worried I would think less of you?”
“I think less of me.”
“Is it a learning disability? Or an education thing? Jasper…?”
“He didn’t have my problems, no,” Jake said. “I guess it’s a learning disability. Maybe both. Our village schools aren’t the best for that.”
“Could I help you?”
“I don’t want help,” he said. “I could never focus or connect the dots between the words I speak and the words on a page. It’s so fucking frustrating. So Jasper just covered for me. Still does.”
“I’m relieved!” I said. “I thought it would be something worse! I mean, it must cause you trouble, but…Jake, it’s okay. You’re good at so many other things. And if you ever do want help, I’d help, but if you’re happy, I’m happy.”
He didn’t look happy. “Do you think you’d react that way if Graham couldn’t read?”
“Of course I would. Graham said he had troubles in school, too. I know you heard him.”
“But he definitely turned out academic enough for you. He was in government. He’s not stupid, he was just distracted by his demon side. Byron was a damn librarian. I see the look in your eyes. You don’t think it’s that strange for me to be illiterate because I’m a werewolf anyway.”
“False!” I cried. “Totally false! I don’t care if none of you can read! I’ll do all the reading. Puh-lease. Just keep looking good and swinging tools around and you never have to read a single word ever again.”
A small smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “So I’m just a piece of meat to you?”
“I’m just saying, every good house flipping team has brains on one end and then brawn on the other, and never the twain shall meet.”
He laughed. “Like I said…I love you.”
“I love you too,” I whispered. “And I’ve never been happier since you came to help me with Lockwood House. I want to meet your family.”
“Hel…”
“Eyes on the road!” I snapped before he could kiss me again.
“Okay.” He reached for my boob instead.
I rolled my eyes, grinning.
“When we have kids, can I get in bed with you when you read to them?” he asked me. “Just to listen. Not to traumatize the kids.”
I glared at him sideways. “You know, I’m aware that wolves usually don’t just have kids. They have litters.”
“You have a litter of dads,” he said.
I snorted. “I have a dad. It doesn’t always mean that much.”
“I’ll be as good as two dads,” he said. His tone had softened and I knew we were having a serious discussion behind it all.
If I didn’t want kids, I should probably tell him now. Spare us both that heartbreak when our paths didn’t match.
“I want to see you as a dad,” I said. “I’m realizing I definitely want that. I’m not as confident in myself as a mom. I didn’t have the best role models. And I’m pretty obsessed with work.”
“I like that about you. I know you’d be a good mom too. You’d be as attentive to a baby as you are with masking off the trim and fixtures before you paint. Which you’re great at, by the way.”
“Oh, thank you for noticing.” I looked at my hands. “I just don’t think I know yet. I know how much you want a family. I think family was something I was running away from. I’m not sure what to say. If I never want kids, I don’t want to feel like I jerked you around.”
“You don’t have to know yet,” he said.
“Are you sure?”
“It takes time to figure it out,” he said. “Maybe I love you enough that you can’t get rid me that easily.”
I smiled. “You’re such a softie, Jake Sullivan.”
“Some of me is soft,” he said. “Other parts are getting pretty damn hard again…”
“It would be dangerous to stop, with council wizards looking for us,” I said. “And—we’re not doing anything else without stopping.”
“Yeah, I fucking know it.”
Chapter Eighteen
Helena
“None of these cabinets are right. None.”
“I think these might work if we swapped out the handles,” Jake said, but he seemed unhappy with our choices too. “Maybe we need to keep driving. I’m sure Los Angeles has every cabinet you can imagine, somewhere.”
“Like we have time for that. This is the third store already. We can’t keep driving around. Before I was just thinking about making a nice space. But now, Bel Tramonto absolutely needs to sell for more than Kiersten and Caleb’s house.”
“So you admit that you don’t usually make the most marketable decisions,” Jake said. “Not until someone