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She shouldn’t open it. This wasn’t her business. She tested the top of the bag, but Kru had folded it over. Dangit.
With a sigh, she decided to be a good person and not look at Lucia’s gift. So stupid.
She set it on the chair that sat beside the door, then grumpily tromped down the stairs.
“Are you pouting?” Kru called.
“No. I’m a lady. Ladies don’t pout.”
“Bullshit they don’t. Ladies are professional pouters.”
“What did you get Lucia?” she asked before she could stop herself.
His grin was obnoxious. “Jealous?”
“No. You know what? Don’t even tell me, I don’t care. I’m unaffected.”
“I got her a stuffed teddy bear.”
“Oh. Why?” she asked. Lucia didn’t seem like the cuddly stuffed-animal type.
He shrugged. “They were on sale at the checkout line, and it felt right.”
She dropped the small plaque off in front of Lucas and Jenna’s door, then made her way back to her own home.
“Your swing is fixed,” Kru said as she passed. “Where did you get this thing anyway?”
“There’s a secondhand store in town. I got it on discount. I got most of my furniture there, too.”
He looked impressed. “I’ll have to check it out. I haven’t furnished my place yet.”
She pointed to the woods. “I hear you working out there on furniture sometimes. I saw you carry in a table a few weeks ago.”
“Stalker,” he teased.
“No, I’m just very observant. Think of me as a nosy neighbor.”
He chuckled and nodded. “I’ve taken a little break, but need to get back to it. I’ve been…distracted.” His eyes flashed up to her, and she was stunned into stillness. His eyes were the lightened glowing green of his animal, and his cheekbones and jawline looked sharper. “I got you something, too.”
She swallowed hard. “You did?”
“Yep, but I can’t give it to you right now.”
“Oh. That’s okay, you don’t have to get me anything anyway.” He probably just felt bad that he’d gotten the other girls here something and not her.
“I picked up the supplies, but I need time to make it.”
“Why do you do it?” she asked suddenly. “Why do you keep getting us surprises? You don’t have to do that.”
“Yes I do,” he said softly.
“Why?”
“Because someday I want the three of you to stop looking at me like that lady in the checkout line.”
She didn’t understand. “We know you’re a shifter, Kru. That doesn’t bother anyone here.”
Kru made his way to his tailgate and put it back up, then climbed up in the driver’s side of his truck. His window was still open, so she stood beside it. “We aren’t judging you here, Kru. We’re all a mess.”
