I nodded, my neck flushing a little as I remembered how awkward I’d been a few hours ago. “Yeah, thanks.”
“I made your sandwich,” he told me, and for a second I thought hehadbeen a dick, but then he kept talking. “But when you kept sleeping, I wrapped it up and put it in the fridge. Dinner is honey mustard chicken, roasted potatoes, and what will be everything seasoned green beans in about a half hour.”
I felt my eyebrows rise. “Oh, wow. Fancy.”
He snorted. “Not really. They’re all fairly simple things I can throw in the oven and forget about until the timer goes off.”
I felt my own lips curving up, because he was still smiling at me.
“You should eat the sandwich, though,” he told me. “Since you haven’t actually eaten today, I’m guessing.”
My stomach growled loudly, agreeing with him.
He set down the bowl and went to retrieve a saran-wrapped plate and sandwich, which he slid onto the kitchen island. “Sit down and eat. What do you want to drink? I have beer, seltzer, a couple sodas of some sort, and I think there’s probably wine? Dad liked wine, but I’ve been too lazy to actually bother to find where he kept it.”
It had been seven months since his dad had died. I didn’t know if that was a sign that he hadn’t dealt with his dad’s death, or just an indication that he really wasn’t a wine guy. “I’m fine with water,” I told him.
“Sparkling? I’ve got lime and raspberry.”
“Just… regular.”
He gave me a look that I couldn’t read, but pulled down a glass, put ice in it, then filled it from the tap before setting it in front of me. I was already three bites into the sandwich, which might have been the best thing I’d had in weeks.
I was hungrier than I’d thought, clearly.
“I want to be clear about something,” Elliot said, his tone serious.
I looked up at him expectantly, still chewing, but slowing down so I could focus on what he was saying.
“I didn’t offer to have you stay here thinking it would be a few days and that you wouldn’t eat.”
I swallowed my bite of sandwich. “Okay.” That was a good thing from my perspective. Because even if he did expect me to get my own place, it was going to take more than a few days. And I probablyshouldget my own place, if only to prove to myself and everyone else that I could.
“And I made the offer knowing damn well how much a shifter eats,” he continued, giving me a pointed look. “And drinks in the middle of summer. Don’t make food decisions to try to save me money. I can afford to feed you.”
“Okay,” I said softly. “But I like water. And I don’t like bubbles.”
He blinked. “You don’t like… bubbles?”
I shook my head. “No. Maybe because we never had soda as kids. Or seltzer water. Noah became obsessed with both—but the bubbles made my nose feel funny, so I didn’t like either.” I prefer sweet tea or lemonade. It was one of the few things that Noah and I came down on opposite sides over.
“Beer is okay, though?”
“They’re… milder. The bubbles. I don’t mind them as much.” I shrugged. “I’m honestly more of a fruity drink guy. Margaritas. Daiquiris. But beer is a lot cheaper.”
Elliot snorted. “Piece of advice—only get a margarita if you’re in a Mexican restaurant around here. Otherwise you might not like the kind of attention it draws.”
I shot him a look. “I can make them myself, if it comes to that,” I told him.
Elliot shrugged. “Small towns are usually a half-dozen decades behind the rest of the world when it comes to social acceptance. Especially in places where people are getting drunk off their asses.”
I made a face around my next bite of turkey sandwich. “I’m from rural Virginia, remember?”
Elliot grunted. “People are different in the north woods.”
“I’ll see your north woods,” I told him, “and raise you Appalachia.”
Elliot snorted. “Wait until you’ve been here a little while,” he warned me, although there was a hint of amusement in his voice that kept me from actually worrying. I had no intention of goingout to a bar and ordering a margarita—mostly because I had no intention of going to bar, since that would require me to spend money that I couldn’t afford to spend. Especially not until I got some sort of job, whether or not it was with the Shawano PD.
