Anna didn’t say anything for a moment, shocked at the newest revelation, then nodded. “Call her, Nathan. Tell her you’ll pick her up for dinner tonight. That your aunt and uncle want to meet her. Then we’ll go shopping.”
Now, if only Jessica’s parents were all right with it, and Jessica was, too.
Anna suspected nothing would go as planned. When did it ever?
Bjornolf hoped they could learn the truth about Jessica tonight at dinner and then work on how they would handle it after that. For now, they were at a shopping mall for last-minute decorations to finish off the house for the pack parade of homes.
Anna had changed into a pair of cobalt blue jeans, the back pockets decorated with sequined hearts to catch the eye. She wore high-heeled boots and a white crocheted sweater that dipped low in front, showing off a hint of cleavage. She looked like a million bucks, and he couldn’t help staring at the ensemble, nearly running into a number of different customers in the crowded department store.
Casting Bjornolf a small smile, she said, “You like it?”
He and Nathan both were looking at her lacy sweater and they said in unison, “Yeah.”
She pointed to the decorations sitting on a table. They switched their gazes to the table set up with holiday trimmings, place mats, plates featuring reindeer, shiny gold silverware, and linen napkins bound in crystal and gold ties.
“Oh yeah,” Nathan said.
Bjornolf’s gaze drifted to the hint of the swell of her breasts. “Oh yeah.”
Nathan chuckled when he saw what Bjornolf was talking about.
Christmas music played overhead as shoppers seemed to fill every aisle of the department store. Some shoppers were in a rush, while others were carefully considering merchandise, poking at clothes, lifting china to examine it, and sifting through bath towels. Where Anna was concerned, Bjornolf had never seen a woman shop so quickly in his life.
Once she saw the Christmas settings displayed on the table, she said to Bjornolf and Nathan, “How about that? Isn’t it perfect?”
She didn’t really ask for their opinion, he wryly thought. Before they could answer, she gathered the eight placemats she had been eyeing on a shelf, and they helped her find matching linen napkins, and crystal and gold napkin holders. She took the whole centerpiece and shoved it into Bjornolf’s hands, grabbed the runner off the display table, and said, “Done.”
Bjornolf looked at Nathan to see his take on it. He raised his brows and smiled.
As if considering her choices, she folded her arms and looked at the table again. “Maybe we’re not done. We could use a set of red Christmas plates. They’d be perfect for Valentine’s Day, too. We can add blue and white decorations when it comes to Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Fourth of July celebrations.”
Bjornolf suspected Anna had never celebrated any of those holidays. Her enthusiasm was contagious and he was doubly glad she was a quick shopper. He looked forward to sharing every one of those holidays with her next year, and making up some of their own.
They were out of there in no time.
“Can we stop at a drugstore on the way back to the cottage?” Anna asked.
“Sure,” Bjornolf said.
When they pulled into the strip mall, both Bjornolf and Nathan were going to join her, but she said she’d be just a minute. Nathan sank against the car seat, looking relieved.
They parked in front of the drugstore situated at the end of a small strip mall of four shops: a card shop, a dress store, and a bookstore, in addition to the drugstore. In silence, Bjornolf and Nathan studied the drugstore display windows filled with Christmas decorations and a clutter of advertisements as the door closed behind Anna, and she disappeared from view.
Nathan cleared his throat. “She’s getting a pregnancy test for Jessica. Isn’t she?”
“I suspect so. Jessica needs to know if she is pregnant as soon as possible. She has to realize she’s got us for backup. She has to have a support system now.”
“I really screwed up, didn’t I?”
Bjornolf had been there. His own messes had seemed insurmountable at the time, but somehow he’d managed to muddle through.
“Some lessons are harder to learn than others. You really do care for her, don’t you?” Bjornolf didn’t mean to sound so judgmental, but he hoped Nathan truly loved her because they’d be together for a very long time, and there was no undoing what they had done.
Nathan nodded. “Yeah. I do. Ever lie awake at night thinking of the day you spent with someone special, and you want to repeat the day over and over again?”
Yeah, he did. Anna had stolen his thoughts more times than he wanted to admit.
Nathan glanced at Bjornolf. “Like with you and Anna?”
Bjornolf fought a smile. No one ever questioned him about his relationships with women. He assumed Nathan needed confirmation more than anything. “Hell, yeah. You know you have it bad when you’re thinking about nothing at all, doing something, and suddenly out of the blue you’re thinking of her. Like driving the car, then there she is taking up space in my brain again. Bright as day.”
Nathan shook his head. “That’s just like me. I’ll be cutting a tree for a customer, and all of a sudden, I’ll think of the way she smiled at me earlier in the day and offered me a cup of hot chocolate. I mean, it’s more than that. I can’t wait to see her, to be with her again.”
“So you ran because…?”
“I was confused. She was raised by humans. I thought she was human. What Anna said was right. We can’t turn people just because we want to. I was using Hunter’s situation as a crutch to fall back on. He did it and it turned out okay, so I could, too. Except he’s not a teen. And he’s the pack leader. I thought… I thought if I saw Sarah, I would change my mind about wanting Jessica.”
Concerned, Bjornolf frowned. “With Sarah, you didn’t…”
“No.” Nathan gave him a get-real look. “I knew she was a wolf.”
Bjornolf breathed in a sigh of relief. Sarah’s father would have killed Nathan. Bjornolf tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel.
Nathan sat morosely staring out the windshield. Soft, white snowflakes began to flutter down from the heavens.
“If she’s a wolf and pregnant and your mate, she should come to our open house tomorrow. It’s a pack gathering. Everyone should get to know her. It would be the perfect time to make her feel welcome. Give her a network of wolf families to fall back on,” Bjornolf said.
“If she wants. She might be too overwhelmed with the whole thing.” Nathan paused. “What are we going to do when you and Anna leave?”
Bjornolf took a deep breath. “Anna and I haven’t even decided where we’re going to be living beyond this mission.”
Nathan studied him carefully, then quietly said, “I hope you both decide to stay here.”
Bjornolf smiled at him. “I don’t think anyone has ever told me that before.”
Nathan looked skeptical for a moment, then seeing Bjornolf was serious, he grinned. “Well, I have.”
“I’ll have to talk with Anna. But we’ll see.” Bjornolf looked back at the drugstore.
“You’re worried about her.” Nathan looked from the windshield to Bjornolf.
“Yeah,” he said. “She’s taking too long. Not her style. Let’s go.”
The two of them headed for the drugstore as an elderly lady and man using walkers tried to get through the door. Barely able to suppress the urgent need to dash into the store and ignore the older couple’s troubles, Bjornolf held the door open for them.
Once the elderly couple had made it outside, Bjornolf and Nathan rushed inside, following Anna’s scent. They found she’d lingered in front of a display of boxes of dark chocolate thin mints. Not what he’d expected. They headed for the aisle where the pregnancy tests were shelved.