And a future with him.
How was your day?She texted Trick for the very first time. Juliette had sent her the number, but she’d never used it. Until she got home.
She expected awho is this, but instead she got,Hey beautiful. Better now. How was yours?
Really good, actually. I hung out with my mom after work.
They texted for an hour. About the tavern, the coffee shop, the band audition, and their favorite songs by decade which had turned into a heated debate about whether the seventies rocked more or the eighties did. He asked about her mom, and she asked about his family.
His answer took longer.
Mine’s complicated, prob too much for texting. But it’s just me and my brothers now. We’re our own pack and family.
That sounds like quite a story. If you’d like to tell me sometime, I’d like to hear it.
You got it.
She fell asleep that night, thinking about the future and Trick, and how a wolf had changed her perception of love just by simply showing up.
When she’d closed up the coffee shop on Monday, she hurried home and changed, then made a decision. She knew what she was about to do was going to change everything.
And she was okay with that.
Although her heart was pounding as she drove across the bridge to King Lake, it wasn’t nerves, it was excitement.
And maybe a little bit of nerves.
She parked and climbed out, shutting the door.
As if he knew she was there, Trick opened the door to The Howl.
This was it.
No going back.
She couldn’t imagine her life without him in it. And that’s why she was putting her heart on the line.
Because he was the right guy.
Herright guy.
Restless was the word of the day for Trick on Monday. He and Cass had texted off and on all day while she’d been at the coffee shop and he’d been at the house, and then he’d gone into the tavern early because he was full of nervous energy and needed something to do.
Cleaning the glass doors leading out to the deck before they opened for the night should have helped. Usually, keeping his hands busy settled his wolf and gave him something to focus on. But not tonight.
Every few minutes he checked his phone like an idiot.
As the afternoon turned into the evening, and patrons began showing up, the busyness helped him focus somewhat on his job, but he couldn’t help but wonder what Cass was up to.
And then he felt her.
Not in a way he could explain to anyone who wasn’t a wolf, but he’d known the moment she came into the parking lot that she was there. He hadn’t scented her or heard her car, he’d just felt her.
He pushed open the door and saw her get out of her car.
And suddenly everything that had been tight and anxious inside him unfurled like a flag.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said, stepping out and letting the door shut behind him.
