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He reached me and smiled, skimming a hand down my forearm to tangle his fingers with mine. My heart squeezed hard, and a belly-tingling swirl of affection and lust and yearning made me clutch his hand back tighter. Why did this all feel so easy with him? I couldn’t believe how well we clicked; how we just seemed to get each other.

And this was all so, so different to any other dating experience I’d had—and I’d had a lot. Everything seemed so natural with Brian. I didn’t second-guess myself when I was with him. I didn’t worry that I was coming on too strong, or being too talkative and annoying, or pinning hopes I definitely shouldn’t have been pinning on what this all meant.

I just acted like myself, and he acted like himself, and we worked.

Trust me, there were very, very few men out there who’d seen the whole, real me, not just the edited version. Nat was one of those men, but he barely counted. Not that Brian had seen all sides of me yet, but I wasn’t anxious about that happening. I wasn’t getting all stressed about the possibility of him thinking I looked ugly when he eventually saw me first thing in the morning. Or that at some point, he’d see me all puffy and swollen when he inevitably witnessed me sobbing uncontrollably at a cheesy romcom from the nineties. Or even that he’d one day get a front-row seat to the feeding frenzy that took place when Nat and I ordered our typical Chinese takeout feast.

It was kind of sad to realise how much all those things had stressed me out in the past, with other men. How anxious I’d been about letting them see the less polished sides of me, because I’d been scared that it would make them not want me anymore.

And it was still very surreal to realise I didn’t have that fear with Brian. I just didn’t. I wasn’t scared for him to see me first thing in the morning drooling on my pillow, or stuffing myself with Chinese food until I couldn’t move, or sobbing so hard snot dripped from my nose because the popular high school jock realised he actually did want the nerdy girl whose entire glow-up consisted of her simply removing her glasses. I wasn’t scared because I knew Brian wasn’t at all shallow or fickle. I actually couldn’t wait for him to see those sides of me. To see all of me. And I couldn’t wait to see whatever other sides of Brian there were too.

“Do you think we’ll be good at it?” Brian smiled down at me, then nodded in the direction of the target set up in the meadow.

I grinned back at him. “I think we’ll both be amazing at it. Especially you. You’ve got those wolfy reflexes.”

Brian laughed. “I don’t know if wolfy reflexes are a thing, but the guy teaching us today is a human, by the way.”

“Okay, noted.” I mimed zipping my mouth shut. No more talk about Brian’s wolfy reflexes or how sexy his gigantic thigh muscles were in his werewolf form. Not that I had been anticipating that coming up with a human who was here to teach us how to throw axes, but you never knew. Half the time I couldn’t even predict what was going to come out of my mouth.

As if he’d been summoned, a human appeared at the doorway of the little hut. He looked young, in his late twenties, and had long blond hair tied back in a bun. There was a dark green ball cap on his head, but he still brought his hand up to shade his eyes from the sun as he waved at us with the enthusiasm of a man who really, really loved his job. I mean, it made sense. His job appeared to be standing in a beautiful meadow and throwing axes at things. I’d probably look forward to work every day too.

I beamed and waved back with just as much zeal, still clutching Brian’s hand. I gave it a squeeze and a gentle tug so we started walking toward the little hut to join our teacher.

“Hi!” he called before we’d even reached him. “I’m Neil. So which one of you is Brian…?”

“That’s me.” Brian gave him a hesitant smile, then immediately gestured at me. “This is Klaus.”

Lucifer, I really had been dating a bunch of d-bags before this if the simple act of Brian remembering to introduce me—and not only that, but doing it straight away—could make me beam like this. “Nice to meet you, Neil.”

His gaze didn’t flicker down to our linked hands for even a second, which immediately made me like him even more. He just stepped forward to shake our hands with as much enthusiasm as his wave, then swept his arm out toward the hut.

“Brian, shall we go settle up inside?”

“Sure.” Brian squeezed my hand before he released it and walked toward the hut.

“Klaus, make yourself comfortable.” Neil nodded at the deckchairs set up in the shade under the oak tree. “Help yourself to drinks and snacks!”

I did just that, wandering over and dropping into a chair with a big smile on my face as I looked around. After selecting a pineapple juice from the cooler, I pulled out my phone. I knew Nat was waiting for an update, so while Brian was inside the hut with our axe-throwing tutor, I quickly fired off a text.

Me: He’s brought me axe throwing!! I’m going to picture the face of every asshole I’ve ever dated.

Nat replied just a few seconds later. Axe throwing?!?!

Me: Yeah! It’s in this gorgeous meadow in the middle of nowhere. There’s a cooler full of drinks and snacks. Nat, it’s so pretty out here. If we hadn’t already signed the lease for Dullahan Dan’s place, I’d be telling you that we have to find a place way out in the country. We could’ve become those people who, like, grow all their own food and get really into making jams.

Nat: Bitch, he’s taken you on a date to a beautiful meadow during golden hour? He’s a saint. As soon as that sunset filters through those curls of yours and turns your eyes to liquid gold, he’ll be dropping to his knees like he’s in the presence of a literal fallen angel. Mark my words.

Then a second text came through.

Nat: Make sure when the light’s hitting you just right, you peer back over your shoulder at him and do that, like, coy sexy smile? You know? Kind of Mona Lisa-esque? He will propose on the spot.

I laughed a little and pocketed my phone. When Brian emerged from the hut a couple minutes later, followed by Neil, I asked him what he wanted to drink and filed his answer away for future reference—cherry cola.

Neil grabbed himself a drink too, then began talking us through all the safety procedures and information we needed to know before starting. Once he’d demonstrated the best technique for axe throwing—because apparently, it was a little more involved than just throwing an axe—he asked who wanted to go first.

Brian immediately looked at me with the question in his eyes, so I grinned and jumped to my feet. “Let’s do this, Neil.”

“Love the enthusiasm!” He gave me a finger gun, then expertly flipped the axe in his hand to hold the handle out to me.