“You’ll thank me later,” she said withawink.
“We’llsee.”
He waited until she’d disappeared upstairs before opening the front door. A rush of freezing wind blew snowflakes across the porch. He quickly stepped out and closedthedoor.
After whipping the collar on his jacket up, he ducked his head and stalked toward the main house. Every step brought with it an avalanche of regret. Why hadn’t he checked to make sure he was alone before he’dshifted?
What had possessed her to follow him into the woods? If he could have turned back time, he would have taken a moment to check his surroundings before shifting. Now Abby was leaving and he couldn’t do a dammed thingaboutit.
He stomped his boots before entering the house. Instead of going directly to his room, he entered the kitchen. Mack stood in front of the island. He slathered a spoonful of mayo onto a piece of bread beforelookingup.
“Want a sandwich?” Mackasked.
“Sure. What are youmaking?”
“Tuna onwheat.”
“Sounds good.” Cody slid onto a stool and watched his brother assemble a secondsandwich.
“I saw that you didn’t come home last night,” Mack said. “How’s everythinggoing?”
“Notgood.”
“What’s going on?” Mack asked. “Are you having problems with theguest?”
“I know, I’m not supposed to start anything with guests,” Cody said withasigh.
“That’s Madison’s rule, not mine. As long as the guests want to come back, I don’t care if you take them naked hot tubbing. Hell, maybe we can offer it as an incentive to book.” Mack held up his hand and waved it across the sky as if reading a marquee. “Hot cowboys for shady ladiesweekend.”
“Ugh.” Cody rubbed his hand overhisface.
“We might need to tweak it a bit to make it work,” Mack said withagrin.
“Abby saw meshift.”
“Into a bear?” Mack asked before taking a huge bite of thesandwich.
“No, into an otter,” Cody said sarcastically. “Of course intoabear.”
“Did shepanic?”
“Yep. Ran like hell to get away,”Codysaid.
“Can you blame her?” Mackasked.
“Not really… I shouldn’t even be thinking about her right now. She was planning on leaving at the end of the week anyway. We were just having a no-strings-attached fling,”Codysaid.
“Did sheknowthat?”
“Yes. She’s the one who propositioned me lastnight.”
“Nice,” Mack said. “Don’t worry. Madison panicked when she saw me shift but she got over it. Maybe Abby will too. Have you tried talkingtoher?”
“Yes. She wasn’tinterested.”
“If it was just a fling, why do you care so much that she won’t talk to you?” Mackasked.
Cody paused. He had a point, but after spending time with Abby, he was really getting to like her far more than heshould.
