“Like the guys said that night, we want to help you.” A hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed. “Since I started coming here, you’ve always let me talk and ramble on. You’ve been watching me—all of us, really—over these past couple of months. And you’ve been trying to make yourself into a better person. It’s a lot to juggle and deal with. So why not let us carry the burden for a bit? Lean on your friends. Lean on me.”
“I … I don’t know how.”
A smile spread across Damon’s face. “How about we do it like we always do? Start with a beer? And then we can just … talk and go from there?”
Krieger sighed. “All right.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Well, spank my ass and call me Sally!” J.D. chortled as she rounded the bend up the steep mountain road. “Tim and Angela, really? And you walked in on them doing the nasty?”
“Don’t remind me,” Dutchy groaned. “It was a miracle I was able to look them both in the eye throughout that dinner.” Of course, a reminder of last night only brought back the dark cloud she’d been fighting.
“Stop that.”
“Stop what?”
“Stop looking like the world is over,” J.D. said. “It’s not. You’re going to show up at his cabin and tell him you’re sorry. He’s going to be so happy to see you, and he’ll ask for your forgiveness for being a jackass.”
“He wasn’t being a jackass.”
“He was being presumptuous, thinking he could fix you. News flash, Dutchy: You’re already awesome. Plus, that comment about Ian was a low blow, and you didn’t deserve that. So don’t you let him walk over you like a doormat either, okay?”
Dutchy couldn’t help the smile on her face. “I’m really glad you’re here, J.D. I mean … I know you and I weren’t friends in the beginning and we just were kind of tossed together when everyone found their mates. But … I’m glad to call you my friend.”
“Awww … now you’re going to make me cry.”
“I promise not to ignore you if Krieger and I ever work it out.”
“You mean, when,” J.D. corrected. “And Dutchy, it’s all right. I totally understand. That’s just how things are, you know? You find your mate, then the kids arrive, and they come first. I’m happy to be the cool aunt on the sidelines who gets to spoil all the babies and then hand them back to their parents when they start crying while I kick back in my bachelor pad.”
She grinned gratefully at J.D. While she may be tough on the outside, Dutchy always knew J.D. had a soft inside. She only hoped that the blonde mechanic could find someone—mate or not—who could handle all that and deserve her.
“Say, Dutchy” J.D.’s delicate nose wrinkled. “Are we almost there yet?”
She peeked out the window. They’d been driving over an hour and half by now, and the road signs said they were approaching Contessa Peak. If she remembered what Krieger had told her correctly, the main road should lead to a parking lot on the other side where most day hikers started their journey. But the dirt road to his cabin split off before then. “We need to get off the highway soon. Should be up ahead.”
A few miles later, Dutchy spotted the turnoff. “There. Slow down … yeah, through here.”
J.D. maneuvered the vehicle onto the dirt road and they rumbled along. “Wow, this really is a long way up,” J.D. said. “I don’t think I’ve been this far up the mountains.”
“Do you go to the mountains a lot?”
“When I was young, with my old man,” J.D. said. “We used to love to go out and hunt together, but we never made it up here. Our animals prefer flatlands and dry climates.”
Dutchy held her tongue, trying not to ask the question on her mind. She’d always wondered what J.D. was exactly, but never did ask because, well, that was rude in the shifter world. However, from the scent of fur, she could at least tell J.D. was some sort of feline. But what kind of cat specifically liked flat lands and dry heat? Lionesses? Cougars?
“There was this one time—whoa!”
They bounced up so violently that her teeth rattled in her brain. J.D. slammed on the brakes. “What the fuck—did we run over a dragon’s turd or something?” The car then began to slide back. “Oh crap!” The engine roared as she pressed on the gas, but they didn’t move. “Fuck!” Taking her seatbelt off, J.D. got out