Chapter Twenty-Nine
Jamie
By the time I make it to Sunday, I’m a wreck. I’ve been avoiding Em as much as I can all week—quite a feat, considering we live in the same small house—and I mean, it’s not like I need to avoid Patch, but I’ve avoided the rest of the wolves, which seems like it counts.
I can’t get out of meeting Cecile, though.
For one thing, she’ll just come over, and I have the distinct feeling Nick won’t hesitate to let her in.
He’s worried about me. About me and Em. Em mentioned in passing that he hasn’t seen Patch since our night together.
Not in so many words, but… He’s looked kind of freaked out and out of sorts for days.
I haven’t asked. I feel terrible about that, but I don’t know what else to do. Exactly what I thought might happen has happened—I’ve somehow come between them, and now—
“You look glum,” Cecile says, sliding into the seat opposite me. She already has her latte, which means she’s probably been here for a while. And I didn’t notice. Great.
“I’m fine,” I say, waving her off. I don’t want to get into it.
Luckily, she seems to take the hint. “Okay. Fine. Are you coming next weekend?”
“Next weekend?” Oh. It’s the gym’s grand opening, and Vince… I fumble my phone out of my pocket. Yep. Vince asked me three days ago, and I haven’t bothered to reply. “Fuck. Yes, I’m coming.”
“Cool. Nick said he was, you know. Vince told me. He’s pleased about it. What about Em?”
I look up sharply. “What about him?”
Cecile frowns, blonde brows pulling together. “Have you asked if he’s coming? It’s a pretty open invitation; I think they want to have as many people there as possible so it looks exciting for anyone who passes by.”
“People are passing by?” The gym they’ve created was once an empty warehouse in a sea of empty warehouses. I haven’t been in a while, mind. I guess things could have changed.
Cecile shrugs as she takes a drink of her coffee. “Someone bought up one of the other warehouses last month. Converting it into flats, I think. Means we’ll have to be a bit more careful when we run our more discreet classes, but it still should work. Kieran doesn’t seem worried anyway.”
And he does take that kind of thing seriously, what with how his pack is made up. Most wolf packs are just wolves, maybe with some humans or witches mixed in—Kieran’s is every kind of creature I’ve ever heard of, which means he’s very concerned about security.
“Do I have to work out if I come?”
Cecile laughs. “Yes. A little bit. You can walk on the treadmill if you like.”
I pull a face and she laughs again. I roll my eyes, looking past her, and when the café door opens, I’m surprised to see Nick stroll inside. He smiles and waves when he sees me, then heads straight for the counter.
“What the fuck?”
Cecile pulls a face. “I invited him.”
“What?” I look between the two of them. “Are you…?”
“Oh, no. Nothing like that. He said he’d come to the opening when Vince texted him, and then Vince rang him and suggested he should spend more time with some of us.
I was there, so I offered.” She leans in.
“It’s okay, right? I just invited him this one time.
I know I should have told you, but I honestly forgot. ”
“No, it’s fine.” It really is. A side effect of avoiding Em means I haven’t spent much time with Nick, either, and that’s shitty of me.
He walks over with his coffee a few minutes later and takes the seat Cecile pulled up to the table. The smile he gives her is a little wary, but there’s warmth in it. “Hey.”
“We were going to talk about our weeks,” Cecile says, and I scowl.
“No, we weren’t.”
“Well, I’d like to know how your week’s been,” Nick says to me. “Feel like I’ve barely seen you. Been working a lot?”
I groan. He knows what’s up. Even without me telling him, I know he knows. “No. Well, yeah, actually. I’ve—” I freeze. I haven’t told him about the job. I haven’t told anyone I accepted.
“You’ve what?” Cecile asks.
“I got a new job.”
Nick grins. “Really? That’s great!” When I’m silent, the smile drops from his face. “That’s great, right?”
“No, it is! It is. I just… I forgot to say. Sorry.”
“Well, where is it?” Cecile asks. “I didn’t know you were looking to move.”
I take a drink of my coffee, if only to buy myself a moment. God, everything in my life recently spirals around… men. I need to sort myself out. “It got a bit much, after everything. And I’ve been there ages. I saw this position—I thought it was going to be in Edinburgh—”
Nick splutters on his coffee. “You were going to leave?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. It was a stupid amount of money. I thought I’d give it a try. And I got it.”
“Wait, so you’re leaving?” Cecile asks.
“No. I mean, I’ll have to travel from time to time, sounds like, but he’s moving some of the company to London, so I’ll be living here.”
Nick lets out a sigh and sags back in his chair. “Thank fuck for that.”
“Yeah, I really thought you were going to move without telling us, you arse,” Cecile says.
I flush and take another sip of my coffee. That was exactly what I planned to do, wasn’t it? It’s sheer luck I’m not. After this week, I’d be desperate to start the new position.
“So this week, then?” Nick asks. “What’s been going on?”
“Just have to document everything at work. My boss wants me to sit in on the interviews with him, but they’ve still got to narrow down the candidates, and I’m not looking forward to that at all. He’s being fine, but I think he’s disappointed he couldn’t come back with a good enough counteroffer.”
“That sucks,” Cecile says. “When do you start the new role?”
“Three weeks. Although he wants to work a few things out beforehand, have me come look around the new office, that kind of thing. I think that’ll be next week. I’ve taken a day off.”
“Exciting,” Cecile says, but Nick is still looking at me.
“You know Em’s been going out in the middle of the night,” he says, out of nowhere, and I sigh.
“I don’t want to talk about—”
“I’m just concerned,” Nick says. “About both of you, but about whatever he’s doing. I heard him come back a couple of days ago. He was breathing like he’d been running really fast.”
“Maybe he went for a run.”
“Jamie.”
Cecile shakes her head. “Is he okay?” she asks Nick. “Em?”
“Seems fine. I saw him this morning.”
“So does it matter?”
Nick pulls a face. “I mean, we live in a safe enough area. Safer, I guess, now that you lot are around more often.” The last part is said grudgingly, but Cecile smiles all the same. “But he’s going out at one, two in the morning, and not even mentioning it the next day. I dunno. It’s weird.”
“Whatever he’s doing, I’m sure it’s fine,” I say, though I can’t help the worry I feel now. Why is Em going out so late? He works nights sometimes, he said, so why isn’t he doing that? Is he just going for a late-night walk?
“Are you gonna tell Vince about your new job?” Cecile asks, deftly changing the subject.
“Yeah, I’ll ring him later.”
“Good. Then I’ll tell him tomorrow that we need to celebrate and we’ll all have a fun night out after the gym’s grand opening. Sound good?”
I laugh into my coffee. Nick shakes his head. “Is that…” He trails off.
“Is that what?” Cecile asks.
He darts a furtive look around and leans in. “Is that you, or are all wolves so…”
Cecile presses her lips together, suppressing a laugh. When she looks at me, I bite back one of my own.
“So bossy?” I ask, and she laughs aloud.
Nick goes red. “I mean, I wasn’t going to say that.”
Cecile nods. “We definitely can be, but no, that’s all me.”