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Kayla smiled. “No. You couldn’t. You are you, and I am—”
“A total workaholic. So what’s the excuse for not asking him to have dinner with you last night? Or breakfast with you this morning? Or lunch this afternoon? Dinner tonight? You’re retreating from the dating world into your shell.”
“We both worked late last night.” Kayla let out her breath. Her brothers and sister had been born the night of the twentieth of June, so they were Geminis. And Kayla had been born after midnight—so a Cancer. The hermit crab reference always seemed to come up at times like these. So what if Kayla liked her solitude after a day of being out in the public and having to deal with so much?
“As a private investigator, Nate has always got cases he’s working on. The one he told us about is probably not the only one he has to prioritize. And his sister has been experiencing so much morning sickness of late, and yesterday, she was so worn out she didn’t make it back to work for about four hours. Nate has been taking up the slack in their PI agency. Our brothers’ are not the only ones affecting someone’s workload with their absenteeism. Nicole’s time off is affecting Nate’s workload too. And another thing, he never asked me about going to the cabin. I think he might have changed his mind because this case he’s working on needs to be resolved pronto,” Kayla continued.
Roxie gave up trying to convince Kayla and finished off her omelet. “Now I really love that version of the omelet. The vegetables added color, fiber, and taste.”
“Yeah, I really enjoyed it too.” Kayla was glad her sister wasn’t giving her any further grief about Nate. Her backup plan—if they didn’t go to the cabin—was to propose a mating to him on the Fourth of July. She wasn’t about to give up on that. By the Fourth, they were going to be mated wolves.Guaranteed, she thought. Unless he was holding back because he was unsure of things with her.
“Well,” Roxie said, gathering up their plates to take into the kitchen, “our brothers took care of the ski lodge all on their own before we finished what we had to do in Vermont to move here. So now it’s our turn to run things.”
“But they didn’t do any promo for the new ski lodge here. So it wasn’t like they handledallthat needed to be done.” That was the thing: promotions took a whole lot of work, which was mainly why Kayla handled it almost full-time.
“That’s true. But we have enough staff to cover the mundane stuff, and you need to take a break before you crash and burn.” Roxie cleaned up the kitchen while Kayla made them thermoses of hot maple-tea espresso to go. “He’ll ask you to go to the cabin. Just plan for it.”
“As soon as we get all the stuff done for the Fourth of July—”
“Then you’ll be getting stuff ready for the new ski season. And our brothers will be taking paternity leave to help out with the new babies when they’re born.”
Which was the problem with each brother having a pair of twins at the same time. Though their brothers and their mates were glad they weren’t expecting quadruplets like the Wolff family had. Even Dr. Mitchell, the retired veterinarian, was returning to work full-time to take over Gabrielle’s workload for about four months after the babies were born. Probably sooner if she ended up on bed rest before the babies were due. Even though the wolves had an easier time of it than humans did, they could still run into trouble during a pregnancy. They were all eager to see the babies, and they’d all be helping out with them after they were born, serving in the capacity of a bunch of wolf nannies.
Roxie set the frying pan on the drying pad. “If it were me, I’d be seeing him every night and every morning and—” Roxie paused. “Wait. You’re not holding out untilIfind a mate first so you can have the house for yourself, are you?”
Kayla smiled. “Why is it thatyouaren’t dating anyone seriously? You wouldn’t be waiting formeto marry, then leave you the house, would you?”
That was the agreement they’d all had, thoughnothing was written in stone. The idea was that whoever found a mate would move out and live with their mate. Blake and Nicole had built their own home a short distance from this one, and therefore it was also nice and close to the lodge. Landon had moved into the vet’s home behind Gabrielle’s clinic. So it was true that if Kayla mated Nate, the notion was that she’d be moving into his apartment and they’d want to build a home of their own on the land next to Nicole and Blake’s home. She was practically getting hives from the thought of having to deal with all that stress.
Roxie laughed at the suggestion she was waiting on dating anyone. “I’m just casually dating some wolves. None seriously right now. Come on. We need to get in our wolf run before work.” But she was texting someone, and Kayla hoped it wasn’t Nate. Roxie was known to get involved if she felt she could help her siblings get together with the wolves she thought were right for them. It had worked in Blake’s and Landon’s cases, but it wouldn’t necessarily work in Kayla’s.
Then the two of them went for their morning wolf run. Though Rosco always wanted to go with them, he couldn’t be depended on to stick with them. He’d run off, chasing the wildlife instead. They didn’t want the distraction when they ran as wolves.
When they returned to the house, shifted, and dressed, ready for work, Roxie strapped Buttercupin her stroller to take her to the lodge. From the time they took her home from one of the hotel rooms as a kitten, she’d been going to the lodge every day with Rosco.
“Are you going to try a leash on her again?” Kayla didn’t have the patience or fortitude to struggle with an uncooperative cat, but Buttercup had loved the stroller walks when they took Rosco for walks on his leash. Talk about Buttercup being a princess. When she was smaller, whoever took Rosco out would put Buttercup in their pocket. But she was too big for that now.
“Yeah, sure, sometime. It would be fun, though she loves the stroller.”
Kayla walked Rosco to the lodge on the walkway from their home to the two-story building while Roxie pushed the little pink stroller.
They were halfway there when Roxie frowned at her and said, “About the birthday parties coming up—”
“About the party… I think it’s high time we celebrate the birthdays together.” Kayla always had mixed feelings about it. Yeah, it was fun to have her own party separate from her brothers and sister, but on the other hand, it seemed kind of silly when it was just the next day and they had to have another one just for her. “I know I should have talked to you about this sooner since it’s in just a few days.”
“No. Way. You’re special. Our poor mom didn’tthink you would ever come. It took until the next day for you to arrive.”
“Half an hour later—after midnight. Sheesh. It’s just that with all the babies coming and changes—”
“No. I mean if you really want to do it, sure, but not because you’re afraid it will be too much for everyone else to handle. We love having the two birthday parties. If you want, we can celebrate mine with yours if you’re feeling lonely. The guys can have theirs the day before.” Roxie cast a glance in Kayla’s direction. “This better not be about Nate.”
“This isn’t about Nate!”
Roxie stared at her.
Whoops!Kayla figured that’s where this conversation was headed…again. That she didn’t deserve a second chance of finding a mate so she was self-sabotaging herself with excuses why she wasn’t just asking him to mate her. She didn’t want to think in those terms. But maybe she was…a little bit. But she was also afraid he wouldn’t be able to handle the business of her shifting in the middle of the night during the full moon. What if they were in the middle of making love?
“Fine! I’ll invite him over for dinner tonight. All right?” That was another of Kayla’s downfalls. She absolutely hated confrontations and would agree to practically anything to end them.
