Page 37 of Chased

“Titanic, obvs,” Mikey said. “That’s a gimme.”

“The Notebook,” Breanna added. “And The Fault in our Stars.”

Sanchez had never even heard of half these movies. And he was pretty sure he didn’t want to sit through them with a weeping woman.

“Officer and a Gentleman,” Madison chimed in.

“Yesss!” Breanna said. “At the end? Where Richard Gere comes into the factory?”

“And sweeps Debra Winger off her feet and carries her away,” Madison finished. “So romantic.”

So she liked romance and happy endings, not sad shit. He filed that fact away.

“Dog,” Cisco said. They’d watched that one together, about a veteran rescuing a traumatized K-9 dog the army was going to put down. It had been pretty good.

Madison made an awwww sound. “The memorial scene. With the boots.” There were murmurs of agreement.

“Yeah?” Boomer said. “Hey, Sanchez. If you die on a mission, can I have your boots to snuggle?”

Cisco growled. Sanchez contemplated punching Boomer in the head.

Breanna jumped in before things could head towards a brawl. “The hell with his boots,” she said. “I’d take his Platinum card to snuggle.” Everybody laughed, and the tension broke.

Dealer said, “He has a Platinum card? If I’d known that, I would have taken it already.”

“He probably doesn’t even have a bank account,” Boomer said. “He just buries his cash in the woods, like a bone.”

Yeah. Look who was talking. “You’ll sure as hell never find it,” Sanchez said, taking a swig of his beer. “When I’m dead or while I’m alive.”

“Don’t need it. And if I was going to raid your empty cabin during your funeral, I’d take your custom knife collection, not your mythical cash stash.” Boomer shook his head. “I’m not even going to ask if you’ve ever cried at a movie. Heart like a stone.”

Damn right. “You two are a couple of emo little girls,” Sanchez said. Dealer laughed.

Madison came over to talk to Sanchez, giving Cisco and Matéo a little wave, which they acknowledged with fractional nods.

“You came after all,” she said.

“I wanted to see what all the hype was about. You know. About having a social life. So far, not impressed.”

She laughed. “It’s about human connection. People bond by sharing unimportant stuff.”

“I’m not a human. I’m a wolf.”

“So how do wolves bond?”

“Mostly by running in the woods and killing shit together.”

That made her laugh again. He really liked making her laugh. Fuck it all, he liked her.

So he hung around, and talked a little, and helped her make popcorn in Breanna’s kitchen. When the TV part started they ended up squashed on the couch with Switch and Breanna, who was practically sitting in her mate’s lap. Even so, there wasn’t much room, and Madison was right up against Sanchez, which didn’t seem to affect her because she was all caught up in the show, like everyone was.

Except for him, because he couldn’t get past the way she felt all pressed up next to him, sharing a bowl of popcorn with her fingers brushing his when she reached for a handful.

The way she smelled, that scent that was practically intoxicating. The way she drew her knees up after a while, so they were partly in his lap which was good, because they hid the beginnings of the boner that being this close to her was giving him.

The pictures on the screen flickered by, and the people on the TV made words but none of them registered. And he still would have sat there all night.

But finally they’d watched enough episodes and everyone got up to leave. Sanchez didn’t even give Boomer or anyone else a chance. He said to Madison, “I’ll walk you home.” He glared at his cousins. “You guys go on ahead. I’ll catch up.”