slice of apple and swooshed it around. "You know, they all think we're rich too. I mean the other kids at school. And the ones from here? They call themselves wolves since they're from Wolf's Run. Well, the wolves said that it doesn't matter why we live in the community. We do, so let the rest think what they will."
Which meant they were protecting her. It also sounded like they'd accepted her. Hearing that, the weight I hadn't realized I was carrying around felt like it vanished. I didn't care what happened with the neighbors, if any hot younger men did or didn't want to flirt with me, or anything else. My daughter could be happy here, and that made everything else worth it.
"So does this mean you're glad we moved here?" I dared to ask.
She popped a bite into her mouth and gave me a look that only teenage girls could pull off. "Don't push it, Mom. I'm still the 'new girl,' and that sucks."
"Anything I can do to help?"
She ate one more piece of her apple and dip, then started closing the package. "You can let me out of chores for tonight so I can add my new friends on Instagram and get to know them?"
I just waved her off, giving in a little too easily. Ashley had let me go home early. No reason I couldn't pass on the favor. Besides, I knew that if I tried to get her to help, nothing would end up where it belonged. At least this way I got points for being a cool mom, which I might be able to cash in later.
Free at last, Gabby scurried back to her room, that eternal den of the teenager, where I knew she'd hide for the rest of the night. I got back to work, hoping that by the end of the week, this place would look more like a home than a shipping container. And then after that, I'd get paid, and we could start shopping for some furniture worthy of our house.
In my mind, I was mentally decorating my new home while I found places for all of our junk to live. Some of it went back into another box to be thrown away since we didn't need to hoard every last piece of garbage. Others were proudly displayed, bringing back the memories of when I'd gotten them. The strangest part was that this felt more like a home than my husband's house ever had.
And that was the truth of it. That house had been Gerardo's. He'd earned the money to buy it, made sure I knew it, and then expected me to keep it the way he wanted it. For too long, I'd felt more like a maid than a wife, and my fantasies had all but dried up. What I really needed was to get a little romance back into my life, and there was nothing at all to stop me.
Except for figuring out how to approach the idea with my daughter.
Later, when I was snuggled deep into my bed, I finally realized where the community had gotten its name. A lone howl broke the night, sounding like it had to be right outside my house. A moment later, more joined in. Shocked, I quickly threw off the covers, grabbed a robe, and rushed out back. At the same time, the neighbor's porch light came on. From where I was standing, I could just see the top of a guy's head, but I heard the clattering of claws on the concrete of his porch.
The howl came again - farther away - and I gasped.
"Elena?" the man asked.
I didn't recognize his voice, which meant it wasn't Ian, Pax, or Lane. "Yeah?" I called back.
"Chase 'em off," he said softly before jogging over to the wooden privacy fence.
Grasping the top, the guy heaved himself up and over easily. A six-foot fence, and he'd just hopped it like it was nothing! I wasn't sure which guy this was, but he had shoulder-length blonde hair, didn't have on a shirt, and didn't seem to think there was