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The delicious deep, gravelly quality of his voice sent shivers of excitement up her spine.
Oh, that man had her full attention.
When times were hard with him, they were very hard, but when he was like this? Light, and fun, and flirting? He filled her with a new happiness she didn’t recognize.
She’d never felt this way about anyone before.
Lenny was already around the front of the house, lighting a fire in the pit between a triangle of wooden benches. Eliza had never sat at a fire out here, though she’d noticed the ashes in the pit before.
“We’re eating outside?” she guessed as she passed on her way into the cabin.
“Trust me. You won’t want all those werewolves in a small space. Outside is best for them. Less fighting.”
“I’ll get the bowls out and make sure the biscuits aren’t scorching,” she called as she bustled inside.
Minutes later, Cookie, Wells, Burke, and Garret descended into the cabin like a batch of starving animals.
She laughed as she watched the chaos of those men filling bowls and stacking fresh biscuits on the sides of their stew.
Garret surprised her and filled a bowl for her. When he handed it to her, she told him, “You’re the one who’s been out working hard all day. You should eat. I can make you a bowl.”
He shook his head and brushed a knuckle against her hip. “You had a big day too. Lenny told me what all you learned.” He tilted his head toward the door. “Go on, get us a seat. I’ll be out there in a minute.”
“O-okay.” Cheeks utterly flushed with pleasure, she turned for the door and stumbled numbly outside.
Lenny was grinning at her.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing at all.”
Eliza sat down on an empty bench and waited for her piping-hot bowl of stew to cool as the boys took their seats. Lenny sat on the bench beside hers, just on her other side, as Garret took the seat directly beside her.
He sat down and went to stirring up his steaming stew.
Burke dug right in, and then complained about how it burned the roof of his mouth while Lenny and Cookie made fun of him for never learning his lesson with hot food.
As she stirred her stew around to let it cool, the thick aroma of seasoned vegetables and thick, meaty broth wafted into her face and made her mouth water. She was hungry tonight.
Time and time again, Garret cast her a quick sideways glance, and the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips held her attention.
“So, Eliza,” Burke said as he sopped a biscuit through his soup stock. “Since you’re the only one who knew old Garret over there before he was a werewolf, I think you should dish some dirt on him.”
“Sorry, ladies and gents,” Garret muttered, “no dirt to tell.”
“That’s not entirely true,” she said. “Once upon a time he found a nest of snake eggs he swore up and down were just little grass snakes. Said he saw the mother near them and everything.”
A far-off look came over him. “I don’t remember this,” he murmured.
“You will. So, he brings me this mason jar all done up in pink ribbons he stole from his mother’s yarn basket, and lo and behold, he’s brought me the gift of snake eggs. What really happened was, his ma caught him trying to sneak them into his room and she banned them from the house, so he decided to give them to me. Anyway, Roy cut him off at the pass and said, ‘There’s no way in hell you’re setting foot in this house with a dad-burned nest of baby snakes!’” She turned to Garret. “Sound familiar yet?”
His brow was furrowed, and he looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Not even a little.”
“So, with a shortage of places to store his little project, he snuck them into school before Mrs. Henshaw rang the bell, and hid them inside his desk.”
“Wait,” he said. “Wait, this sounds familiar now.”
“What happened next?” Burke asked.
