6. Seth #2
Up close, I could see the confusion on Dane’s face. I didn’t give myself time to think about what I was doing. If I had, I probably would’ve talked myself out of it.
I rose onto my toes and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. When I lowered myself back onto my heels, Dane was staring at me.
I offered what I hoped was a meaningful look that meant please leave; we were absolutely not prepared for this.
Judging by Dane’s baffled expression, the message did not come through. To be fair, my face probably looked more like someone moments away from a nervous breakdown.
“Uh…” I reached for the sleeve of his jacket. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
Concern replaced the confusion in his eyes immediately. “Sure.”
Dane bent slightly, lowering his head so I could speak more quietly. I turned my back toward Glen and Lynn, even though it didn’t really change much.
They were both shifters, which meant privacy wasn’t guaranteed, but it still felt better than nothing.
“Those are my friends,” I whispered. “From college.”
Dane nodded once. “I figured.”
“You should probably go,” I added.
That made him pause. His expression shifted slightly, like he was recalibrating something. “Go?”
I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck, suddenly aware of how tangled this already was. “We haven’t talked about any of this.”
Dane studied me for a moment longer than before.
“Ah, right. We should talk about this more, but I really don’t mind meeting your friends, since I’m your boyfriend and all.”
His words gave me pause, because I noticed he said those words a little louder than normal.
Was Dane hinting Lynn and Glenn could hear us? I cleared my throat, although I’m sure what I should say next.
Then he asked, quieter, “Are you really okay?”
I didn’t have an easy answer for that. I wasn’t exactly okay, but I wasn’t falling apart either.
I was somewhere in between, caught in a strange mix of anxiety, nostalgia, and the kind of panic that had set in the moment I’d looked up and seen Glen and Lynn standing in my café.
Before I could sort out how to say any of that, Glen called from behind us.
"Hey!"
We both turned.
Glen was already walking towards us. "You must be Seth's boyfriend. I'm Glen."
Lynn's eyes widened. “Boyfriend?" She looked absolutely delighted. "You should come to dinner with us!”
I opened my mouth, fully intending to say something, but once again nothing came out. This was becoming a problem.
Lynn looked between us expectantly while Glen seemed far too amused by the entire situation.
Dane, meanwhile, wasn’t looking at either of them. His attention stayed on me, like he was waiting to see what I wanted before deciding anything for himself.
And for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to tell everyone he had somewhere else to be.
Maybe it was because the last ten minutes had been nothing but one surprise after another, or because the thought of sitting through dinner alone suddenly felt exhausting.
Perhaps maybe it was because I was simply relieved to have someone beside me who already knew what was going on.
Dane held my gaze for another moment, and something in my expression must have told him more than I intended.
His eyes softened as he seemed to understand, before he stepped closer and draped an arm across my shoulders.
The familiar weight settled around me immediately, and to my embarrassment some of the tension I'd been carrying all evening eased the second he touched me.
"If Seth doesn't mind," Dane said, the corner of his mouth lifting into an easy smile, "I know a place."
We ended up following Dane's suggestion. According to him, it was the best pizza place in town.
I told myself I should've pushed for a rain check, but somehow we all ended up squeezed into a booth by the window anyway.
Dane handled the introductions like it was nothing unusual at all. He stuck with the story that we'd met because he'd wandered into my café one day and then just kept coming back.
It was close enough to the truth that it almost made me laugh. The impressive part was how naturally it came out, like he'd been telling the story for years.
At some point while he was talking, Dane shifted closer without breaking the conversation, his arm settling around my waist in the exact spot we'd tested a few days earlier at the park.
My breath caught a little at the familiarity of it.
Dane and Lynn somehow managed to turn a conversation about pizza toppings into a surprisingly intense debate about crust styles, and I mostly listened with half my attention until Glen leaned in.
"I didn't expect him," he said quietly, glancing briefly at Dane before looking back at me. "I thought you'd sworn off shifters after Darryl."
My stomach tightened at the mention of my ex.
I let out a slow breath.
"It's been a while," I said, keeping my voice casual. Then, before I could stop myself, I added, "And Dane's different."
Without really thinking about it, I reached for Dane's hand. His fingers slipped between mine immediately, as if he'd been expecting it.
Glen's gaze flicked briefly to our joined hands before the conversation moved on, but when the wedding came up again, I found myself hesitating.
"I just don't want to make things weird," I admitted. My thumb brushed absentmindedly against Dane's knuckles. "I don't want to show up and feel like I'm stepping into something I don't belong in."
Lynn frowned. “What? Darryl’s fine. Elliot’s fine — he’s the one getting married, after all. They’re both fine.”
Glen nodded. "Seriously. Nobody's going to be upset that you're there."
"Honestly, Seth," Lynn said, leaning forward, "you act like you're just Darryl's ex, but that's not what any of us see. You've known us forever. Half the people coming to this wedding are your friends too."
That settled somewhere deep in my chest. Not because I'd never known it, but because I'd spent so long trying not to think about it.
They kept reassuring me between bites of pizza and arguments about crusts.
Before long, the conversation drifted toward college stories, disastrous group projects, road trips, and the kind of memories that only become funny years later.
Some of those stories included Darryl. Some of them included the two of us together.
Through all of it, Dane stayed quietly beside me. He never tried to steer the conversation away or pull me out of it. He simply let me have the memories when they came.
Whenever one caught me off guard, his fingers would shift against mine or brush lightly over my wrist, grounding me without making a point of it.
It wasn’t that I still wanted Darryl. That chapter of my life had been over for a long time. But five years didn’t simply disappear because a relationship ended.
There were birthdays and holidays tangled up in those years.
Summers spent with his family. Long dinners that had seemed ordinary at the time and now felt strangely precious, simply because they were gone.
I glanced at Dane when Lynn burst out laughing at something Glen said. He smiled back immediately, like he’d been paying attention the whole time.
Like he didn’t mind standing outside a history that had nothing to do with him. For some reason, that made it easier to breathe.
By the time we finally left the restaurant, the sharp edges of the evening had worn away into something calmer.
We walked Glen and Lynn back to their car. When we reached the vehicle, Glen paused and then gestured for me to follow him around to the back.
“There was actually one more reason we came by,” he said, lowering his voice.
I frowned slightly and followed him to the trunk, where he opened it and pulled out a couple of garment bags.
“These are from Gabby,” he said. “She remembered you mentioned not having anything for the wedding.”
That was just one of the excuses I’d used for why I couldn’t go.
“I can’t take those,” I said immediately.
“You don’t really get a choice. She’ll murder me if I bring them back.”
“That sounds like your problem.”
“It becomes your problem the second she hears you refused.”
I hesitated, then sighed. “Fine,” I muttered, taking the bags. The weight of them settled into my hands more easily than I wanted to admit.
“Good.”
We said our goodbyes after that. Lynn hugged me again, less restrained than before, and Glen gave a lazy wave before sliding into the passenger seat.
When the car finally pulled away, I stayed where I was a moment longer than I meant to.
Dane came up beside me without a word. I didn’t even realize I’d shifted closer until I was leaning slightly into him, my shoulder brushing his.
He adjusted instantly, his arm coming around me again, firmer this time, like it was something he didn’t have to think about anymore.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Saying yes felt wrong, and I didn’t quite have the words for anything else.
So instead I let out a small breath and squeezed his hand.
“Thanks,” I said softly. “For tonight.”