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“Right, that’s probably the way we’ll go about this,” Weaver admitted. “Luckily the state considers close relationships as fictive kinship even when there’s no blood relation.”
“As far as we know, Laura doesn’t have any relatives in the area and Shiloh’s birth father has never been in the picture,” Jenn said quietly. “Shiloh has told us he doesn’t have any other family than his mother.”
Weaver’s smile got tighter as she nodded. “That seems to be the case, yes. But we’ll talk about all of that and more tomorrow.”
Jenn stepped away from Mike to grab the bag and gave it to Weaver. “Here. Everything he asked for.”
“Thank you.”
They said their goodbyes, and Mike walked her out.
“I’ll be here at nine,” Bodhi told Jenn.
He was still holding himself all wrong, and I thought maybe he would until we had Shiloh back.
“Of course,” she replied, then walked to him and hugged him fiercely. “It’s going to be okay, Bodhi.”
He nodded tightly, then stepped back and started toward the door.
“Do you want me to come to yours tonight?” I called after him.
That gave him a real pause. He stopped and turned to look at me. “Of course.”
There was a weird relief that burst from my heart. “Okay. I have to finish some stuff, but I’ll be there later.”
“Okay.” With that, he left the house.
“He’ll get better once this is over,” Jenn said quietly, some sadness but a whole lot of determination in her tone.
“I know. I wish we didn’t need to see this side of him, though. Not because of us, obviously.”
She hummed in agreement. “Did you have some work to do?”
I chuckled and rubbed my forehead with my fingertips. “No. I just need a breather from his energy, and he needs to find whatever base level he can without me there.”
“You’re a smart man, Wren.” She came to hug me, and then started on the food prep for dinner.
I went back to the cabin to relax for a while. I was curled up on the couch with Nyx sprawled on the floor nearby, when my phone pinged. Then the pinging intensified to a degree I wasn’t prepared for.
I grabbed it quickly and then laughed. It was the family chat. Someone had added me at some point and I hadn’t noticed. Mike was explaining the situation and the various family members were chiming in.
A separate chat popped up for me. It was Crew.
Is Bodhi okay?
No, but he will be.
I’d make sure of that.
I needed to find a distraction. With that in mind, I called Marielle. Maybe I did want to go to Denver to make sure the AirStream was exactly what I wanted, and maybe I needed someone to drive me, so I could then pick up my new truck from Westfield on my way back later.
Chapter 23
Bodhi
Iwas so lost in my thoughts, going over the interview again and again and overanalyzing what I’d said, that it happened fast. I heard the footsteps, turned, and had his throat in my hand a second later. It still took me precious seconds to recognize Wren’s wide blue eyes and how still he held himself.
“Bode,” he whispered, his voice strained. That broke through the fog. I realized I still had my hand gripped around his throat, and I let go so quickly he stumbled a step. He reached for me, but I backed up as fast as I could, until my back hit the fence, putting distance between us.
