“But Jessie insisted that wasn’t true, that she’s a hitchhiker you picked up outside Ellensburg. They asked me to clear it up, but I had to tell them I didn’t know anything. Except I was pretty sure you didn’t get a mail-order bride.”
“Pretty sure?” I asked.
Grace just shrugged while Asher stifled a laugh.
Gram folded her arms. “I don’t care what the busybodies in town are saying. You still haven’t answered my question.”
“Gram, she’s working.”
“Why are you making that poor girl work through dinner?”
“No, that’s not…” I paused, letting out a frustrated breath. “She’s not working for me. She’s on her way to her mom’s in Iowa or something and needed a place to replace her clutch. I’m letting her use my shop.”
“What does that have to do with why she’s not here for dinner?” Gram asked.
“Why would I have brought her? She’s just some girl who’s passing through town.”
Gram gave me the look—the one that, as a kid, would have sent me running for cover. As a grown man, it still made me mildly uncomfortable.
“You might act like a wolf, but you weren’t raised by one. I’ll pack up her dinner and you can bring it to her.”
“You don’t have to—”
She cut me off with a swift arch of her eyebrow.
“Thanks, Gram.”
“How was your road trip?” Gavin asked. “Was Fiona with you? Is that why you wouldn’t let me come?”
“Whoa,” Logan said. “Brofoot, you went on a road trip with her and now she’s staying at your place, and we’re supposed to believe this isn’t a thing?”
“It’s not a thing.”
Logan turned to Levi. “Don’t you think?”
Levi nodded. “Definitely.”
“Definitely what?” I asked.
They just nodded to each other.
I hated it when they did that.
“There’s no thing. She needed a place to replace her clutch, so she offered to help me get my hands on a rare project car. She had an in, since she knew the guy who owned it. But we had to go to northern Arizona to get it. So yes, I was on the road with her for a few days. She helped me get the car and now I’m letting her use my shop so she doesn’t have to pay someone to replace her clutch.”
“So she’s like a lady mechanic?” Logan asked. “That’s hot.”
Fuck yeah, it was hot.
Damn it. No it wasn’t. She wasn’t. She was just some girl.
“What’s the project car?” Asher asked.
Grateful for the subject change, I told them about the Pontiac.
It didn’t take long before the conversation turned away from cars, and random girls staying at my house, and me in general. Grace updated Gram on their wedding plans. After Asher had proposed last fall, they’d thought about getting married right away. But they’d decided they wanted an outdoor wedding and didn’t mind waiting for summer so they had good weather.
I was quiet through dinner, half-listening while my mind drifted to the Pontiac. Now that I had a better idea of what it needed, I could start hunting down parts.
Was Fiona having any trouble with her car?
God, why was I thinking about her again?
The meal wound down and I helped clean up the kitchen. I knew that the rest of them would stay longer. An hour, maybe two. Gram would declare she was ready for bed and the last person out needed to turn off the lights and lock up. Then Asher and Grace would go home, and my younger brothers would go to their place, which happened to be next door to Asher.
It was the weirdest thing. Some small-town families scattered when children reached adulthood, the kids leaving in search of opportunities, or maybe love. Not us. Four out of the five of us lived on the same block, walking distance from where we’d grown up.
I only lived a couple of miles outside town, but like always, I was the odd man out.
But that was just who I was. Gram had called me Lone Wolf since I was a kid. And I lived up to the name. Always had.
They were my pack, but it had been years since I’d felt like I was truly a part of theirs.
Maybe I never really had.
Gram handed me one of her reusable shopping bags. “Dinner for your friend and more for you. Don’t you go eating all of it. There’s plenty for two.”
“Thanks, Gram.”
Her eyes told me so much. I was cutting out early. Again. And she didn’t like it. She wanted me to stay. To sit around with everyone. Talk and laugh and be a part of