Chapter 7

Seven

Thomas pulls the door open with a huge grin before I finish making it up the steps. But I don't get to ask why he's wearing a shirt for a cricket league I am certain he isn't a part of.

"Is it silly that I missed you?" he asks.

"Maybe just a little." I let him take my coat as the door swings shut behind me.

Chase pokes his head out from the living room. "As the person in the house who hasn't seen her for three days, I'm the one who gets dibs on missing her."

When Thomas turns to hang my coat on the rack, Chase crosses the room to me and scoops me up into a spinning hug. "We have, all , missed you though."

The kiss he presses to my neck, just below my jaw makes me shiver, and I have to admit. "I've missed all of you too."

Chase inhales deeply and turns a sly look on Thomas. "So that's where you disappeared to this morning."

"Couldn't you smell me on him?"

"Even if he hadn't been doing something in his room since he got home, we don't usually get this close."

"Not without you." Thomas corrects him, crowding close, just long enough to kiss me. "Come on, you have games to choose from!"

They lead me through the house and into the living room where the woodstove radiates a bone-meltingly perfect heat.

"Let us know if you're too cold," Thomas says before pulling open the large, chest-like piece of furniture they use as a coffee table.

It's stuffed full of games.

"A lot of these are four-player."

"And if you want to play one of them, we will be more than happy to cycle ourselves through the other seats."

"Doesn't seem fair."

"If you sit on our lap, it will be a perfect consolation prize."

"Sorry."

His brows pinch for a moment, until I hold up the board game box. And then, his smile turns sharp and he takes it from me. "That was almost mean."

"But only almost."

Chase holds me to his side, picking me up and carrying me as if we're dancing in an old movie.

At some point, he's going to have to let me go… but I'm not going to tell him that until I absolutely have to.

When he lets me back on my own two feet and I'm only leaning on him a little, I get my first glimpse at the kitchen. Someone has been prepping for game night and I wonder if this is what they do every Wednesday night… or if it's more because they hoped I'd accept Thomas' invitation.

Almost as soon as Thomas sets the game down on the table, the door at the back of the kitchen opens, and Johnny tromps through. He freezes when he sees me.

Maybe Thomas didn't mention to the group at large that he was inviting me over for tonight.

He struggles out of his jacket, watching me like I'll disappear at any second.

"Welcome home."

His eyes narrow. "I like that too much."

Stepping close, he plants a brief kiss on my lips and then backs two steps away. "I need to shower. Don't go anywhere."

He points at the other two. "If you let her leave before I'm back, I will take it out on you."

"I'm not going anywhere." I call after him.

"You'd better not!" The door closes and I hear the water turn on immediately.

"I think," Chase says, still holding on to me. "You might want to come over more, just so none of us accidentally maul you after you've been gone too long."

More stomping turns me back to the doorway, but Joshua doesn't come in right away.

"He tries to get all the sawdust off him before he comes through the kitchen."

"How thoughtful of him."

"It's not thoughtful," Joshua says as he opens the door and steps inside, carrying his boots. "I'm the one who'd have to clean it up later, so why get it dirty in the first place?"

"An over fondness for your shop vac?" Chase suggests.

It gets him a dirty look and I make a mental note to ask about the story that went along with that jab.

"I'm glad you came." Joshua says, turning to me. "Hopefully you'll play Hearts with us, and can finally put Thomas in his place."

"They don't play with me anymore."

"Do you cheat?"

"No." He bats his eyes… but it's not because he's lying.

I don't ask, because I know he won't tell me what his secret is with the others listening.

When Joshua disappears the water in the shower turns off and I know it won't be the three of us for much longer.

"I expect to hear all the stories."

"This," Thomas says, stealing me away from Chase. "Is where we follow Johnny's example. We'll tell you some of the shenanigans and the embarrassing things… but you'll have to keep coming back if you want more."

"Glad to hear something I do is worth adopting." Johnny looks like he's ready to head to the gym. Loose tank, basketball shorts… but no shoes or socks.

And his hair is still wet enough I can pretend to recoil from it.

Thomas hits him in the face with a well-aimed kitchen towel.

"No jokes about wet dogs," Johnny says, using the towel to dry his hair. "We have company."

"Does that mean I don't get to tell any either?"

"You do not, wicked girl." He pulls me away from Thomas and into his arms. "Game night is a time of truce. Once we start the first game, we don't get to be assholes until we all agree it's time to stop."

"You have to have games for that?"

"No. But it definitely helps."

Joshua joins us, he's changed into something clean as well. A different pair of jeans and a different white t-shirt.

"He does own other colors of shirts." Chase says, leaning over to me. "He just likes the virginal look."

Joshua rolls his eyes and opens the fridge. "Would you like something to drink?"

He glances at Thomas. "I'd guess we have anything you'd want. It looks like someone went a little crazy at the store."

"I only got two extra types of soda."

"And a bottle of wine," Chase says. "Oh, and a full veggie platter. But otherwise… He didn't go off the rails."

"So where'd this pie come from?"

"That was Johnny."

"Guilty," he says pulling down glasses. "I just wanted a pie."

He sets the plastic cups down on the island beside bags of chips and then rounds it to me. "I happen to like sweet, delicious things."

Johnny tries to distract me with kisses and almost manages it.

Until my phone rings.

It's my dad's ringtone and I pop up onto my toes to kiss Johnny on the nose. "I have to take that."

My purse is still in the front hall, but when I dig my phone out, I head straight back to the kitchen. There's nothing dad will say that they can't hear—and with their wolfy ears, they'll hear everything—and I don't want to miss any of the nonsense that goes on in this house.

"Hi Dad," I turn and drop to sit on the sofa.

"Why do I have to hear about your dating life from your mother?"

"If it makes you feel any better, she heard about it from someone else. I didn't cut you out instead of her deliberately."

"It doesn't make me feel better, Bagel."

Chase raises a brow at the endearment, but says nothing as he and Thomas finish clearing off the table.

"Are they good guys? Are you taking the right precautions?"

"Yes, Dad. Everything is going to be fine. You and mom didn't raise the kind of daughter who'd do something dangerous without an exit plan."

I force a smile as I let my gaze drop to the floor, to the tips of my boots poking out from beneath my skirt. Because I don't have an exit strategy for this. I don't even know how I'd begging to plot one.

"I'm actually a little amazed mom was able to keep it from you for this long. Two days… must be a record."

He says my name in a low tone. "She worries about my heart."

"Your heart is as strong as it was when you were twenty. She knew you'd think this was a bigger deal than it is."

It is a big deal… but not for the reasons he's going to list.

"Everything is fine."

"She said they're werewolves."

"And she was right, which means they can hear everything you're saying."

He goes silent for a moment and I can almost see him straightening his cardigan in my mind. "I would like to talk to one of them."

"I really don't think that's necessary." But Joshua holds out his hand, so I pass the phone over.

"Hello, Mr. Mathis. My name's Joshua Dean." He walks into the other room and the conversation fades to indistinct sounds for me.

The way Chase and Johnny look after him, I imagine they can still hear what's being said.

"Is that going to be a problem?" Thomas asks

"No, he's just worried."

Chase looks a little offended. "He doesn't have anything to worry about."

"But he doesn't know that, does he?" When they look confused, I ask, "How would you feel if you just found out your daughter had decided to fall in bed with four men who have a tendency to bite?"

Thomas' face sours. "Fair."

Johnny shakes his head and shuffles the deck. "This is why I only want sons."

I chuckle and move the pieces around.

"Do you want sons?" Johnny asked.

"It doesn't matter what I want, that is a random grab bag of genetics."

"So you couldn't like… do a spell?"

"People have tried before… it almost always results in problems for the mother or baby, or both. I haven't actually heard of it working." I give Johnny an apologetic smile. "But there have been no sons in my line for four generations. Which either means it won't happen for me either… or we're due."

"So," Chase says, elongating the word. "You want kids then?"

"Yeah. A kid would be great."

"Just one?"

I'm saved from answering that question when Joshua comes back and hands me my phone. "I did not realize how much of a problem werewolves have been for you."

"Not me personally."

"What happened?" Thomas asks, drawing me to sit down on his lap in front of the yellow pieces.

"The spell we did… It's been done before. Back in twenty eleven, a witch kidnapped a wolf pack and performed the spell without their consent—the first parts, anyway. It didn't go well for her." I sigh and draw my card. "There are records of it in the forties and fifties, but they're incomplete. Just enough information to be sure that it worked… and that you'd all be safe."

"What happened to the one who kidnaped her wolves?"

"They were never her wolves, and on the next full moon… they killed her. And half of her coven."

The way Thomas looks away… I'd guess he's the only one of them who's killed someone while under the influence. That's not the sort of thing that can be healed with gentle words… so I don't offer him any.

"Why does your dad call you ‘bagel'?" Chase asks, mouth twisted as he squints at the board.

Johnny rolls his eyes and stands as I answer.

"Because when I was eight, I would only eat a meal if it was served on a bagel."

"That's kind of cute," Johnny says, handing Chase a pair of glasses.

"Where were these?" Chase asks, pulling the buddy-holly looking frames on.

"You left them in the cupboard above the toaster."

Chuckling, Chase shakes his head. "That would have been the last place I looked."

"Where you found them is always the last place you look." Thomas snickers and locks his arms more firmly around my waist. "Are we going to play a game tonight? Or what?"

They let me go first and when Johnny asks what I did today, I can only laugh as Thomas answers "me." Loud and proud.

I let them quibble, their conversations distracting them long enough I can get a substantial lead on my progress around the board, but then, Thomas brings up the sheriff.

"He was being a real dick."

"True, but he's mostly harmless." I watch Chase draw a card and realize he's further behind than he thought.

The way he studies the pieces still in his start circle tells me he doesn't know which of us put him there.

"It felt like harassment."

"The sheriff's family has a long history of not trusting witches. Not," I say. "That I think he actually believes we exist."

"It is a little hard to believe."

"And the people who used to burn us at the stake have a harder and harder time turning the next generation to hate."

His father or grandfather's generation had still attempted to murder my mother at one point or another. The fact that he was still alive was either a testament to her generosity, or the old man's skill.

The fact that he hadn't come after me in the time I'd been here made me think it was the latter.

"The Jones family and mine have a rather fraught secret history." I take my turn and have to shake my head. "It's especially funny to think about the fact that our families' graves are all within a hundred feet of each other.

"I had noticed…" He winces. "We got there early, I promise I'm not a weirdo who went back to look specifically. But the markers in your family plot all said Mathis. I thought you said there were no boys."

"There haven't been. It's a tradition in my family to keep the Mathis last name. My dad changed his name, as did my grandfather and so on."

"Cool." Thomas takes a drink of soda and looks pensive.

"What do you think?" I ask as I move another piece around the board and into my safe zone. "Would you change your last name?"

"In a heartbeat."

"Johnny Mathis has a nice ring to it."

Thomas shoves him. "I'm the one who asked the question, I get the last name."

"You two are forgetting," Chase says, leaned back, with his leg wrapped under mine. "You have to ask her first, and she has to say yes."

"We happen to be good at long-term planning." Johnny's gaze slides to me. "No one in this house is going to risk getting a ‘no' because we were impatient."

"A week is definitely not enough time for you to decide to ask that question." Joshua says as if reminding them all how short a time it's actually been. And maybe I need that reminder too.

Because it doesn't feel like it's been a week since I first knocked on their door. And that should be scarier than it is.

The oven timer goes off and Thomas hops up, placing me back on the chair. He grabs an oven mitt and pulls out a big dish of cheese dip. That seems to be laced with peppers.

There's a stack of tupperware items on the counter beside it and he starts dumping them in. He pauses on the last one and then sets it aside before grabbing a whole bag of tortilla chips and dumping them on top.

"I present to you! Upside down nachos."

"And I win." Johnny says pulling all of our attention to the four blue pieces in his home circle. "Which means Thomas gets to choose the next game."

"But not Hearts." Chase says quickly.

"Get it set up." He looks at the plate of nachos. "Since Thomas forgot that we need to at least pretend to be civilized, I'll get the plates."

I slip off of Thomas' lap and follow Joshua.

"Did you let Johnny win on purpose?"

"I don't know what you mean." Sliding a glance to me, he smiles. "Johnny won fair and square."

"Sure he did. And you just didn't notice all of the times you could have kicked him back to the start."

He pulls a serving spoon—well, just a big spoon—from a drawer. "The important part is that he didn't notice."

"You didn't want me on your lap?"

"Oh, you'll get there, eventually."

"Hey," Chase calls from where he still sits at the table. "Are you two conspiring?"

"Always." Joshua doesn't look at him when he says it.

Hand on my hip, Joshua meets my eyes, tipping my chin up. "Stay over tonight?"

I could pretend to vacillate. But I've never been in the habit of torturing men I like. Pressing up onto my toes, I brush a kiss against his lips and say, "I packed a bag."

His smile is so wide, it looks like it hurts.

"No monopolizing our guest," Johnny says and with his mouth twisted, Joshua takes the plates to the table.

While they poke fun at each other, I peek inside the ignored tupperware.

It's full of precooked ground beef.

Snapping the lid closed again, I take it to the fridge and set it on an empty spot before pulling out the veggies Thomas had kindly bought.

"Come on, wicked girl," Johnny says, holding out a hand to me. "Bring your carrots. I won, so I get to sit this one out."

He shifts me to a more steady position and kisses my shoulder blade. "Unlike Thomas, I fully intend to distract you. So don't plan on winning this round."

And I don't.

We move through Scrabble and a short course of Golf, Chase wins the first, Thomas the second.

And when I accuse "Miss Scarlet in the library with the lead pipe," it's my turn to win.

I move to Joshua's lap without being prompted. "It only seems fair."

The smile he wears tells me that was the whole point.

He'd been throwing games so, I'd choose him. I almost change my mind to punish him for that.

Instead, I get comfy and lose most rounds of Phase 10.

My phone lets out an indistinct burble, and I kiss Joshua on the cheek before walking across the room to where I'd left the thing.

The words that wait for me there aren't ones I want to see.

Hey Scar, it's Aphrodite! So glad I got to see you today. I would love to get together sometime soon to talk about an amazing opportunity I think you would excel at!

I stare at the words for a long moment.

There's only a few options for how she got my phone number… but Anthony is definitely the most likely. If I thought it would do anything, I'd call him right now and read him the riot act. Instead, I ignore the text.

But before I can toss it back in my bag…

Seriously. Now that we've both ditched the strictures of that old girl's club, we can make our own seats at the table.

That's a big no thanks.

"You coming back to the table, or are we playing the next round without you?"

"I'll be right there."

Johnny joins me at the kitchen island, pouring himself another cup of root beer. "Someone trying to take your time away from us?"

He asks with the kind of smile that tells me it's not said out of jealousy.

"An old acquaintance has moved to town and she's somehow gotten my number."

"Probably that Wexxon guy," Joshua says as he shuffles.

"That was my thought too."

Johnny waggles the two-liter of orange soda at me and I slide my still half full glass to him. "The kind of old acquaintance we should watch out for?" He asks.

"Maybe. My mom doesn't seem to think it's a coincidence, or something I need to worry about, but I'm not a fan."

"Could she be the one who put that doll on the boardwalk."

"Wait… there are creepy dolls?" Chase throws up his hands. "Why doesn't anyone tell me anything?"

"Maybe. I don't remember that being her style, but even before I left my mother's coven, I avoided her whenever I could." I shrug. "And I have no idea who she might want to protect down there."

But she was very likely the one who had put the tracking ward around the city. Another reason her surprise felt completely disingenuous.

I don't want to give her anymore time tonight. "What are we playing?"

"Hearts." Johnny says, sliding a sharp glare at Thomas.

"The game no one plays with you?"

"I have generously offered to sit this one out, and I have promised I won't interfere with game play." He reaches for me, pulling me onto his lap. "If anything, I may take a page from Johnny's book and cause you to lose."

I look at Chase—it was his turn after all—but he just laughs and grabs half the deck to shuffle with Johnny.