21 #2
Given the way I’d heard Logan talk about the brewery, like it was a black hole he couldn’t escape, I’m not as surprised as the others. I’m happy for him. I can already see how the decision has taken a massive weight off his shoulders.
“I’m gonna go get another round,” I volunteer, snagging a couple empties from the table. It’s just an excuse to get up from the booth, take a breath while the Hayes all come to terms with Logan’s news.
There’s a lot of big, emotional conversations going on tonight.
It’s a lot. It might also just be the addition of Celine, but I feel a little out of place at the table.
There’s so much history I don’t have context for, memories I wasn’t a part of.
It will take time to get to know them all, to feel that sense of belonging.
Reaching the bar, I push the empty bottles toward a cluster of empty glasses, and lean, waiting for Sophie to finish talking to another customer.
I shouldn’t be surprised to see the guy I picked up from the bar shortly after crazy bangs were cut.
Honestly, I had entirely forgotten about him with all the other werewolf madness happening.
And if Maybe-John hadn’t, like, looked at me all wild-eyed like he did just now, I might not have remembered his face.
“Oh my god, I’m so glad you’re alive! I didn’t know what happened to you after that crazy night,” he exclaims, and now I’m in possibly the worst conversation I could have gotten stuck in. I physically recoil back a step, my body already trying to escape this conversation.
“Oh, uh, hi, John.”
“Evan,” he corrects me.
“Evan . . . um, yeah, it was crazy. I’m glad you’re ok too,” I start to reply, when I feel a presence at my side. My shoulders, creeping up by my ears, relax when I realize it’s him. “Um, this is my boyfriend, Logan.”
Understanding dawns slowly on Evan’s face. “Oh, boyfriend? How long have you two . . . ”
“We actually got back together after that night.”
“Oh, like ones of those near-death experiences that makes you realize who’s really important to you.” He nods sagely.
“Uh . . . something like that.”
My heartbeat ticks up when I glance back at Logan, see his nostrils flare before his jaw sets in a way too reminiscent of a wolf about to show its teeth. Ok, he nails hotly possessive.
Logan gives Evan a dagger of a look that sends my unfortunate friend away, stammering an excuse.
“Down boy,” I murmur, trying desperately not to smile, putting a hand on his thigh, giving a little scratch.
His features relax when my hand settles on him, and my heart catches.
This is what has kept him on my mind so much.
Immediately, I feel present and grounded.
The way he reacts to my every little touch is utterly gratifying.
A quick peek back at the table shows things seem convivial amongst Shawn, Elise, Laura, and Celine. Aiden is pouting, slouched in the bench seat.
“Everything alright? That was kind of a big decision.”
He nods, humming a non-answer. I lean into his side.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“What do you mean? We’re running away together.”
My mouth falls open.
“You told me to quit my job,” Logan says, and my hand balls up in a fistful of his shirt, my other hand claps over his mouth.
“No, shut up. You’re joking. You’re joking! No, you can’t blame that on me,” I whisper frantically.
“. . . I’m kidding,” he relents, tugging my hand down.
A sigh of relief follows a laugh, and I let my forehead fall into his chest for a moment.
His fingers curl through mine, and he pauses to press a kiss to the heel of my hand.
“I’m not sure yet, but I’ll figure it out. Right now, all my plans are about you.”
If my smile was any wider, I wouldn’t be able to see over it. I turn his hand back toward me, kissing the sharp point of his knuckle.
Back in the booth, Celine and Aiden are getting loud and mouthy at one another, so I take that as cover for us to make our exit. I nod at the door. “Walk me to my car?”
He nods and leads the way out, still holding my hand. When the doors swing shut behind us, I nudge him a little. “So, what happened with you and Jackson?
“I . . . had some stern words with him.” He shrugs.
“Words, huh.”
“Most of it was implied, but I think he understood.”
I intend to interrogate him further, but I’m still all smiles from his declaration in the bar, immensely grateful that I’d taken every chance that led me here.
I can’t believe I almost chickened out of this, that I nearly let my fear of getting my heart broken again keep me from finding this warmth, comfort.
I’m chewing on the inside of my cheek, staring at the length of his neck, the line of his jaw, every angular detail as Logan’s hand finds the small of my back.
He strokes up my spine, along a shoulder blade, leaving a trail of sparks igniting under my skin.
A wave of heat rolls through my lower belly.
Before I can suggest we get out of here, Laura slips out of the bar, apparently possessed by the same thought I had, quickly followed by Shawn and Elise. She catches our attention. “I’m not hanging around, those two are nuts.”
“Yeah, you know how they get. They’re already arguing about some trivial shit,” Shawn tells me, and we’re all piling into Aiden’s jeep without him. I’m still exhausted from the last few nights, so I doze off in the back seat as Laura drives down the winding, wooded road.
The last of the fireflies glow in and out against the blue hour. We’re already back at my cabin. Yawning, I climb out and stretch, find my way up my front step, twist the key in the door handle. Behind me, Logan stops on my front doorstep. He’s leaving me for the night.
“What are you going to do tonight? Aiden said you usually spend full moons at the brewery.”
He shakes his head. “I have to figure out something else. I can’t keep doing that.”
I can’t help but worry that Jackson might run into him again, if Logan decides to try his luck in the woods. I offer tentatively, “What would you say to a sleepover?”
Even though I’m on board with the idea that we’re wolfy soulmates, that still feels like a big step. It’s been a month of meeting him anywhere but my place.
Logan spares a furtive look at the sky, rolling his shoulders with a little shake. The slow-moving change has already started, and the porch light reveals the longer teeth, ears tipped with fur.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” he says, and I nod, suppressing that little sting of disappointment. I hold back my complaints that echo a number of things we said last night. Maybe two nights in a row is too much.
I feel fairly sure he wouldn’t hurt me, even under the full moon’s spell. Even monstrous, Logan’s presence felt protective, singularly focused on my safety. He was so composed and self-possessed in the daylight, and I could see how those qualities remained.
“It’s fine. I only entertain housebroken guests, anyway. And I have work in the morning,” I tell him, shaking my head. He kisses me goodbye, and it doesn’t last nearly long enough, before I watch him head back toward the jeep.
Laura drives off with her carful of werewolves, the red taillights disappearing into the darkness of the woods.
How quiet and empty the night is, now that I’m alone again. I ache for the future, for every day that I’m going to get to spend with Logan, all the rest of them.
I close the door, step out of my clothes and toss them directly into the washing machine. There’s a mildly dirty T-shirt on the floor I shuffle into instead.
Despite yawning most of today, I have a hard time falling asleep. I lie in the glow of my TV, tossing and turning back and forth on my bed. My eye keeps straying to the window, bright with moonlight.
There’s a scratching, pawing at my door for a moment, and I leap up, throwing it open immediately.
A big blur of a monster brushes past, leaps up onto my bed, circles briefly, and lies down.
He sits alert and looks back at me, tail wagging in anticipation.
I flop onto the bed beside Logan, grinning stupidly wide.
Throwing my arms around him, we curl up, exhausted.