at the table.
These were her friends. Even over the last few days, she’d gotten to know Burke better. She respected that he always had his Alpha’s back, and her and Lenny’s too.
Eliza was beginning to feel like a part of all this, and she liked it—that sense of belonging.
Oh, in a way, she would always be on the outside, depending on pistols to protect the life she was building because she didn’t have access to a wolf like the others did. But…in the ways she could, she felt like a part of the Pack.
She could feel the respect she was earning.
The talk was easy, the joking abundant, the laughter damn near constant, and the night? As close to perfect as a night had ever been.
The worries of tomorrow would have to wait until tomorrow. Tonight they were celebrating, and sipping whiskey until her head felt as if it was buzzing like a beehive. There was a beautiful smile on Lenny’s lips, and belly laughter, and eating until they were full as ticks.
The stress of the last several days wasn’t in their minds.
It was Garret sliding his legs against hers, enclosing her ankles with his just to say he cared. It was the way his eyes held her like a caress. It was the way he watched her lips any time she was talking.
Oh, he wasn’t rushing her upstairs to treat her like one of the whores at the Brass Buckle. This man was falling for her in the way she was falling for him.
This man was building his loyalty, like her loyalty was building for him.
She could tell he cared.
Just because I’m not there yet, don’t mean I won’t ever get there.
This man was going to get there. She just knew. She could feel how big and important he was now. He was learning to be tender with her when she needed it, and pull her up short when she needed it. He was learning the balance of protectiveness and letting her handle herself how she desired.
Today, instead of stabbing that accountant for training his attention on her spitfire banter and her breasts, Garret had sat back and trusted her to handle it. That meant more to her than she would ever be able to explain to him.
Now if she had been upset, would her husband have stepped forward and given that accountant a swift vengeance? Of that, she had no doubt. She understood Garret much better now.
But if she was fine on her own? He sat back and let her be herself until she needed him.
She loved that he didn’t see her as some weak female that needed to be under his thumb, and she could tell he liked a strong female.
Thank the Lord for small blessings.
And in turn, she loved that she knew she could be herself, and that she had a big, monstrous, dominant, protective, loyal man right at her back, watching and waiting for her signal that he needed to step in.
She’d found something so much deeper in her marriage than she’d ever thought possible.
She couldn’t wait to tell her Uncle Frederick of her adventures here.
He would be hard-pressed to even believe the excitement of her life now. She did know one thing though—her uncle would be very happy that she had ended up happy.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Garret opened the door to their room and looked around before he brushed his fingertips on her lower back and guided her inside.
Eliza was happy, and a little buzzed, and had been chattering all night. It was late, and they both needed rest before they left at dawn to head back to the Lazy S ranch. Garret lit the lantern on the nightstand and hung it on the nail that was hammered deep into the wood-plank wall.
