Jonah laughed, then nodded, admitting it. “All right, so maybe there was an ulterior motive.”
“We’re just curious,” Jazz said, leaning forward with a predatory smile on his face. “There’s obviously something going on between you and Mal.”
“Jazz,” Raven said with exasperation. “We were supposed to ease into it.”
“What? Come on, we all know.” Jazz grinned at me. “We’re here to help.”
“You sure about that?” I raised my eyebrows.
“He wouldn’t shut up about you,” Rebel said with a shrug. “Mal, I mean. At the station. It was cute—made him embarrassed. Like he kept catching himself talking about you without meaning to.”
My heart pounded. I felt like a kid, gossiping with my friends at lunch about who liked who. There was a sweet kind of thrill to it—I never thought I’d feel this young and giddy again. And yet the thought of Mal talking Rebel’s ear off about me did exactly that. I grinned at my feet, and the guys whistled and knocked their elbows into each other’s sides.
“All right, all right,” I said. “I’m only talking because I’m so outnumbered here.”
“We’re all on the same team,” Brennan said.
“Yeah, your team!” Heath agreed.
“So maybe there’s something different about our relationship these days,” I admitted.
“Meaning…” Jonah prompted.
“You guys are relentless,” I said fondly. “Yeah, okay, I’m—I’m attracted to him.”
The guys started hooting and hollering, of course, but they calmed down when I held my hand up to indicate I wasn’t done speaking. “I’m not blind, of course, I’ve always thought he was handsome. But until recently I’d never felt…”
“Into it?” Beau offered.
“Right,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean anything is going to happen.”
“Sure,” Logan said, sounding exceedingly unconvinced of that.
“I’m serious,” I said. “Just because I feel it doesn’t mean we should act on it. I don’t know if I’m ready for that.”
The excitement cooled off a little, and the guys nodded. “Well,” Jazz said, “If you ever decide you are, I can give some tips on things Mal likes. You know, restaurants, candle fragrances… things like that.”
Brennan grinned and nodded. “Me too, you know. He helped a lot with the cabin design, so I have a sense of his taste…”
“Same,” Logan said. “I’m great at wooing.”
“I don’t know if that’s true,” Jonah said thoughtfully. “When’s the last time you went on a date?”
“None of your business,” Logan said primly.
“Guys, guys,” I said through a laugh. “Good to know I’ve got wingmen if I need it.”
“Or when,” Beau corrected.
After some more teasing and hoots, most of the guys went on their way—Brennan and Beau back to work, some of the members back to the clubhouse, and Jonah and Heath back into Ankhor Works to rescue Maverick where he was manning the lobby with Grace and Gretel.
Then it was just Raven and me, leaning against the back wall of the shop in the cool air. With the members gone, it was suddenly a lot quieter, and Raven’s teasingly knowing expression melted into something a little more curious.
“You arranged all this, didn’t you?” I asked.
“Maybe,” Raven said with a shrug. “Just thought you could use some outside opinions.”
I paused, nodding as I turned that thought over. It was kind of Raven to wrangle all the guys together like this, but I couldn’t shake the instinct that the feelings I had for Mal were a small kind of betrayal to our family. Even if logically I knew that wasn’t the case, it still felt like that.
“How do you feel about it?” I asked him. “Me and Mal. Really.”
“Really?” Raven asked.
My heart sank a little—I couldn’t stand the thought of Raven going along with this because he felt like he should. When maybe, really, he wasn’t ready to move on, either. His happiness was the most important thing in the world to me.
“Pop,” Raven said with his hand on my forearm. “I’m happy for you. Beyond happy.”
I blinked, surprised. “I—you’re okay with it?”
“Yeah,” he said with a laugh. “Of course I am. I know it’s been hard, but—but I think you deserve to find someone, you know? I want you to be happy. Dad would want you to be happy.”
I folded my hand over his and swallowed around the sudden knot in my throat. Raven had grown into such a strong and generous young man—I could hardly believe this was the same bratty kid Ankh and I had raised together. I’d always been able to tell when he was lying; he never could hide it well. And from the soft look in