Everleigh
Everleigh was finally going home to visit her family.
She couldn't put it off anymore. Her mother and father had been threatening to come stay with her again if she didn't come home for a visit, and she did miss her family.
She loved them even if they drove her completely crazy.
When she got to the main house Sutton opened the door. He gave her a big hug. "It's great to see you," he said. "How’s Anchorage?" She frowned up at him; he had never been that formal toward her, not once in his life.
"Is something going on?" she asked
"Why do you say that?"
"You're being weird," she said.
"How am I being weird? You literally just got here, and I opened the door."
"Never mind. Anchorage is great."
"What do you do in your spare time there?"
"The same things that I did here," she said. "I work, I try to build up my client base, and I've been hiking."
She heard him take a sharp breath. "Who did you go hiking with?"
"Why do you care who I went hiking with?" He was definitely acting oddly. Had they sent someone to spy on her; had they seen her with Roman? It wouldn't take much for them to notice that he was not a bear shifter. Any shifter in close proximity would be able to tell.
"No reason,'' he said. "I’m just glad you're making friends with your coworkers.”
He had never cared if she got along with her coworkers or not. In fact, he had actively encouraged her not to work at all. But she was going to put that aside and try to have a good visit. She'd come all this way. She didn't want to fight. "Anchorage is a nice place," she said. "You should give it a try."
"Maybe I will," he said. "Maybe I'll come stay with you."
Oh hell no. She did not want him sniffing around her apartment.
Her aunt joined in the weird vibe, practically interrogating her at dinner. She wanted to know what Everleigh liked to do and what she liked best about her job. Her aunt had never shown that kind of interest in Everleigh before.
She even asked to see photos of Anchorage, and Everleigh caught her aunt trying to snoop through her phone. Luckily Everleigh was no fool, and she had her photos hidden in a different app for precisely this reason.
Other family members acted the same way, to an extent, but her aunt and Sutton were the worst.
During a family softball match, Everleigh skipped her turn. Instead, she threw the ball at Sutton’s head. "What is going on with you?" she yelled.
"I don’t know what you mean."
"Just tell me what you’re up to."
But he didn’t give her anything.
She spent the next few days with the clan, hunting with them and fishing for trout in the steam, but she was on edge the entire time.
She couldn’t wait to get back home. She wanted her privacy back. And, well. There was one other reason too.
She was relieved to be back near Roman again. They were still casual, and she wasn’t in love with him, but to her own horror, her bear had grown very firmly attached to him, and every part of her felt better when she was in close proximity to him.
What the hell am I going to do?