required for assembly, I think you’re going to rock the strongman part all on your own.” I flash him a smile he surprises me by looking up to see. “Ready to get started?”
He doesn’t immediately look away. “Just tell me when you want me.”
CHAPTER 16
SUSAN
Deek makes the springs look like they have all the resistance of twist ties as he latches them on the net’s hooks and attaches them to the trampoline’s frame—which we assembled fairly easily without too much of his power needed. (Until it came time to close the frame into a circle—this thing did NOT want to close without some serious power, which our werewolf provided, thankfully.)
The springs though? We all try them mostly to get an appreciation for Deek’s muscle. Although Ginny is stronger than Charlotte, and even me, she’s no match for the adult male werewolf in our yard. And after we’re done testing what strength we have against his considerable, quiet brawn, we all look at Deek with new eyes.
He is singularly uncomfortable with the attention.
Thankfully, we don’t make him so nervous that he Changes, and once the trampoline is assembled, the girls are scrambling to hop on and—well? Hop.
The girls are all laughing, giggling, excited. It’s a happy moment that begins with one bounce each from Charlotte and Ginny—and Maggie goes flying.
Like a Slinky sent zooming down the stairs, Maggie makes an impressive arc, catapulting through the air, and head-first she plummets to the ground.
I make an “AH!” and dive for her. But I never would have made it to her landing spot in time to save her. I’m too far away. I’m too slow, even booking it.
Deek gets there in time. With reflexes like a super cat, he leaps, rolls, and catches her before her head cracks into the ground.
“OhmyGodThankYouThankYou THANK YOU!” I chant through my hands, genuinely thanking the good Lord above for sending the werewolf I’m rushing to. I drop down beside Deek, who is on his back on the ground, Maggie hugged to his chest. I throw myself on both him and Maggie.
“Is she okay?” Ginny and Charlotte cry at the same time.
I pull back and check her over. Physically, she’s fine. But she’s shaken; Maggie starts to cry.
Carefully, easing up by degrees, Deek curls up to meet her eyes. Because her back is to his front and she’s smaller than he is, he’s hanging over her, staring at her upside down. “Hey. You’re okay.” His big hand almost covers her whole arm. He rubs up and down gently. “That was quite the Superman you pulled.”
Maggie stands herself up in his lap and whirls around to throw her arms around his neck.
Giving me a worried smile, Deek’s gaze grazes mine and then he’s hugging Maggie back. With little effort, he gets his feet under himself and stands, holding her easily. Then he offers me a hand up.
I take it. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” he says, like it wasn’t.
Wiping my eyes, I wave to the girls. “Maybe, from now on, only one at a time.”
Apprehensively, they each take turns, and despite the harrowing launch of the baby through the air at the beginning, the girls start to have fun. Maggie holds on to Deek’s hands when she jumps at first, but then she’s hopping around with no trouble at all. She stops though, looking a bit downhearted.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
She waves to Charlotte and Ginny. “It was more fun together.”
“Hang on,” Deek says. And then he walks toward the house.
Not a minute later, a massive brown wolf races back out and vaults onto the trampoline with Maggie.
The picture of the two of them together is insane: she’s just over three feet tall. He’s that at his shoulders, at the very least.
Surprisingly, despite his weight, his arrival doesn’t send her springing off. In fact, as she begins to shriek in delight and bounce around him, he only braces his paws and hunkers into the force that she’s generating from the springs’ recoil—she’s not affected by his mass at all.
She is, however, thrilled at his presence.
“Watch, Mom! Deek’s playing with me!” she shouts loudly enough they can probably hear her all the way in Yemen.
“That’s great, honey,” I say back, thinking that Deek’s a wolf who’s doing a great impression of cream in the process of being turned into butter by way she’s shaking the daylights out of him.
When it’s Charlotte’s turn again, to everyone’s surprise, Deek doesn’t hop down. He even woofs at Charlotte to encourage her to get up there with