“Oh, Ace!” She took the flowers from him, tracing a fingertip along the edges of the petals with a smile. “These are beautiful.” She stepped back enough to allow him to come in, and bustled off to find a vase for the roses. Then she came back and offered him a kiss. “Where are we going?”
A sheepish grin graced Ace’s features as he stared down at her, shifting his weight from one leg to the other in slight hesitation. Asking Lily out was more of a mutual agreement, but with Summer, it was more his scramble to take the reins, his prevention of leaving a bad taste in her mouth if he showed no interest in their first date, like he did Lily.
“There’s restaurant on the Upper Eastside a good friend was telling me about the other day— The Loeb Boathouse in Central Park?”
She blinked at him for a moment, mouth falling open a little. “Oh — ! Oh, of course. That sounds lovely!” She looked down at herself, slightly shabby exercise pants and faded t-shirt. “I should probably change, I think … “
“There were no tracks,” Summer stated positively. “From here to the lake shore, there were NO tracks. Nothing to follow. It’s impossible to track a teleporter in that length of time. Someone must’ve been out in the woods, watching to make sure you died.” She shuddered convulsively. “You need a pack. How can we get you a pack?”
“Like I said, they always find me. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had someone stay behind to make sure they finished the job…” He let out a shaky breath. “Summer, you don’t get it. No pack wants to take me in. They all know I’ve got hunters on my tail, if they take me in it puts them all at risk.” The last thing he wanted was to get more wolves killed.
She considered him for a long time, mulling over options in her mind. There were only two choices — and only one of them was a real choice, honestly.
Narrowing his eyes, Summer scrabbled at the showerhead, yanking it off the hook and aiming it directly at Isaac. “You ass. Out! Out!”
He shrieked, more for the effect rather than anything else, before jumping out of the shower, still laughing away to himself. “That was brilliant!”
Eyes still narrow, huffing to himself, the redhead turned the water off. He wrapped the curtain around himself, partly for effect himself, and mock-glared at Isaac. “You,” he said haughtily, “are the most incorrigible werewolf I’ve ever met. Give me a towel.”
Summer put her hand over his, hearing his voice change and seeing his face fall. “What? What is it? Did I do something wrong?”
“You could never do anything wrong, Summer,” he reprimanded her instantly, trying with difficulty to put the thoughts in his mind into some comprehensible words, “I…are you happy here?”
“No.” She glanced down into the fire. “I don’t understand how you could even ask that. I am — I /was/ — so unhappy my father promised my hand in marriage to the person who could make me smile again.” A few tears slipped down her cheek. “The servants are kind to me, but they aren’t my friends. They aren’t /you/.” Very quietly, she added, “I was happier in the week I was at Hale Castle with you than I’ve ever been.”
That just earned him another shrug. Even though she was tired, she didn’t want to sleep, not after being startled awake in the bathtub. Curling herself up even tighter, she just watched him, falling into a familiar alert mode with all senses open for danger.
Derek’s eyes narrowed, his patience running thin. “I’m going to leave you be so you can get some rest.” He nodded to himself and got up from the couch, walking off to his bed.
Hurt and confused, Summer curled up even tighter yet, bones creaking with how closely she wrapped her arms around herself. She didn’t sleep, staring into the dark and twitching at each little sound. Despite knowing there was no one else besides the two of them in there, she didn’t feel safe — she wasn’t sure how she’d displeased Derek but clearly he wasn’t happy with her. So she looked at the dark and waited for daylight.
