Dinner is as awkward as I imagined it would be.
The only thing that gets me through it is knowing that it won’t last forever. That, and the knowledge I wasn’t cooking for us, but for Riley who didn’t get a chance to finish his lunch because of Lara’s sudden arrival.
I left him an extra-large serving of steak, shrimp, buttered potatoes, and green beans on the porch before I called Jackson for dinner. Despite listening for the slightest sound from outside, I don’t hear a wolf approaching the house from the forest.
Because it was easy to envision how awkward the dinner would be, I set the table in the more formal dining room instead of the kitchen, with Jackson and Lara sitting on one side together and me on an end furthest away from them.
It’s a massive change from the shrieks of laughter and the nonstop conversation when my pack was here. Since the only thing I’m hungry for, is this meal to be over, I pick at my meal as I keep my gaze fixed on my plate. Meanwhile, Lara babbles on about all the things Jackson has missed in her pack.
God, I hate that she calls him Jack.
What I don’t get is how he’s totally fine with her reappearing like this and pretending like she didn’t hurt him by rejecting him. He doesn’t tell her to shut up, or to get out, or anything. He just sits there listening to her ramble.
Halfway through dinner, my phone vibrates, and I grab for it to check my message.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t during dinner since it’s kind of rude. But since Lara’s very appearance is rude, I figure why the hell not.
It’s another message from my mom wanting to know if she should set up the spare room for my visit. That and she’s eager to introduce Nate, a prospective mate, to me since she’s shown him a picture of me, and he’s interested in us meeting.
Maybe I should just say yes.
I consider it. Like really consider it, because going back to Hardin is what I want, don’t get me wrong, but there are no guys there. I settled for Jared who was an idiot, but maybe it is time for me to mate.
I won’t like Nate as much as Jackson, but maybe I don’t need to. Maybe we can just be mates who are more friends than… whatever the hell Jackson and I are.
“Regan, you okay?” Jackson’s question, coming when it does, startles me so much that I drop my phone on my baked potato.
Once I’ve retrieved it, I take a second to wipe butter grease off it with a napkin before lifting my gaze to Jackson. I’m not in the least bit surprised to find his eyes narrowed with suspicion since I couldn’t have looked more guilty if I’d tried.
“Sure,” I say, texting my mom yes before slipping my phone back into my pocket. “I’m good.”
After a long pause, Lara goes back to chatting away about her pack, I go back to picking at my food, and Jackson to fixing his gaze on me.
I manage another ten minutes before I abandon my half-eaten dinner by claiming I’m tired. It takes a couple of minutes to scrape my plate and leave it in the sink before I rush outside to check if Riley’s been.
The bag of food hasn’t moved from where I left it, and I swallow my disappointment that he’s going another night hungry. I’ll know just who to blame if he doesn’t come to get it.
Lara.
Still, with no way to reach him, and no desire to scare him away by trying to track him in the forest, I sigh and head up to bed.
All I can do is hope he’ll make an appearance the next day so I can ask how he feels about moving to Hardin or Miami with me.