Chapter 14
Selling the Dummy: When you really commit to the fake, and the opponent completely buys it.
Translation: Faking it with a hot Irish rugby player is risky business.
Everly
Okay, Everly Fletcher. You’re going to go to this party, and you’re going to like it, I tell myself as I stand in my bathroom, applying my last coat of mascara. You’re a different person than you were in high school. Everyone is different. It’s going to be fun to see some old friends.
You can tell them all about Ireland. You saw a bit of the world with Cliona. Just tell them about that. But don’t tell them
too much. Avoid the “too much” part of your brain. Plus, you have a hot Irish guy as your plus-one . . . Lean on that.
My phone pings with an incoming photo from Wolf. When I open it, I can’t help but burst out laughing.
It’s a photo of Rugby in his enclosure with a little bow tie around his neck and the caption that says: Let’s party.
I scroll back through the endless text messages I’ve had with Wolf the past couple of weeks. They’re 90 percent about our boy, Rugby, 5 percent work-related tasks, but that last 5 percent . . . dare I say, we’re verging on flirting. It’s always
on the days I don’t make it down to Mount Millie. Wolf sends me simple messages like: How was your day? And I find myself grinning like a dork as I try to text him back something clever and not embarrassing.
I usually fail.
I epically failed when my uncle Calder caught me texting Wolf back the other night. He and Dakota invited me over for dinner
and to hang with their cats, to which I said, of course. In fact, between my uncles and aunts and parents, I rarely go a night
without a dinner invite. Which makes my co-parenting of Rugby a bit difficult.
However, Wolf and I have been getting along pretty well as coworkers, if I do say so myself. Earlier this week, we had to
work together to haul furniture from Calder’s workshop behind his cabin down to the rescue center, and Wolf was basically
my muscle as I arranged benches and chairs around the property with potted plants that I purchased from Costco.
We planted some greenery along the pathways and turned mismatched chairs into cozy nooks. I added flower boxes to the windows
of the barn and filled them with lavender and rosemary so the whole place smells like summer. In just a few days, we transformed
Mount Millie from a top-of-the-line, self-sustaining rescue center to an adorable visitor destination. And we didn’t kill
each other! It gives me hope that maybe tonight, we’ll actually be able to have some fun together.
I give myself one last look in the mirror. I’m dressed in jeans and a lacey black bodysuit that’s a little revealing, but
if I’m going to be reconnecting with people I never really connected with in high school, I’d better look hot while doing
it. I drape my motorcycle leather jacket over my arm and slide my feet into some black strappy heels to make my way out to
my SUV to go pick up Wolf down at the barn.
I’m grateful he agreed to come with me. After my chat with Trista and getting text messages from Hilow and my childhood bestie, Claire, I know I need to go to this freaking party to prove to everyone, as well as myself, that I’m not hiding anymore.
And the idea of going alone feels just too pathetic.
Like it’s openly telling them I’m still the same weird, oversharing head case that I was in high school.
I clomp down the steps of my cabin deck, digging in my purse for my keys, when I hear a throat-clearing so intense it has
me looking up to find that Wolf is standing by my vehicle, waiting for me.
“You didn’t have to walk up here,” I say, making my way down toward him. “I was going to drive down and get you.”
“I was ready early, so . . .” His throat contracts as he looks me up and down before he shakes his head and looks away.
My eyes can’t help but do a sweep of him as well. The sun is setting, so it’s casting that perfect summer glow over his creamy
Irish skin. He’s dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt that hugs his insane muscles. His gold cross chain shimmers, giving
him that iconic rebel look he wears so well with his rumpled dark hair and narrow, pensive eyes. But there’s something softer
in him now. A lightness in him that I never saw in all my years of orbiting him at Trinity. Maybe being a pet owner has tempered
this bad boy.
We look like a couple who should be climbing onto a motorcycle, not jumping into my “Ostuni Pearl White” Range Rover. But
I think we’ll look pretty good climbing into my new ride anyway.
An errant thought about how people might think we’re a couple hits me, and I wince and stare at the ground to scrape that
fantasy from my mind. I can’t just casually date my best friend’s brother. I can’t just casually date the guy living on the
same mountain compound as me. Just because he’s stopped ignoring me doesn’t change the fact that he’s never looked at me twice.
Wolf and I are not a thing and never will be. We’re far too different.
We make our way down the mountain and out of Jamestown, and the silence in my car feels deafening.
Wolf’s cologne is mixing with the smell of my new car, and the combination is causing my body to hum to life.
I’d notice his scent when he would come to me and Cliona’s dorm room on occasion.
Like the first snap of cold air after a heavy rain.
It always made me want to purr like a cat.
Jesus, I’m a freak.
“Is our baby mad about not coming to the party?” I ask, finally breaking the silence after we’ve passed through the winding
mountain roads and are on the main highway to Boulder. “How has he been this week?”
“He’s good.” Wolf turns to look at me with an arched brow as he holds his phone up to reveal that our little bow tie beardie
is now his background.
Dammit, that’s adorable.
“I love it.”
He shrugs and offers me a wink. “I was just relieved to discover delivers to Fletcher Mountain. I have a hoodie saved
in my cart for him next.”
“You are obsessed.”
He smiles down at his phone. “I always wanted a pet growing up, but my parents would never allow it.”
“So should I hold off putting Rugby on the Mount Millie website?”
Wolf’s head snaps back to me. “Why would he go on the website?”
“To be adopted, of course.” I glance over and can’t help but notice the anxiety in his eyes.
He clears his throat and struggles a bit with his words. “I don’t mind watching him while I’m here. It’s kind of decent having
something to come home to at night. I’ve never properly lived alone.”
“You’re not really alone,” I reply with a grin. “You’ve got Handsome and Millie and Reggie and Butterscotch . . .”
He rolls his eyes.
“Okay, fine. I’ll delay listing Rugby.”
“Thank you,” he murmurs, fingering the denim of his jeans.
I eye him carefully, trying to tread lightly when I ask, “Your parents were pretty strict, huh?”
Wolf looks curiously at me as I dig deeper than we’ve ever really gone before.
I offer a sympathetic smile. “Cliona doesn’t say much, but it was just an impression I got. I know it always bothered her
that they never came to any of her rugby matches.”
Wolf exhales heavily. “It always bothered her more than me. Our parents are good people. They just have to work a lot to keep
their shop afloat. Our nana lived with us growing up, so it really wasn’t all bad.”
I nod slowly. “My dad worked a lot when I was younger too. His thing was always quality time over quantity. When I had my
weekends with him, he made sure to give me his full attention. But it was almost stressful in a way. Like we couldn’t ever
just do nothing together.”
Wolf eyes me curiously. “Does he still work a lot?”
“He’s still a busy guy, yeah. But he’s better since Cozy. She really helped him see that life doesn’t always have to be so
black-and-white.”
I feel Wolf’s eyes on me still when he asks, “Is it weird having two mams? Or three, I guess, with your stepmam?”
“It feels normal to me,” I reply with a soft smile. “It feels like I have three extra dads with my uncles, so I guess we’re
all used to the more, the merrier. Even my mom and her wife, Kailey, parent my brother, Ethan, a bit. Boundaries really aren’t
a thing in the Fletcher family.”
“I’ve picked up on that,” Wolf says, staring forward. “Trista keeps inviting me to their house for dinners.”
“You should say yes sometimes,” I say, fighting back the swirling feeling in my gut over the thought of spending more time with him. For some strange reason, I like the idea of him infiltrating more of the mountain life. He’s starting to fit in, even when he stands out.
“I don’t want to be a bother.”
“You wouldn’t be a bother,” I state seriously, turning to look at him. “You’re a huge help to Trista down at the center. I’m
sure she’d love to get to know you a bit more.”
Wolf’s eyes are pensive as he watches the road, but I can’t help but continue prying. “So, your plan is to be a lawyer someday?”
He expels a deep noise in his throat. “I guess so.”
“You guess?” I laugh. “Isn’t that kind of a hard job to just stumble into?”
He sighs. “Yeah, it’s just always been the plan for us with my parents.”
“What would your plan be if your parents weren’t a factor?”
Wolf buzzes his lip. “Christ, I haven’t given that much thought, I guess.”
“Oh, come on. I’m guessing there’s something that’s crossed your mind. No one goes to Trinity and doesn’t get inspired by
something.”
Wolf’s large hands splay out wide on his thighs. “Social work of some sort, maybe, if my parents weren’t so worried about
money. I like the idea of doing something that makes a difference in someone’s life the way rugby did for me.”
My lips part at this rare moment of vulnerability from a guy who never had much to say to me while we were at college. This
career path is unexpected from Wolf, but strangely, I can see it perfectly. He always was a really hard worker and seemed
to take his classes very seriously.
“You’d probably make a great teacher.”