Deek meets my horrified gaze, and smiles. “It’s okay, Susan.” To Maggie, he says gently, “But I’m not really a pet. Keep that in mind if you meet many werewolves.”
Maggie shrugs. “Okay.”
“Scrambled eggs are done,” I announce, and plate up Maggie’s bacon and eggs, sans anything interesting, like tomato. I wave my spatula in Deek’s direction. “How do you want your eggs?” I step away from the stove to help Maggie get up on a barstool—but Deek’s right there, and he takes her plate and lifts her up on one.
To me, he murmurs, “Over easy, please.”
“Coming right up.”
To Maggie, he asks, “Do you normally sit in the living room?”
She must nod. The next thing she says is, “I wanted to be with you guys.”
“Deek, take this.” I pass him a plate of bacon. “If it looks weird to you it’s because it’s turkey.”
“I like turkey,” he says.
“Great! Speaking of, there’s deli meat in the fridge—including turkey—along with all the other fixings for sandwiches. Bread’s in the bread box. I figured sandwiches would be easy lunch options for you and Maggs.”
“I can handle sandwiches,” he says with very little confidence.
Even the six-year-old picks up on it. “I’ll show you how, Deek!” She sounds unbelievably excited at the prospect.
“It doesn’t have to be anything fancy,” I assure him. “Just listen to her when she says she doesn’t want something, and you’re good to go.”
“I’ve been told I’m a good listener. And I’m a submissive: I follow orders very well,” he promises.
Maggie heaves a relieved breath. “Good. I hate onions, and everyone tries to hide them. But I know,” she says sagely. “I always find them.”
“I won’t hide any onions in your food,” he vows.
“Okay,” she says archly, like Deek is on probation.
“Eggs are done,” I say, flipping them to a plate. “Deek? Want toast, juice, anything interesting?”
“I’ll be good with this,” he says.
I make myself a spinach omelet, and make another for Ginny, who is an early riser and surely up by now. I leave Deek with the spatula to tap on Charlotte’s door and let Ginny know there’s food for her. She zips out for it, says thanks, and closes herself in Charlotte’s room again.
“She doesn’t eat with the family?” Deek asks.
“She…” I glance at him, hesitating.
His gaze is trained on my shoulder, and jumps to maybe my ear. “She usually does?”
“Yeah. I mean, she’s like one of my kids and eats in the kitchen or the living room. But don’t feel bad. It isn’t you, you know?”
A muscle in Deek’s jaw jumps. “It’s not right that she’s afraid.”
I shake my head sadly. “No. It isn’t right. But there’s nothing we can do about that.”
A jolt travels up my spine when Deek meets my eyes and makes every word distinct as he says, “We’ll see about that.”
CHAPTER 10
LUCAN
“Be good for Deek today, please?” Susan implores her daughter. In a more hushed voice that probably couldn’t carry to a man who was not also a werewolf, she adds, “And remember: he’s not a dog. Okay? He’s a man.”
“I know,” Maggie says. “And I’ll be good.”
Susan tugs her into her arms and gives the top of her head a loud kiss. Then she stands, her keys jangling, her purse dragging down one of her shoulders, her hair put up and artfully arranged so a few strands fall prettily around her face—
But somehow, her messy bed-flattened hair was just as pretty this morning. So was her makeup-less face.
She’s even more striking with makeup on though. I thought I knew why Finn is so bent on claiming her; she has a big heart, along with a great sense of humor and three (two biological) wonderfully sweet, well-raised kids. He says he noticed her and admired her for the fact that she can handle anything, doesn’t buckle under his steam-roller personality, and she makes him smile. I should have expected that she’d be beautiful too. I risk a glance up to her eyes and find them lined with black, painted softly on the lids with something shimmery and alluring. I drop my gaze and end up at the level of her chest, where a heavy necklace swings above the scoop neck of her lace-trimmed blouse.
The Pack’s pub where she works doesn’t have a uniform for their employees, and Susan is in jeans and white sneakers with bright yellow laces that will probably serve her as comfortably as she can be during a long day shift on her feet.