He studied his dirt-flecked work boots. “Is it because of August?”
“August is like an older brother to me.” One who’d stopped visiting since our lakeside picnic. Not that he’d promised to come every day, but it would’ve been nice to see his face or hear his voice.
“I heard you two are mates.”
“Just because we’re supposed to be mates doesn’t mean we’re attracted to each other.”
Matt snorted, which made me bristle.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
“Why did you snort?”
“Because you’re hot, and August’s a guy. And even if he might feel like a brother to you, the fact is, he isn’t.”
“So?””So he shot Sienna’s advances down the other day. And then this waitress, who he used to hook up with before Sienna, asked if he wanted a nightcap, and he rejected her too.”
I could see how him turning down girls could be misconstrued, but he was probably worried about his mother. Her surgery was on Monday. I was worried.
“He’s got a lot going on, Matt.”
“No unattached guy has that much going on that they turn down easy lays, Ness.”
I sat up and placed my mug down on the glass coffee table. “I might have a theory.”
“I’m listening.”
This isn’t going to be weird… Then again this entire conversation was weird. It was the sort of conversation I should be having with Sarah instead of Matt. Not that Sarah and I hadn’t had it already. Sarah had been picking me up most afternoons to give me driving lessons in her red Mini, so the subject had come up.
Jeb said she was probably trying to squeeze information about Everest and the Creeks out of me, but I doubted it. One, she could’ve gone to her uncle for information, and two, we didn’t discuss pack dynamics all that much. We mostly listened to music while discussing UCB and the courses I should take. I hadn’t gotten my acceptance letter yet. I imagined it, as well as my tuition, were contingent to a talk with Liam. I hadn’t been ready to face him, but I was slowly getting there.
Next week perhaps…
“So?” Matt’s voice broke me out of my daydream. “What’s your theory?”
I dragged my hand through my hair. “The mating link makes our bodies unreceptive to people who aren’t our mates.”
He frowned.
“We can’t be… um”-heat eddied through me-“intimate.”
“Huh?”
“Oh come on, Matt.” I yanked my hand through my hair again so hard this time I plucked out a few strands. “Don’t make me draw you a diagram. This is embarrassing enough.” So embarrassing that I kept my gaze locked on the blank TV screen in the corner.
“Whoa. You mean you can’t have sex with a random person? Whoa… ” He repeated whoa a couple more times. “Now I get why Liam tried to get August to leave town. Whoa.”
“Yeah. Sucks.” For August more than me. I didn’t know what I was missing.
“I don’t get why August isn’t hauling ass out of Boulder. I mean, I do get it. His mom being sick and all, but after that… ” He rubbed his hands together. “After that, Ness, if he sticks around Boulder, he’s sticking around for you.”
I folded my fingers together. Not in prayer. Just to do something with them. This conversation had me feeling restless. Not to mention uncomfortable. Tremendously uncomfortable. I was antsy for Matt to leave.
As though he sensed it, he stood up.
“He’ll leave,” I said slowly. “There’s no reason for him to stay. I won’t act on the link. I don’t want to be with someone because of some chemical or magical connection.”
“Just because it’s magical doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “That’s exactly what it means. Magic isn’t real, Matt.”
“We’re magical, and we’re real.” He gestured between us. “How do you explain that, huh?”
“What would you do if you suddenly had a mate, and that girl wasn’t Amanda?”
His features tensed. “You can’t compare us. Amanda and I, we’ve been together for a long time. As far as I can see, neither you nor August are attached, so there’s no real reason for staying away. Unless you’re holding out for Liam. In which case-”
“I’m not.”
He observed me a long minute before strolling to the front door. “Life’s short, Ness.” He drummed his thick fingers against the wall. “Shorter for some than for others. Just make sure you get to the end of it with more satisfaction than regrets. And yeah, I know not everyone needs a relationship or love or sex to feel happy, but avoiding it on principle is a sucky reason to stay single.” He turned the knob and drew open the door. “And I know I’ve probably overstayed my welcome and doled out too much unwanted advice, but I know August. He’s like a brother to me too, and even though he’s quiet ’bout his feelings, he broke up with Sienna the minute you walked back into his life. And if I’m not mistaken, you guys weren’t linked yet.”
“Their breakup had nothing to do with me.”
“If it makes you sleep better at night.”
I wanted to tell him to butt out of my personal life.
“Remember when I caught you guys sexting after the first trial?”
I rolled my eyes. “We weren’t sexting.”
He side-eyed me. “If you say so, Little Wolf.”
“I do say so. I can show you our messages. There wasn’t anything remotely sexual about any of them.”
“You guys have a connection.”
“Friends. We’re just friends.”
“Uh-huh. Anyway, gotta hit the road. Wouldn’t want my boss to fire me.”
“Yeah. We wouldn’t want that,” I grumbled. I was feeling moody now because Matt had gotten under my skin.
So much so that once he shut the door, whistling loudly on his way down the steps, I retrieved my phone from the kitchen counter and began scrolling through my past conversations with August. Although not sexual, the tone of our back-and-forth texts was pretty personal.
As I scrolled up and up, our phone conversations started coming back to me, and my heart quickened. I couldn’t possibly have a crush on August, or could I?