“Reappearance of appetite means you are healing from the traumatizing events that have unfolded in your life,” Sadey murmured. She was trailing behind them with a shopping list.
“You probably burned a lot of calories last night,” Dawn said innocently.
“Oh, my gosh,” Nicole muttered.
Recklessly, Sadey scooped a whole row of candy off the shelf into the cart as she walked past. “There’s an all-day waffle place down the street that serves mimosas. It specializes in breakfast for dinner. It’s good to carb up after feeding a vamp.”
Dawn put on a pair of black glittery bat ears and studied herself in the selfie-mode of her phone. “Sadey learned that the hard way. She passed out once from not eating enough after she fed Aric.”
So off they went with their spooky wares. She fielded a few texts from clients with questions and set up four appointments for the next week as they waited to order at the waffle café. She hadn’t expected food, good company, and openness from Sadey and Dawn. The two shifters kept her busy and occupied while, in the back of her mind, Nicole ticked off the minutes and hours until Evan would wake up.
They explained that she was safe to live her life during the day because, no matter how ancient the monster was, no vampires could stand sunlight. It burned their skin and could kill them. So, this was her time—the daylight hours. She could breathe and rest her mind, and at night, she would be safe with Evan again in the Winterset Coven house.
After breakfast, they did some boutique shopping on Main Street and then drove to her apartment to gather a few things for the coven house. Grocery shopping was next, and then she and the girls cooked a comfort food dinner for the three of them. Hamburger Helper, green beans, and hot, buttered rolls before Dawn had to leave for her shift as a bartender at Trager’s Bar.
And as the sun began to set, she and Sadey sat on the porch and watched the horizon together. Only a few more minutes now.
Sadey pulled her blond hair back into a ponytail, then rested her head against the side of the porch railing. She turned to Nicole. “This is my favorite time of day.”
Nicole took a seat on the top stair and leaned on the railing opposite Sadey. “Do you ever think of sleeping at the same time as Aric?”
With a shrug, Sadey told her, “I like the sunlight. I stay up later than I used to and am lucky enough to work an afternoon shift so I can sleep in. I get more time with him that way, but that man would never ask me to give up the sunlight completely. That’s how love works.”
Nicole gave a private smile and watched the sun sink lower…lower…
“Evan wouldn’t ask you to give up the sunlight either.”
“What?” Nicole asked.
“If you dated him, he wouldn’t pressure you to only live at night. He’s not that kind of man. Now if you were dating Shane? That’s a different story.” She frowned at the tree line. “He doesn’t feel as much as the others. He’s colder. More like Arabella, Aric’s maker. But then Shane was under her for a long time, and his personality matches the old coven better. At least that’s what I think from the stories Aric tells me.”
“I don’t want to cause any trouble for your coven,” Nicole murmured. “I don’t want my presence to make Shane leave.”
“He won’t. He doesn’t like humans much, but he’ll get over it.”
But Nicole remembered so clearly how he’d looked at her last night in the hallway. There was such hatred in his eyes. Sometimes men didn’t ever get over feelings that deep.
When the door creaked open behind them, Nicole twisted around. Evan stood there, dark hair messed-up just right, a black T-shirt contrasting against his ivory skin. He had his hands shoved in his pockets and his powerful legs splayed, and that smile…oh, that smile. He could break a hundred hearts at once with that smile.
Sadey stood. “I’m going to find Aric.” She offered Nicole a wink and told her, “I sure enjoyed hanging out with you and Dawn today.”
“Me, too! Thanks for taking me under your wing. Errrr…I mean paw.”
Sadey snorted and made her way past Evan, disappeared inside.
“I could get used to this,” Evan said softly as he came to sit behind her.
With a sigh, Nicole leaned her back against his chest and relaxed completely to watch the soft grays fade from the sky. “I feel like you vampires have magical seduction powers.”
Evan chuckled and played with a strand of her hair. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I’m comfortable with you. That is supposed to take time, but for us, it took no time at all.”
“That’s how it worked with Sadey and Dawn, too.”
His voice had a faraway tone to it, and she turned just enough to look at his face. “What worked for them?”
With a shake of his head, he said, “Oh, nothing.”
“Last night you promised to put me to sleep with interesting stories of your life, but you boned me to sleep instead.”
“You complaining?”
“Hell no. That was the greatest bedtime story.”
“But you want to know more.”
“Yep!”
“The year was nineteen-thirty-six, and my parents were super horny. I started as a little zygote—”
“Oh, my God, you know what I mean,” she said, swatting him on the knee.
He laughed and hugged her closer. “I died in the Iditarod in 1975.”
“The dog sled race?”
She could feel him nod his head against her cheek. “Alaska was home. I homesteaded with my family, and we raised sled dogs. Alaskan Huskies. We bred them. Made our living
