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Felicity grinned up at me, dressed in a sundress with big golden sunflowers printed on it. Her hair was tied back from her face with a deep green linen scarf.
“Hey, you.” She held her arms out for me as I closed the gap between us, then wrapped them around my neck.
I wound my own arms around her waist, drawing her close for a kiss.
“I was just looking for you,” I confessed.
“Fancy that. I was looking for you, too.” She cocked her head toward the door. “Come on. I want you to see what I’ve been working on.”
With my hand in hers, she guided me toward the dining room. The big table there was covered in papers, with markers and highlighters scattered across it. A tablet with a little keyboard attachment was propped up by its case to one side.
“What’s all this?” I asked, picking up one of the papers. It had an October calendar printed on it. Felicity’s neat, pretty handwriting filled every date box from margin to margin in tiny but remarkably readable cursive.
Dinner: Slow cooker carnitas, elote salad, grapes, one line read. On the date beneath it, she’d written: Breakfast: scrambled eggs with spinach and feta, hash browns, oranges.
“I’ve been meal-planning,” she said with a smile. “What do you think?”
“It’s ambitious. And impressive,” I said, continuing to scan the suggested meals. Just reading them made my stomach rumble. “Looks like a lot of work, too. What did you need to do all this for?”
She laughed. “Well, I’ve had a little taste of what it’s like to run this lodge like a castle now. Trust me. It’s necessary. Look here.” She grabbed the tablet and pulled up a beautifully organized spreadsheet. “If we order dry goods in bulk—staples like beans and rice and flour, even coffee—it costs more up front, obviously, but it’s actually cheaper in the long run, and they’ll keep for a long time.”
I tracked the columns of the spreadsheet, which compared the prices for different goods at different retailers, nodding approvingly.
“That’s sharp of you, Cheeks.”
“It’s important,” she said simply, whisking the tablet away. “I don’t know how deep your coffers run—”
“Pretty deep,” I said. “This is kind of what they’re for.”
“—but if we’re going to be caring for the whole pack, then it doesn’t make sense to be making grocery runs twice a day,” she continued, placing some more papers into my hands. “I’ve got ordering schedules and ingredients lists whipped up, too. I haven’t figured out what to do with all the venison the Riley boys have promised us yet, but I will. Plus, Ed and Lola from the Farmer’s Wife? I’ve talked to their sons. They’re willing to give us good prices on whole cows and pigs, and if the Riley boys don’t mind doing the butchering, we’ll save money there, too. We might need to invest in a couple of freezers, but—” She glanced up at me and realized that I’d stopped looking at her papers several sentences ago. I only had eyes for her. “What are you looking at me like that for? I’m not being silly.”
“No,” I agreed quietly, admiring the sparks that went off in her eyes at the notion. “I don’t think you are.”
“I’m being proactive,” she insisted. Her nose wrinkled adorably as she shoved my hip. “Although, when you look at me like that, it makes me a little afraid that I’m overdoing it.” Her brow furrowed. “I’m not overdoing it, am I?”
“No, Cheeks. You’re…you’re fucking incredible.” I moved closer, taking her face into my hands. When I turned her gaze up toward me, her eyes looked even larger and more beautiful than ever. I smoothed the worry from her brow with my thumbs. “Everything I ever could have wanted from a mate and more.”
“Good.” She grinned, looking pleased. “I want to be a good mate for you.”
“There could never be any better.”
“And I want to be a good leader, too,” she said earnestly. “For the pack. I know I’m not an alpha, or even a shifter—not really. But—”
“You are perfect. Honestly.” I chuckled and reached into my pocket. “I’ve got something for you, too.”
Her mouth fell open as her gaze wandered to my side.
“Xander Miller, I swear to God, if you pull out a ring—”
“Nah,” I said a little sheepishly, shifting my fingers away from the blue velvet they’d been brushing up against. The dining room probably wasn’t the right place for this, anyway. Instead, I pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to her. “Here.”
Felicity’s brow furrowed as she studied it. It had been folded over several times, but once she unfolded it, the letters were still pretty clear.
“Debt paid in full,” she read in a slow, breathy voice. Her hazel eyes glistened as she raised her gaze to meet mine. “The money owed to those bookies… You took care of it?”
“Told you I would.” I smirked. “You’d be surprised how cagey those bookies were about giving me a receipt. I made them sign it, see?” I pointed to the splotchy scrawl of a signature at the bottom, right beneath my own name.
“So, it’s finally over. Grandpa Jordan’s debts…they’re gone.” She sounded like she could hardly believe it.
