Chapter 18
Nico
We’re running around the apartment before Evan’s even finished reading off the text.
“Thirty minutes!” He calls, holding up his phone, then reading off it as it dings again. “She said she would meet us by the west hill.”
“Why didn’t you offer to walk her from her place?” Jason’s hobbling on one foot ungracefully, pulling on a sock.
Evan holds up his hands defensively. “I did, man. She’s the one who picked the hill. I wasn’t going to scare her away by being pushy.”
The park is so giant the sprawling landscape is divided into sections. The west hill isn’t terribly far. It’s closer to her place than it is ours, but it doesn’t feel gentlemanly to let her walk alone.
“Fifteen minutes, then we go.” Sebastian’s coming off more like a sports coach than he is our pack leader. We split off into pairs naturally, me following Evan as he speeds into the kitchen.
“What are you thinking?” I ask the young blond.
“We can do a picnic type of thing.” Evan grabs bottles from the fridge, setting water, juice, and soda onto the counter. “I feel like that’s up her alley.”
“We can just buy food.” I point out, but the younger alpha just shakes his head at me.
“Firstly, she’ll probably say no. Second of all, the lines will take three years on a weekend.” He’s already started cutting fruit into Tupperware, years of experience packing lunches for his siblings kicking in. “Lastly, it’s more special coming from us.”
“What should we make, sandwiches? That’s not very special.” I can see the gears turning in his head as he thoughtfully considers my words.
“Those French toast sticks from the food truck. She ate most of those.” He clasps the lid of the Tupperware shut, nodding. “Then we’ll do a charcuterie board. It’s more likely she’ll eat something if it’s there for her to graze on.”
We move as a unit, me grabbing the cinnamon from the pantry as he returns to the fridge. I follow his suggestion and prepare the bread into both a sweet snack and a savory meal of sandwiches. His hands move deftly, packing ingredients, shouting down the apartment at the other two to grab a blanket.
Jason and Sebastian rush in, clutching a poorly wrapped gift, but it’ll have to do. The four of us pull on our shoes in a hurry, Sebastian mashing at the elevator button like it’s offended him.
There’s no discussion about it, but we move as one quickly. Speed walking at first, then by silent agreement, our feet start to pound against the pavement in a run.
I didn’t stop to think about it before, too wrapped up in our preparations to go see her. But now, with the scenery flashing past us in our race to the hill, I’m filled with worry. Didn’t she say she was going to celebrate her birthday today?
Why isn’t she at home, being lavished with attention? Knowing Ariana, she’s going to say her pack was busy working. It’s one day out of more than three hundred in a year. What’s she doing out walking on a day like this?
I’m a hypocrite, acting so concerned. Because when we arrive at the hill without there being any sign of her, every bit of me is disappointed. I wanted to see her.
“Text her.” Sebastian doesn’t bark at Evan, but his voice is full of command. Under the surface of the dominant tone, almost undetectable, there’s a hint of desperation. “Let her know we’re here.”
“We’re early.” Jason points out more levelly than Sebastian, but his dark eyes are scanning our surroundings. “She may still be on her way.”
Thirty minutes pass from her text message, then forty. I’m starting to worry and Sebastian’s foot has begun to tap impatiently.
“Should I call her?” Evan pulls his phone out again, holding it up to his face to unlock. As soon as he says it, his face flashes with recognition. Instead of moving the phone to his ear, his arm stretches out in a wave.
Ariana’s still distant, but seeing her makes me stand up straight. She doesn’t wave back to us, but as she gets closer, I can see she’s holding onto a familiar white box with both hands.
“Sorry,” she says breathlessly once she’s in front of us. “I took a wrong turn at the gardens. They make the signs too small.”
“Don’t apologize.” Jason responds quickly, reaching out to relieve her from the box she’s carrying. “Happy birthday.”
“Thank you.” She says to him, then again to each of us as we echo the sentiment. “And thank you for the cake. And agreeing to meet me! Especially on such short notice.”
“It’s our pleasure.” Sebastian’s like a new man, impatience wiped away as he smiles down at the pretty woman. “But why the walk all of a sudden?”
Ariana shifts from foot to foot. “I thought we could share the cake?” By the way her voice rises at the end, I’m not sure if she’s asking or telling us. Something tells me there’s more to the story.
Jason meets my eyes, and I can tell by his face he’s thinking the same. But we’ll give her a good birthday party first, then ask questions later.
I put my hips on my hands in mock disgruntlement. “We made that cake for you to eat, ma’am. Not to give back to us.”
Her bottom lip juts out in a pout and it’s cute, so cute, that I forget I’m supposed to be pretending to be mad. “But it would taste better together.”
She thought of us. Saw the cake and didn’t want to dig in until she was in our company. A surge of affection runs through me, warming me from the inside out despite the chill in the air.
“I forgot to bring plates or forks though.” The chamomile scent fizzles with embarrassment. “Okay, maybe I didn’t think that far at all, actually. I’m sorry.”
Evan holds up the cooler we packed, grinning. “We’ve got you covered. We were on the same wavelength with the cake. Nice day for a picnic, right?”
There was nothing to apologize for from the start. We could have gotten plates and utensils from any of the concession carts or food trucks. She has a habit of saying sorry for no reason.
Not now, though. Ariana isn’t apologizing now. A smile’s broken out on her face, small, subdued the way her scent is every time we see her in this park. Subdued, muted, restrained, quiet, whatever it is. It’s there, and it might be the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.
I can’t look away from it, or from the way her big brown eyes turn golden in the sunlight as she looks up at us.
This isn’t just worry anymore, and I can’t keep trying to convince myself it is. It’s not because of some protective instinct.
She’s speaking, I realize. And moving, with the rest of my pack, while I stand still like an idiot, staring. I have to jog to catch up with them as they spread the blanket over the grass.
“Of everything we had in our linen closet, this is what you choose?” Evan sets the cooler down, glaring at Sebastian.
“Jason grabbed it.” Sebastian immediately blames the other man, who looks up, a rare bewildered expression on his face from how fast he was thrown under the bus. “I was wrapping the present.”
“That also looks like shit!” Contrary to his harsh words, the blond is cracking up.
Jason glares at Sebastian pointedly. “I offered to do it.”
They’re competent men. In most areas. Gift wrapping isn’t one of them, judging by the messily duct taped rectangle Sebastian’s clutching. As for the blanket…
“I’m sorry. It might be a bit cramped.” The animosity disappears as Jason speaks to Ariana, replaced with his wine scent’s turn to gain a whisper of embarrassment.
Cramped is an understatement. Our guest of honor’s already settled onto it. She fits just fine. It’s the four of us that are the problem. Not a single one of our pack is under six feet. How did Jason even manage to find a blanket this small in our house?
Ariana doesn’t seem to mind, though. “That’s okay. We’ll be cozy.” The fragrance coming off of her already makes me feel that way. “You didn’t have to get me a gift, though. You didn’t even have to get me a cake!”
“It’s your special day, what do you mean?” Sebastian plops down on the ground next to her, body half on the grass.
“We weren’t sure whether to send the cake today or tomorrow.” Jason says matter of factly, taking a water bottle from Evan and passing it on to Ariana. “It was quite the topic of contention.”
That’s an understatement. We’d been debating about it since she told us her birthday was coming up. After two days, we reached the consensus of making one and having it driven over both days.
Then Jason pointed out her alphas seemed like the type to read too much into it, and the arguments started all over again. We had to settle for flipping a coin.
“I hope you don’t mind that this is a bit simple,” I settle down next to the cooler, helping Evan spread food across the blanket.
“This?” Her voice catches. “No, I love it. This is perfect, really. Thank you.” She squints and wrinkles her nose cutely. For a moment, bathed in the glow of the sun, she looks younger than twenty eight.
Jason shuffles closer and raises a hand, angling it to keep the light out of her face. I carefully open the box, turning the cake around until it faces Ariana.
Evan passes her a plastic knife and she raises it over the cake. Sebastian carefully gathers her hair, holds it back
“Wait!” She jolts at Evan’s words. “We have to sing first.”
Ariana clutches the plastic knife back. “Sorry.” There she goes, apologizing again when she did nothing wrong.
We launch into song and it’s immediately terrible. Jason lags behind like he doesn’t know all the words, which he might not. That man came out of the womb already fifty years old. Sebastian’s drumming against the ground off beat, and Evan’s too loud.
“Happy birthday, dear Ariana, happy birthday to you.” Four voices finally end in not quite unison. Ariana’s kind enough to not comment on the way we sound like nails on a chalkboard. She does a cute shimmy of her shoulders with the knife in both hands before clapping.
“Now?” She has a habit of looking up at people for permission before her actions. We don’t respond, but she continues waiting until Sebastian nods and gives her the go ahead. I add that to my mental uncatalogued of notes on her.