He lunges at her, and pounces down like a fox smashing through snow.
Surprised, Charlotte whoops and bounces backward. Then her eyes narrow, and she grins at him. “Oh, this is so game on.” She leaps at him.
He wurfs, dodging her, and soon they’ve timed their bounces so that she’s not flying off, and he’s riding motion rather than suffering it.
He does the same for Ginny, who loses her breath laughing and has to stop.
Maggie is leaned up against my leg, getting sleepy, I think. It has been quite the day for her, by the sounds of it. I run my fingers through her hair until Charlotte bumps me.
“Mom. Deek wants you.”
Startled, I look up—and I’m face to face with a werewolf. He’s leaning off the side of the trampoline, so tall he has to bend his neck to meet my eye level.
His eyes are wolf’s eyes, but they’re still the same arresting deep golden color.
When he sees that he has my full attention, he backs up, his tail swaying playfully.
“C’mere, Maggs,” Charlotte says, and guides her to stand with her and Ginny. “Get up there, Mom!”
“Yeah, Mom, play with Deek!” Maggie suggests, reanimating at the excitement of it.
I grimace. “I haven’t been on a trampoline in—”
Deek sneezes.
Then he growls at me, making the girls—and me—gasp and laugh.
I throw my hands up. “All right! You get your way, but if I end up taking a header or breaking my back, we’re going to have words, Wolfman.”
Deek snaps his teeth good-naturedly.
I toe off my sneakers and haul myself up.
Immediately, I feel self-conscious.
Deek rushes me—the fox spring maneuver, just like with Charlotte—and lands just in front of me, raising me up with his bounding leap.
Despite my nerves, I’m laughing—and then I’m bouncing with him as he chases me, with him fooling around like he doesn’t care what he looks like… until I don’t care either. I just have fun.
The girls and I chuckle, shout, and tease as we play together, this regal-looking creature springing and prancing with me. He keeps it up until I’m winded and calling for a ceasefire.
“What’s a sees fire?” Maggie asks.
“Cease, as in stop,” Charlotte explains. “And fire, for this word, means shooting. So cease fire means stop shooting.”
“In this case, it means stop jumping,” Ginny adds.
Maggie looks contemplative.
Charlotte smirks up at me. “She’s going to use this later.”
“Oh yeah,” I agree. “At some perfectly random time.”
Ginny is nodding. “Wait for it.”
Maggie forgets the whole topic as something occurs to her. “Is it time for ice cream?”
I reach into my back pocket for my cell phone. I take a look at the time. “Should be firm, if not frozen.” I grin at them. “Ready to change your mind about beets?”
CHAPTER 17
LUCAN
“How have we never tried this?” Charlotte exclaims to everyone, then shoves another spoonful of beet ice cream into her mouth. “Mom, why didn’t you show us Grandma’s recipe before?”
Susan is wearing a very cat-that-got-the-cream expression. It’s exceedingly satisfied and a little tiny bit smug. “I should have recorded you guys’ complaining while we were making it,” she almost singsongs.
“We were wrong,” Ginny says, licking off her spoon. “So, so wrong.” She peers into her bowl. “Why does dirt-root taste so good?”
I’m sitting on a barstool adjacent to Susan, who is basking in this moment of sweet vindication. I nudge her sock-clad foot with my bare one.
Her attention swings to me.
I nod to Maggie, who is slumped over her ice cream—out cold.
Susan covers her laugh with her hand and hops off her stool to carefully take her youngest down.
“Want help carrying her?” I ask.
Susan smiles. “I’ve got her, but thanks.” She takes in Maggie’s innocent little ice cream-smeared face. “I have to enjoy these moments when I can. She’s growing up so fast.” She looks at Charlotte, and sends a smile to Ginny too. “They all do.” She sighs and takes Maggie to her room.
When I tear my gaze away from where Susan disappeared, I turn to face my empty bowl—and meet the very direct stare of Ginny.
I look down.
“Am I going to be a submissive wolf, like you?” she asks.
“You are not submissive,” I tell her. “You’ll be exactly who you are now.”
Her voice holds wonder and her seat creaks when she sits straighter. “I’m an alpha?”
Wordlessly, I nod. I stand and take my bowl and Maggie’s to the sink.
“How cool,” Charlotte says.
“Yeah,” breathes Ginny.
“What’s cool?” Susan asks, reentering the kitchen. “Deek, you didn’t have to take care of Maggie’s. But thank you,” she