Chapter 39
JULIET
Warner leads the new arrival into the room, and I admire the bouncy golden curls she sports. Her hair, like the rest of her, is beautiful. All smooth and soft.
“Hey, everybody. Monica is here,” Warner announces.
There’s a chorus of hellos from the Jamesons, but from Thad’s and Zoey’s curious looks, I know I’m not the only one meeting the woman for the first time.
“Hi! I’m just in town to visit my parents for Thanksgiving, and I thought I’d swing by.” Monica gives us all a friendly smile, which stays steady as Warner introduces her to his girlfriend, to the pack’s newest member, and then pauses at Hester.
“And you know … Hester Willowborne?” Warner phrases the introduction as a question.
“Oh.” Monica’s expression turns apologetic. “You look familiar, but I’m not sure we’ve ever officially met. I must have just seen you around town.”
“Yes,” my neighbor says in a dry tone. “That must be it.”
With an overly bright voice, Warner directs the newcomer away from my taciturn neighbor and focuses on me.
“This is Juliet. She’s newer to town.”
“Hi.” I extend my hand, and the woman clasps it in her own while offering a sweet expression of interest.
“What brought you to Pine Falls?” she asks.
My eyes twitch to Roderick and away. And I realize, in that moment, the truth of my involuntary reaction.
He is the reason I came to Pine Falls, even if I wasn’t aware of it at the time. I chose this as my hiding place because of the description of the Pine Falls pack. They sounded like werewolves who would leave me alone.
“Soft,” Cory said.
Safe, I thought.
And I’m betting a large part of that is the wolves following the example of their noble leader.
Not that I’m going to wax poetic about that to this random guest.
“There was a job opening at the public library.”
“You’re a librarian?” she coos. “That’s so nice. I always feel like I should make more time to read.”
“I recommend it.” I grin.
There’s a hearty clap on my back that has me stumbling forward a step.
“Yep! We’ve got ourselves a top-notch librarian here!” Courtney’s energetic compliment almost makes up for her aggressive handling. Which, apparently, she’s not done with.
Courtney wraps her arms around my neck in a strangle hold of a hug. I’m wondering when exactly we reached this level of intense affection when she presses her left cheek against my right and whispers so low that only I can hear, “Roderick’s ex-girlfriend.”
She pulls back enough to meet my eyes, making sure I heard.
The knowledge clicks into place like a puzzle piece with razor-sharp edges.
Monica, the gorgeous blue-eyed, blonde-haired, sugar-spun princess-looking woman, who just strolled into this house with her sweet-as-candy smiles, used to date my wolf man.
Something heavy settles in my stomach, and I feel slightly sick.
Before I can respond to Courtney, Monica approaches Roderick and hands him a Tupperware container. “I thought I might bring over some dessert.”
She didn’t. Tell me she didn’t make—
“éclairs.” Monica’s giggle has a dash of self-deprecation. “Not sure how well I did, but I remembered that they’re your favorite.”
She did. Damn it.
Roderick accepts the gift, his eyes flicking to me. Then he offers a half smile. “Yummy. Delicious.”
I want to incinerate the man with my eyeballs.
But I also want to laugh and hug him. The joke was for me. The smile was for me.
That’s what he does. Drives me to opposite ends of the feeling spectrum at the same time.
The quickly formed jealousy knot in my chest begins to ease, but I can’t seem to untie it all the way.
I’m out of practice. With Cory, I prayed for there to be someone else, Janeen or whoever, that would catch his eye and tempt him away from me. There were times he used to actively try to make me envious of another woman. But all I felt was hopeful.
Please leave me for her, I would silently beg.
But he always came back to me.
However, when Roderick refocuses his attention on Monica, I’m hit with an immature urge to shout out his name, eager to hoard all his focus.
As a grown woman, I remind myself that doing something like that is out of the question.
I’ve just got to trust Roderick is happy with what we’ve started to build.
That we’re good and I don’t need to fight off gorgeous women from his past. That I don’t need to seek out a banana and eat it in a provocative manner in front of him in a silent promise of what I’ll do for him the moment we’re alone.
I am mature and confident.
Then Courtney leans in to whisper more info that I devour like the masochist I am.
“Dated in high school for two years. They broke up when she left for college.” Her voice is barely loud enough to qualify as a whisper, but the words hurt like she drilled them into my eardrum.
I don’t think she’s saying them to hurt me, more to make sure I have the same amount of information as everyone else in the room. So I’m not caught unawares.
Doesn’t change how the info plucks at my nerves.
I’ve seen enough Hallmark holiday movies to know how this story turns out.
Woman working in the big city comes back to her small hometown to visit her parents, and then she runs into her high-school sweetheart.
At first, things are awkward between them, but then there’s bonding over baked goods, and the surly girl he’s been dating as a pale replacement to the original gets pushed to the side.
Chaste kiss under the mistletoe. Roll credits.
I’m screwed.
“I think I need another glass of wine,” I mutter to Courtney, trying not to stare at the golden-haired goddess talking to my man.
“Oh, honey.” She strokes my hair and urges me to rest my head on her shoulder. “Let’s get you a shot.”
“Warner?” Zoey calls her boyfriend’s name loud enough to get the entire room’s attention.
“Yes, dear?” He’s grinning, likely at the volume she chose to use.
“Did you ask Roderick about the double date?” she asks as though they’re having a casual conversation, just the two of them.
The room goes silent, and I pause my escape to the kitchen.
“Not yet,” Warner replies, still smiling. “Did you ask Juliet?”
“Not yet.” My friend turns toward me from her seat at the card table, where she’s playing Hester and Tanya. “How about it? You and Roderick want to go on a double date with me and Warner? We’ll do something fun, not just sit at a boring restaurant.”
Zoey’s face is pure innocence. Except for her eyes. Those are pure calculation.
Us humans need to have each other’s back in this den of wolves.
Glancing at Roderick, I find his gaze on me.
With a tilt of his head and an eyebrow raise, he clearly asks, Do you want to?
I bite my bottom lip, even as a happy grin pulls at my mouth, and give a quick nod.
He smirks and nods back.
And without speaking or even signing, we have an entire conversation.
“We’re in,” I say.
“Cool. It’s a date.” Then Zoey goes back to her cards like she didn’t just claim my man for me in front of the beautiful threat that is his ex.
Zoey can be abrupt sometimes, but in an amazingly perfect way.
Before I regain my bearings, I feel a hot hand on my lower back that I’m pretty sure isn’t Courtney’s.
When I glance up, Roderick is looming over me in all his delicious handsomeness. In his other hand, he holds the Tupperware container of gifted pastries, but his attention is all on me.
“You getting a round of drinks?”
“Yep.” I smile up at him, and the expression only feels five percent forced. “Want one?”
“I’ll come with you.”
Courtney drops her arm so Roderick’s can claim the spot. Feeling possessive, I wrap an arm around his waist as we head toward the kitchen.
From the corner of my eye, I glimpse Monica’s face.
She looks … sad.
Damn. It would’ve been so much easier to dislike her if she’d glared at me the way Janeen used to.
But I can’t help feeling pity for the woman. Still, I hope I never have to join her in the misery that is having had Roderick Jameson and then losing him.