Chapter 14 #2
The Late Shift Grill is half-full for the afternoon, and every head turns when I walk in, and then every head turns back very quickly. She's in the back booth with a cup of coffee she isn't drinking, staring out the window.
I cross the diner and stand at the booth, and Olivia looks up, and my wolf goes quiet for the first time in three days.
She looks tired. She looks angry. She has every right.
"Before you say anything," I tell her, "I was wrong."
She blinks.
"I was wrong about you. You didn't know. Amaryllis lied to everyone — you, Stephen, me — and I accused you of something you didn't do while you were on your knees in my destroyed kitchen telling me my sister was alive." I take a breath. "I'm sorry."
She studies me for a long moment. "Sit down."
I sit down.
"You accused me of lying to you," she says, pinning me with her furious, wounded gaze.
“I did, and I am so very sorry.”
"And then you shifted and ran out the door. And you disappeared on us all."
“I did.” The memories boiling up in me about my mother, about Rose crying, my father’s shell-shocked face, my mother’s funeral and then his in such short order…they’d sent me spinning out of orbit.
But still. I’d shouted vile accusations at my mate, and that was unforgiveable.
"Did you call me? Text me? Send Bram? Smoke signals? Anything?"
"No."
"No. I was hurt, devastated, and I was worried about you, you unbelievable dickwad.”
“I’m letting Rose go to the dance,” I say hopefully. “With your brother. And a few pack members for security.”
She lets a long, heavy sigh. "Amaryllis told me everything," she says.
"Rose called me yesterday. I know about the three-healer plan, and I know you caused the secrecy, and I know she told you I didn't know.
So I don't need to cover any of that ground.
" She folds her hands on the table. "What I need to say is this: I am in love with you, and you are the most difficult man I have ever met, and if you ever shut me out again I will not come back.
I will take my bookbinding tools and my brother and go back to Mississippi, and your wolf will howl for the rest of your life, and you will deserve every minute of it. "
"Understood."
"I need more than 'understood.'"
"I love you." It comes out rough and graceless and without decoration, which is apparently the only way I know how to say anything that matters. "You're my mate and I love you. I can't promise I won't be difficult, because we both know that's a lie, but I will never shut you out again."
She stares at me across the booth, deciding. I wait, because waiting is the only move I have, and because she has earned the right to make me sit in this too-small booth for as long as she wants.
"That dance,” I say. “I'd like you to come with me."
She purses her lips and looks at me thoughtfully. "You're asking me to a dance."
I nod in agreement. "I'm asking you to a dance."
She waits. One eyebrow goes up. The silence stretches, and I know exactly what she's waiting for.
"Please," I say.
“Oh my goodness.” The corner of her mouth moves. "Only took you a month."
"Slow learner. I'm told it's a character flaw."
"It's one of several." But her eyes have changed. "Fine. I'll go to your dance. Now take me home. I’ve slept in a motel for two days, I'm wearing yesterday's clothes, and I smell like diner coffee.”
I drive her home. Our home. She walks inside without hesitating, and my wolf notes this and wisely says nothing for once.
She's upstairs getting ready when her footsteps stop in the second-floor hallway.
I'm at the bottom of the stairs. I don't go up, because some things should be found, not handed over.
Silence. The sound of paper unfolding. More silence.
"Kieran." Her voice comes from the doorway of the room. "Please come up here.”
I take the stairs. She's in the doorway with the note in her hand, and the late afternoon light is coming through the south-facing windows, and she turns around and her eyes are full and she's smiling.
"You cleaned out a room for me."
"You need a proper bindery. The library table was temporary. The doorframe fits the press and the light is good all day. I didn't move your tools because I assumed I'd lose a hand."
"You assumed correctly." She looks at the room, and the herbal on the sill, and the light on the floor. "Stay and fill it. Please."
"If you want to."
"You said please."
"I did."
"Twice in one day." Her voice is steady but her eyes aren't. "That might be the most romantic thing you've ever done."
"I'm learning."
She crosses the room and kisses me, and the herbal tips on the windowsill, and I catch it without breaking the kiss.
"I'm staying," she says against my mouth.
"I'm staying, and I'm filling this room, and you're going to let me fix every book in that library, and you’re going to let Rose have at least a little bit of freedom, and you’re going to listen to Amarylis’ suggestions in the future and give them genuine consideration because she is very smart, and you're going to take me to this dance.”
"I accept your terms."
I pull her close and rest my chin on the top of her head, and my wolf settles, and the room is warm and full of light.
Outside, somewhere on pack lands, Rose is shrieking about shoes.