extricate myself from the bench—and so do Ginny and Charlotte. Susan looks like she was about to, but seeing the rest of us moving, she glances around, likely wondering if all of us leaving at once would be rude.
“Come with us,” I tell her. “I’ll show you where the bathrooms are and you can be the one to help her.”
Maggie shudders beside me. “Is it a men’s bathroom?” She looks up at me. “I don’t want to go to the men’s toilets ever again.”
“Why,” Finn asks the question everyone’s suddenly wondering, judging by the sets of squinted eyes, “were you in the men’s bathroom, wee one?”
“I was helping Deek with his pants,” Maggie says.
Every set of eyes in the room locks onto me. I scratch uneasily at the back of my ear, feeling fur sprout against my fingers and travel over the back of my neck. And down my arms. My hands. “It sounds so much worse when you hear a six-year-old explain it.”
“Better maybe mention to her that she might not want to share this story with everybody?” Logan offers helpfully, grinning.
“Oh yeah—because instructing a child not to tell anyone that a man had her in the bathroom helping him with his pants is a grand idea,” Finn agrees.
I usher Maggie ahead of me, exiting the increasingly rowdy room. “That’s why I didn’t tell her not to tell anyone,” I call back to them as they yuk it up at the table and we move for the bathrooms.
“So wait,” Ginny says behind me. “Why exactly was Maggie helping you with your pants?” Suspicion laces her tone, and I suddenly don’t want to turn to see if Susan is sharing the sentiment and concern.
“Because the stroller moms chased Deek around the park until he hid in the men’s restroom. I had to pee, and he turned into a werewolf, so I carried his clothes out,” Maggie explains.
“We weren’t in the same stall,” I feel it really important to add.
“Stroller moms?” Susan asks.
Maggie throws her little hands up. “That’s what Deek calls them.”
“Right here,” I say, reaching past her to open the bathroom. I smack the panel to activate the lights.
She heaves a sigh of relief. “Good, because I wasn’t sure I could hold it for much longer…” She keeps chattering as she hurries in, but I tune her out in favor of risking a look at Charlotte, Ginny, and Susan’s faces.
“This bathroom has multiple stalls,” I tell them. “You can all go at once,” I add awkwardly.
Ginny pats me on the chest as she passes by. “Glad nothing nefarious was going on. And relax, Wolfman. It looks like you haven’t shaved in a year.”
Once I’m by myself, I’m able to reverse my Change before I go full wolf. I wait for the girls there, gazing around to reorient myself with part of home, and seeing the house as my human ‘family’ must see it. All the furniture is worn, but comfy-looking. Not a knickknack in sight because we roughhouse too hard on delicate things for them to survive. The place is clean, but sand grains are present on the wood floor; enough so that you wouldn’t know a whole cleaning team attacks the place night and day. It’s just that paws track in a lot of dirt, and we have a lot of paws making tracks in and out every day.
When the girls re-emerge, I lead them back to our seats which are easier to fit into on account of a good number of people exiting, having already finished their food. Susan slides her bag’s strap off of her arm as she retakes her place, and reaches below the table to stow it between her feet.
“Was good seeing you again, Deek. It’s been weird as heck having you gone,” Monroe declares.
Ethan, head bowed, says, “I don’t know how you can stand being away.”
“Didn’t think you had it in you to be outside,” Colin shares. “Outside of the Pack,” he clarifies, smiling at the human faces and Ginny.
“I began to wonder if I’d made a terrible mistake the first time he yarked in my car,” Finn admits. “But since then, the lad’s done cracking.”
“I like what I’m doing. I like the family,” I tell Ethan and Colin.
“He doesn’t like the stroller moms,” Maggie shares.
“I’ve learned ways to deal with them,” I tell everyone. I go to the park in wolf form now. Saves a little hassle since I can Change at the house. The house key is now on a lanyard,