by Zoe Chant
She kept her hands in his hair as his slid to her hips, pulling her firmly into his lap. Mabs was suddenly glad she was wearing only pajamas, even they weren't pretty ones, because it wouldn't take any real effort to get them out of the way and she suddenly wanted them out of the way very, very badly. Jake's hands rose from her hips, ruffling the edge of her pajama tops upward. His thumbs brushed the lower curve of her breasts and she cried out into his mouth, a sound of hope.
Bizarrely, he pulled sharply away, sudden panic in his face as Mabs tried, through a blaze of desire, to focus on him. Before she could even say his name, he suddenly twisted away, dumped her on the bed, and shapeshifted into a wolf.
Less than a heartbeat later, Noah, carrying his puppy, opened the door and said, "Mommy? It's cold in my room and there's snow in the hall," miserably. "Can Wolf and I sleep with you and Mr. Growly?"
Mabs dropped her chin to her chest and took three seconds to absolutely quiver with frustration, then dared to glance sideways at Jake.
Dogs did guilty looks well, but she'd never seen rueful on a canine face before. He shrugged and lay down with his head on his paws, no longer taking up two-thirds of the bed. Mabs whispered "Visqueen" at him, and his mouth pulled back in a broad, wolfy grin before he gave a huff that sounded an awful lot like laughter.
Mabs, with a rueful sigh of her own, pulled the covers back as she turned her attention back to Noah. "Of course, baby. Some of the roof fell down on the other side of the house. Mr. Rowly and I will get it fixed up soon so it'll be warmer, but until then..." She could just about die, saying this, but her kid not freezing was kind of more important than getting laid. "Until then you can sleep in my room, if you want."
"Okay." Noah flopped into bed with Wolf tucked under his chin, and went back to sleep instantly. Mabs lay down beside them, staring at the ceiling. Jake gently rested his furry chin on her shoulder and licked her ear, which under other circumstances might have been very sexy, but in this one—
—in this one, it made Mabs laugh. She rolled halfway over, hugged Jake's furry shoulders, and to her own surprise, went to sleep pretty quickly herself.
* * *
Waking up in a lump of furry bodies and cute little boy was, Mabs had to admit, maybe the nicest thing she'd ever done. Nice enough that she really didn't want to get up, but the alarm was going off and she had a work shift to make. She groaned, crawled over Jake, who lifted his big furry head, looked around blearily, and flopped back down on the pillow, exactly like a large dog, and changed her mind as soon as she got out of the bed, because it was freezing in the house. She whispered, "Oh my God," and jammed her boots back on to go peek out the window.
There'd been enough snow the night before to crack the roof, but it hadn't let up then. There had to be over a foot, maybe eighteen inches, piled brilliantly across the front yard, stacked on the fence, burying her car, burying everything in sight.
Noah thumped out of bed behind her, staggered to the window, stared, screamed, "SNOW, MOMMY! SNOW !!!" and ran straight out of her room, down the stairs, and out the front door.
Mabs waited.
Five seconds later Noah burst back into the house, shrieking, "It's cold it's cold it's cold Mommy it's COLD!" She could hear him finding shoes, if not a coat, and a moment later he went tearing back out into the snow again, Wolf now leaping at his heels.
Jake, tall and handsome and very human, padded up beside her to push the curtain farther open and squint at the snow. "Wow."
"Right?" Mabs wanted very badly to lean back against him, and bit her lip to keep herself from doing so. Probably it would be okay, but one exceedingly hot kiss did not a boyfriend make, and leaning on guys was kind of boyfriend-level activity. "I don't think I'm going to work today."
"MOMMY!" Noah came pounding back into the house and ran up the stairs into her room, shedding snow all the way. "It's cold outside!"
"Maybe you should get dressed, honey."
"I am dressed!"
"You're wearing pajamas and sneakers. You could try warm clothes, boots, and a coat."
He stared at her, nonplussed, and marched back out again, not, Mabs suspected, to find appropriate clothing. Wolf skidded in, spun around, and ran back out after his boy, leaving Mabs and Jake to both smile after them. Then Jake said, "It's freezing in here," and Mabs sighed.
"Yeah, I noticed. We're gonna have to...I don't even know what."
"It's okay. I do." Jake kissed her hair like it was the natural thing to do and left her grinning like an idiot in her bedroom. A few minutes later, as she was getting dressed, she heard Noah yelling gleefully, and looked out the window to see Jake throwing shovels-ful of snow off the roof and it falling in poofs around Noah.
If there wasn't a giant hole in the roof and no money in the bank account, Mabs thought, it would be a pretty perfect life. It came surprisingly close anyway.
She called work to say she was snowed in—"Better than calling in sick, worse than calling in rich," her boss said cheerfully, but the diner was closed anyway because most of the staff couldn't get there until the roads were cleared—and spent the day alternating between Thanksgiving preparations, helping Jake hang the vapor barrier better, and chasing both Noah and Wolf out of the kitchen.
"It's not going to be warm," Jake said mid-afternoon, after half the house was as well sealed-off as they could make it. "I'm sorry, Mabs. And the forecast is calling for more snow. I can go pick up some plywood to nail over the hole, once the roads clear. In the meantime, we might want to get everything out of those rooms, if we can."
"The rooms we just sealed up with three layers of heavy plastic?"
"My timing may not be great," Jake admitted. He smelled fresh and snowy and delicious. Better, Mabs thought, than the pies she had baked, although it probably wasn't super appropriate to suggest eating him with some whipped cream.
Not where Noah might overhear, anyway. Heat crawled up Mabs's cheeks and she tried hard to pretend she hadn't made herself blush.
Jake lifted his eyebrows at her, before his expression softened into something she didn't quite understand. "Bad timing," he said, not quite repeating himself. "Right. Tell you what, I'm going to check the barn and see if there's anything out there I can use to patch up the roof for a few days, at least, until the snow melts. It can't stay until March." The last words sounded more like a question than a confident statement.
"Oh, God, I hope not. Could it? We'll freeze."
Jake's smile gentled even more. "You both have wolves to keep you warm."
NINETEEN
Jake liked to think he could take a hint, disappointing as it might be. But Mabs had reacted pretty strongly to 'my timing may not be great,' and Jake realized he had nothing but time. Time holed up in a snowbound house sounded perfect, in fact, and it would be good for Mabs to have a couple of comparatively down days, if she could let herself. He would certainly try to make that easier, anyway, even if some of the most tension-releasing activities he could think of seemed off the table for now.
He might have worked a little tension off himself by repairing the roof, but the truth was there wasn't much in the barn that could do the trick. The house did warm up some with three layers of plastic holding the cold back, but he really wanted to fix it, as if...
...as if fixing the fallen roof could somehow show Mabs he had every intention—every hope—of sticking around. He'd said he would a hundred times already, but they were always light comments about finishing some bit of project next year, and he knew it must be easy to not take that seriously. He wanted to find a way to tell her he really was reliable, that he wanted to be there, without also scaring her off—
Just tell her!
—and the best way he knew how to do that was to keep showing her, by being there.
And maybe by eating more Thanksgiving dinner than he had since he was fifteen, but that, he thought, sated, at the end of the next day, was only because Mabs was an amazing cook.
Nobody else had made it over for th
e holiday, not with the roads in the condition they were, so there had been far too much food for three. Or even four, if he counted Wolf, whose appetite for turkey certainly wanted to be counted.
"The good news is I won't have to cook again for a week," Mabs said after she'd put Noah to bed. "The bad news is we're all gonna be sick of turkey in three days."
"My mom used to freeze whole turkey dinners after Thanksgiving," Jake suggested. "She portioned up the gravy, the turkey, some cranberry sauce—"
"That was amazing cranberry sauce," Mabs interrupted. "Was that her recipe? Will you share it with me?"
"It was and I will, or I can just keep making it for you." Jake was cleaning the kitchen as he spoke, and cast a glance to see how that had landed.
Pretty well, from her smile, although she glanced down and wouldn't meet his gaze. He ducked his head and went back to cleaning the kitchen. "Anyway, basically everything that could get frozen, she froze in meal-sized portions and then we'd get to have random Thanksgiving dinners in April. It was great."
"I'll have to do that. Tomorrow," she said, glancing at the fridge, where more food than seemed possible had been stuffed. "I'm not taking that all out again and repackaging it tonight."
"Plenty of time. We won't be sick of leftovers by tomorrow." He reached up above one of the cupboards, taking down a bottle of wine, and lifted his eyebrows at Mabs curiously.
"Where'd that come from? Don't tell me it's been here since I moved in. I could've used it a time or two." She stood on her toes, stretching her neck like she could possibly see the tops of the shelves, and sighed. "I need those to be six inches lower. Ugh, tall people. It must be nice to be tall people."
"I bought it earlier in the week," Jake promised. "It hasn't been up there taunting you. And I'd be glad to be tall for you whenever you need."
Her smile blossomed. "Thanks. Why don't you be tall and get a couple of wine glasses down, then? I'd love a glass. Leave the dishes," she said, almost as imperious as Noah could be. "They can wait for a glass of wine."
"Your wish is my command." There were wine glasses at the back of one of the higher shelves, crystal that Jake thought was probably older than he was. He took a couple down, rinsed them, and patted them dry before pouring first Mabs, then himself, a glass of wine. Then he lifted his toward hers in a toast. "To your first Thanksgiving in the Old Brannigan Place."
"May it be the first of many." Mabs sipped her wine, brows lifting a little in appreciation. "Oh, that's nice. Thanks." She met his eyes over the wine glasses. "For everything, Jake."
"What are friends for?"
"Man, friends are for helping you move, and best friends are for helping you move the body. I don't even know where 'rebuild your entire house for the cost of a couch to sleep on' falls into that."
"...'move the body'... Is there something I should know?"
Mabs laughed. "No. Jeez. No. It's a joke."
"Just checking." They shared the wine over an hour or so, doing dishes between glasses, until Jake realized Mabs's eyes were drifting closed as they sat chatting. Half a bottle of wine didn't have much effect on him, but he hadn't thought what it might do to somebody eight inches shorter and probably sixty pounds lighter than he was. "C'mon," he said gently. "Let's get you upstairs before you fall asleep."
Mabs chuckled and said, "Okay," agreeably, then leaned on him as he guided her up the stairs. She didn't bother brushing her teeth or even undressing, for that matter, just fell face-first onto her bed and put a hand out, mumbling, "Jake?"
"Yeah?"
"Stay?"
He smiled, murmured, "Yeah," and shifted as he crawled onto the bed with her. She put her arm around him, buried her nose in his fur, and slept so quickly, so soundly, that he knew she felt safe.
And that, he realized, was all he wanted.
* * *
The sound of dripping woke him up before dawn. He hopped out of bed, claws clicking on the floor until he got to the door, which needed human hands to open, and went downstairs to look for the source of the drips.
It turned out to be 'the world,' which had thawed overnight. The house was warmer, and the front yard had turned to crunchy melting snow, shrinking almost visibly as he watched. The roads were going to be terrible with ice and melt, but by tomorrow, at the latest, Mabs would be able to get back to work.
Which didn't sound nearly as appealing as her being at the house with Jake, but did, he admitted, bear some relevance on paying the bills. He knew Mabs felt like she was taking advantage of him, but the funny thing was, he felt like he was taking advantage of her, too. He'd had a warm, safe place to live for months now, and no bills to worry about. No income, either, true, but he hadn't really needed any.
He went around the house, checking out the roof now that the snow was melting, and cringed as he saw the wind had taken up a flap of the plastic. Some of that dripping might be in the house after all. With a sigh, Jake went up on the roof, first to nail down the plastic on the parlor side of the house, then to clear the roof on the buttery. There really wasn't much left to do there, so he got to work, hoping to finish the shingling before nightfall.
After lunch, around mid-afternoon, a car bumped up along the slushy road, finding potholes that Jake was pretty sure hadn't been there a couple days earlier. He put the hammer down and sat on his butt, watching, in case they needed help, but instead of driving by, the car pulled up to Mabs's gate, and the wolf within Jake growled.
He was already on his way off the roof when he heard Mabs say, "Jake? I don't know if you've got wolf hearing when you're a human, but if you could come in here and just keep Noah busy while I deal with this, I'd really appreciate it."
He had, he realized then, had every intention of confronting Brent Mitchell, who was getting out of his car now. The simple fact that Mabs needed him to do something else—to protect her child—changed everything for him. Everything. The realization that she trusted him that much, that she relied on him—Jake knew he probably shouldn't be grinning like a fool when he came in through the back door, but he was. Mabs needed him to do something much more important than help her stand her ground, and nothing else mattered.
She was standing at her front door, one hand knotted around the knob, tension in her shoulders until he said, "I'm here," from behind her. Then all her tension unwound and she smiled radiantly over her shoulder at him. "You heard me?"
"Wolves have good hearing."
She grinned, spun toward him, took the few steps that separated them, and pressed a sweet, swift kiss against his lips. "I love you."
Then she raced outside, while Jake's knees buckled and he stared after her, gobsmacked, before going to keep an eye on Noah in the living room.
TWENTY
Mabs heard the irretrievable words leave her mouth after it was too late: I love you. That was not the kind of thing you just went around saying to fantastically hot carpenters who were rebuilding your house, but God damn if it wasn't true. It was true. She didn't know how that had happened, or when. In between all the lusting and longing and puppy dog eyes, she guessed, and the phrase puppy dog eyes was, in the end, so accurate, that she was actually giggling when she went out of the house to see what the hell her ex wanted.
Brent hadn't actually come through the gate, but he was standing right at it, arms akimbo, his gaze fixed on the giant hole in the farmhouse roof. "What the fuck, Mabs."
All of a sudden Mabs really just couldn't remember what had made Brent attractive in the first place. She stopped several feet away, arms crossed, and kind of shook her head at him. "Hi, how are you, fine, thanks, how's it going? Jesus, Brent, what's wrong with you?"
"Me? What's wrong with you, moving to the middle of nowhere into a falling-apart money pit? Taking my kid up here without even telling me? That's kidnapping! I'm gonna take him back, Mabs! You can't raise my son in these conditions!"
Mabs couldn't even manage a scowl. She was just incredulous, staring at him in his nice wool coat and his glare that wiped out wh
atever had once been handsome about him. "What's Noah's middle name, Brent?"
"What? What does that have to do with anything?" At least he stopped glaring at the roof and turned his attention to her, his face curled with confusion.
She dismissed the question with a downturn of her lips. "Nothing. I don't owe you any explanations, Brent. Go back to the city, get on with your life. I don't know how you found us, but it was a waste of your time."
"I've got friends who let me know things," Brent sneered. "Besides, what was I supposed to do? You disappeared with my kid—"
"As if he's ever mattered to you!"
Brent kept talking like she hadn't spoken. "And now you're living in a dump. You should sell the place and come back to the city with me. I bet you could get a mint for it. There's gotta be a local realtor around here who could do you a nice deal. It's a nice piece of land here, there must be somebody who wants it." He suddenly changed his tone, sounding cajoling now. Or at least more cajoling than he had, but Mabs thought it sounded like a performance.
A performance that didn't make any sense. She shook her head, honestly confused. "What, did your folks cut off the trust fund or something and you need a sugar mama? Brent, if we'd stayed together I'd have done anything to help you, but you dumped me when I was four months pregnant. What exactly do you imagine I'm going to do here, throw myself at your feet and be grateful you've decided to take me back?"
"I've got to be better than this place! Seriously, Mabs, look at it. It's falling apart." Brent produced a winsome smile that reminded her enormously of Noah trying to wheedle something out of her. Only with less emotional integrity, which was saying a lot, since Noah's efforts tended to be incredibly transparent.
"We don't live in that half of the house, Brent," she said wearily, hoping that offering some information would get him off her back. "Not right now, anyway. I'm planning repairs for it next summer. Just...go back to the city."
"Oh, so you've got all that space and you're not even using it? That's wasteful, isn't it? More than that, there's wild animals around here, Mabs, you gotta know that. Noah's not safe in a place like this."