Chapter Eighteen

Idris

Audrey downloaded the Mail-Order Matings app on a lady's phone before the crowd closed in again and the other passenger disappeared. "What was all that about?" I asked, although I had a pretty good idea.

"She's a widow and I told her that there was an app where she might meet someone, but she wasn't interested. Until she saw the three of you."

"Did you tell her it's mostly shifters?"

Audrey grinned. "Do you think she'll mind?"

We carried her bags to Lachlan's vehicle. My truck was a new model with all the bells and whistles but generally covered with farm mud and debris, and Hale's compact sedan, while clean, was twenty years old and had a back seat none of us would fit in. So…the SUV it was, Lachlan behind the wheel, Audrey in the front passenger seat, and the rest of us in the back seat.

"Do you need anything on the way?" Hale asked as we left the small airport environs. "Once we get out of town, there's not a whole lot close by."

"That's right." She flashed him a smile over her shoulder. "You live on a farm, don't you? I think one of you mentioned a barn?"

"It's not exactly a farm," I put in. "At least not at this time."

"We hope to make it our large animal practice," Lachlan said. "But for now it's just our home."

She asked questions about the property and our business as we drove along, and we asked her about her life. It was all first-date stuff, things we'd have talked more about in our chats if we'd hung out longer before her visit. This was so much better.

We pulled down the long drive in the thickening darkness, and Audrey was leaning forward. "How far off the road are you?" she asked. "There's no lights out here at all."

"Not much farther, but you're right. We need to get lights set up along the drive." Especially if Audrey agreed to stay. While we'd be willing to drive her anywhere, she was an independent person and would need to be able to come and go on her own. Safely. How had we never thought to set some solar lighting along this drive? "But there are lights on the cabins."

We parked in the dirt area in front of the houses, each porch lit up, and I hopped out to open the front passenger side door for our guest.

"You don't have to do that," she protested, but the flush in her cheeks and sparkle in her eyes made me glad I had. And determined to do it always. "Which house are we going in to?"

The other guys were out now, too, and we looked at each other and shrugged. "Up to you," Lachlan said. "But dinner is at Hale's place. He really is the cook out of all of us, and that's where we ate when we did our video dinner."

"Then we should save it for last, I guess?"

"Then let's go to my place first." Lachlan took her arm and guided her toward his cabin. "You can see how neat and tidy I am."

I snickered, following in their wake, but Hale did not come along.

"I'll get dinner ready while you two show off your impeccable housekeeping," he called, his chuckles following us until his door closed.

"What's that about?" she asked. "If your houses are messy, I won't judge."

"They're not." I caught up and took her other arm. "Or at least I don't think they are."

"We cleaned for you," Lachlan admitted, opening his door and waving us inside. "But we are sometimes a little sloppy."

Audrey giggled and came in for the tour. And she said very nice things about our clean houses even when she tripped over the bucket of cleaning supplies in my kitchen, revealing the spot on the floor I'd never cleaned.

When we arrived at Hale's place, he was setting the roast chicken on the table, and everything else was ready. He really had gone all out. His Crockpot skills had created a bird as tender and delicious as if he'd put it in the oven. He had all the trimmings, too, and my mouth watered as we took our places around the table. Audrey sat in the seat that had been empty when we video ate, and it was as if she'd always belonged there.

I'd never enjoyed an evening more. Audrey curled up on Hale's sofa after we ate every crumb of the cinnamon apple pie with homemade vanilla ice cream. She had her legs tucked under her and looked so at home my heart sped up. Did she feel it too? She was so cute and cuddly and I didn't need to ask my friends to know they recognized that she was ours. But we didn't want to push things unless she let us know she was ready…