“Okay. I can’t make any promises, but I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’m going to tell Nora I’ve instructed you that it’s okay for you not to share sex stuff with me. Anything she tells you about that, stays with ya’ll.”
It took me a minute to figure out what he was saying. He was clearly uncomfortable with this conversation. “Okay. That might make her actually open up to me, or it might not.”
“How serious are you and Frost?”
“I’m pretty sure he’s going to be around a long time. Did you know owls are freaking monogamous? I thought birds fucked around. Shit.”
He chuckled. “I didn’t know until I looked it up. Surprised me, too.”
“Look, someday you’re going to meet a woman you want to spend time with. Someone you want to bring home. As long as she isn’t a complete bitch, I promise I’ll do my best to make her feel welcome, and to convince the kids to do the same.”
“And I promise I’ll try not to fall in love with a complete bitch. Maybe only a partial one.”
I rolled my eyes at him. If he was making jokes, we were okay. “Thanks for agreeing to make an effort with Frost.”
“Not making any promises. We’ll see how lunch goes.”
“It’s a start.”
Chapter Eighteen
Frost
I had no idea what to expect over lunch with Gil, but he’d told me the location was my choice, and then hadn’t argued when I’d said to meet me at the Rolling Thunder Restaurant at one. I didn’t expect he’d try to start shit on my territory, but I also hadn’t expected him to agree to meet me there.
Velvet put us in a booth near the bar area, since they have higher backs and conversation tends to stay in the booth, so others can’t hear you.
A nearby speaker played oldies hits, which would also cut down on people listening in. We’d probably need to talk about shapeshifter stuff at least a little.
I got our table, ordered some appetizers, and had Velvet primed to see him come in, address him by name, and bring him to me. I stood as they neared, we shook hands, and I told him to let Velvet know what he wanted to drink.
He chose a local beer, and I motioned for him to sit.
“Everything’s good. Special today’s chicken-and-dumplins. I’m leaning towards ordering the pork tenderloin.”
When we’d ordered, Gil leaned back and eyed me as if he were sizing me up. “I have a couple of specific concerns, and I hope we can talk about them without being antagonistic.”
“That’s my hope as well. Your kids are important to Cheyenne, and I believe she’s an important fixture in their lives. I’m going to be around a lot, so we need to figure out where I fit. I realize you’d prefer I wasn’t part of the equation, and I can appreciate that, but I don’t think keeping me locked out is feasible without making things difficult for Cheyenne and the kids.”
“Shy and I know what we can do without overstepping boundaries. Most things, you can ask her about, but if she needs to pull me into the conversation, I need you to trust her judgment.”
“Sounds fair. If that doesn’t work, we’ll talk about it.”
He nodded. “I don’t want a revolving door. Shy says you’re going to be around a while, but I guess I want to hear it from you. I don’t want the kids getting hurt when you decide this isn’t working for you and you ghost on us.”
“I intend to be around a long time. I won’t ghost on the kids. If we have something planned and Cheyenne and I have problems, I’ll honor whatever obligations I have with them.”
He blew out a breath. “I need to understand why you’re trying so hard. You spent a lot of money on those gaming consoles, and then the gift certificates to buy more games on top of them? It was a lot. You dropped whatever you were doing to help Nora with her homework.” He leaned forward and spoke lower. “My Alpha reminds me that the more people who care about my kids and want them to succeed, the better, but I guess I need to understand your motives before I can get on board with this.”
“Again, it’s a fair point, and I don’t know if I can answer the question to fully satisfy you. I can try, but my guess is you’re just going to have to see me in action for a while. All I