part of it with an intensity that could engulf her in an instant if she didn’t watch the spark that shot through her each time their eyes met.
She snuggled into Wyatt’s lap on one end of the couch, Maggie at the floor to her left.
As Chase crashed again, he bounded back to the group. “So, Charley, wanna see?” He grabbed a handful of fruit from the plate on the table.
“What do I want to see?” She crossed one knee over the other, leaning her elbows against the same. Wyatt’s hand trailed soft lines up her back.
Chase looked to Cael, who nodded at him. “I promise, little dude, she’s not going to be mad at you.”
Charley shook her head. “What’s there to be mad about?” She circled her lips with her fingers and made sure she plastered a smile to it despite the story she expected to hear.
“Wanna see me turn into a mouse?” Chase whispered directly at her, his grin as wide as possible on his tiny face.
Maggie gasped as James’s jaw clenched and relaxed in quick repetition. She switched her gaze from Charley to Chase. “Who taught you that neat trick?”
“Nobody. I did it all by myself.” He pointed to himself as he stood as tall as his eight-year-old legs could make him. Still, between the guys, he barely reached a quarter of their size.
“He’s not thirteen, Charley.” Maggie’s tone came through the faked smile.
“Don’t remind me. You tell me why he can already shift and has managed an animal’s form.”
Maggie’s eyes shone with interest, worry. “It’s not possib-”
“It’s very possible. That’s how we know he got away.”
The mood in the room mixed between Chase’s giddy excitement, Charley’s interest and reservation, Maggie’s concern, and James’s scowl. Lily continued her slice and dice in the kitchen and Cael sat back, his arm across the couch as if none of the events mattered. Stuart, who’d joined them, sat much like Cael as if he lived in Charley’s home. Wyatt wanted to be a permanent part of it.
With Maggie and Charley’s whispered conversation, which Wyatt heard and expected everyone around him did too, Chase dove into the mountain of snacks Lily had set on the table.
Charley’s body temperature rose beneath Wyatt’s palm. At a guess, he took it to mean irritation with Maggie. He pulled her back into his arms and added a quick kiss to the side of her neck.
“Ewwwwwww… get a room,” Chase said, mouth full.
Wyatt turned to Stuart as Charley did the same. The entire room erupted into laughter-Lily in the kitchen, included-though Maggie remained silent.
“I told you he’s been around a while.” Charley leaned back against his shoulder.
“Gimme five, Chase.” Stuart held his palm out.
Chase drew back just like Wyatt had seen kids do-an over-extension of force they’d exert just to see how hard they could hit. Since Stuart started the activity, everyone offered their hands for the same. He added his sting to everyone’s palm, but when he got to Wyatt, Chase stopped.
His hand remained in the air, the five on hold. “Do you like Charley?”
Charley giggled as Chase stared him down over her.
“I do, yes.”
Chase squished his mouth, tilted his face up toward the ceiling as if considering for a minute. “You told me to call her first when you found me, so you must like her a lot.” He tapped with his free hand against his chin, the other still raised in the air in preparation.
“I would agree with that.” Wyatt looked into the depths of the boy’s eyes. Despite his youth, a glimmer of understanding reflected within.
“You know this is her last year, right?”
Wyatt cocked his head at Charley’s gasp but kept his gaze on Chase. “I do.”
Chase bobbed his head. “She has to marry someone.”
Wyatt’s lips creased as Charley’s sigh blew through the room. He ventured a glance, noting she’d covered her face with her hands and shook her head.
“Chase-” Charley started, but Wyatt shushed her with a finger.
“What’s she gonna do?” His little boy face sparkled with wonder.
“Let’s finish this five and see where it goes.” Wyatt bounced his hand in the air.
“Okay.” Chase slapped Wyatt’s palm with a sting that would last as it tingled from his palm out to his fingertips.
Wyatt turned to Charley, who peeked between her fingers. “Apparently, you need a husband?”
Instead of leaving the questions in the air like Chase’s hand, Wyatt shifted out from under her, stood, turned around, and knelt in front of her.
Charley’s eyes filled and shifted to a light purple.
Wyatt tucked a hand into his pocket, pulled out the box his mom had returned.
Metal clattered in the kitchen as Lily gasped.
Wyatt opened the box toward Charley. The stone matched that of the necklace he’d given her on the night of their dance sixteen years before, the one she still wore around her neck.
“Better late than never, right? Life’s too short to hold grudges, don’t you think?” She’d thrown tons of secrets on him and still he loved her, perhaps even more because of them. “I’m not letting you get away again.”
Charley squeezed her lips tight.
“Charley Randall, will you marry me?”
23
Charley looked down at Wyatt. So many years had passed-the secrets he still didn’t fully understand yet accepted.
How could she say ‘no’?
She locked her gaze on his, took his free hand in hers, and squeezed as the smile escaped.
“Yes, I will marry you and give you my heart and soul, and everything I can offer you.”
Wyatt slipped the ring from the box as his smile sent a rush of love and power through Charley. She held her hand out to him-the ring fit-if it hadn’t, Charley would have corrected the problem on the fly. “It’s beautiful, Wyatt.” She watched as it sparkled in the sunlight.
Stuart started a chant of “Kiss her! Kiss her!”
Wyatt’s hands cupped her neck. He continued to stare at her as if consumed. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Charley said.
He seized her lips with his. She slid her hands around him as they stood, and the group engulfed them, pressing and pulling the two of them into their fold.
“We’re going to have a wedding!” Lily added her arms to their circle.
In the middle, under all the legs and assorted feet, Chase reappeared and tucked himself between Charley and Wyatt. Excitement flowed, but Chase stopped them all. An eight-year-old only had so much of an attention span.
“Wanna see a trick?”
Charley wiped a tear from her eye as she sniffed. “Absolutely.”
Chase closed his eyes and scrunched up his nose. In one swift move, his body dropped to the floor and folded upon itself like an accordion. His clothes landed in a heap.
Charley assumed Wyatt watched in horror, but noted a look of intense curiosity as Chase turned into his mouse form in front of them.
