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“We know the shitty things that have happened to her! Some of them at least. But that’s just something that happenedtoher; it doesn’t define her. We know she’s Leo’s sister. We know her relative age, height, ethnicity—”
“We know she’s an awesome artist,” Micah tries again, pouting. “And we know what she likes to eat.”
“Only because we’ve been stalking her!”
“Hey!” I bark, surprising both of them. Mason’s negativity is starting to freak me out, and I need to put a quash on that, stat. “Maybe we’reallgetting ahead of ourselves. Of course we need to spend more time with her, get to know her more, to see how we all gel. Do some good old-fashioned sniffing.”
Micah snickers, but I’m not entirely joking.
“But you’re being too hasty saying we shouldn’t pursue her at all. We don’t have to march up to her right this second and submit some sort of formal courting application bullshit, but I vote we set a goal of getting to know her more.Allof us,” I emphasize, looking pointedly at Mason.
He looks like he wants to say something but ends up closing his mouth instead.
I stand up and walk to the fridge, grabbing out two beers. Mason doesn’t normally drink much during the swim season, but I suspect this conversation has him in need of one.
“Hey!” Micah protests when I bypass him.
He’s not yet twenty-one, but it’s not like we actually enforce shit like that at home. He’s on my side on this whole thing, so after taking a long swig I pass over my beer and settle back into my spot.
The silence stretches, but I’m not deterred. I refuse to be.
“Mason. Man. What’s holding you up here? You’re just as obsessed with her as we are. You’ve skipped class just to stare at her, probably more than once. If you weren’t into her or something I wouldn’t push it. But clearly that’s not the case.”
“I think he’s nervous,” Micah states, giving his brother an appraising look.
Mason scowls. “Am not.”
“Are too!”
That’s all it takes for Mason to pounce, and the two start to scuffle.
“Awwwww, is ickle Masey-kins scared of the big, bad omega?” I taunt, helping Micah pin him against the couch. He just growls in response, struggling against our hold.
Micah and I laugh, but it’s a mistake. Mason takes the distraction to thrust his hips up, knocking us both to the floor.
From there it’s a full-out wrestling match. At some point Micah and I give up ganging up on Mason and it becomes a free-for-all. The coffee table gets knocked over, and the couch almost follows suit. We eventually end up in one massive pile, everyone with huge grins and breathing hard.
“From now on, I vote we hold all pack meetings this way,” I laugh.
“No fair! Can we duke it out on the Xbox instead?” Micah pouts. Heisat the bottom of the pile, but it’s not like the kid doesn’t know how to play dirty. I’m pretty sure he tried to bite me at one point.
We lie there a minute longer. It’s nice. Primeval, probably. I can hardly imagine what it would feel like if we had Espy here in between us, safe and warm in our puppy pile.
“So. You good, dude?” I finally ask.
“Yeah.” Mason lets out a long sigh, but the underlying excitement in his voice is clear. “Let’s do this.”
Micah whoops, and I feel a thrill burst in my chest.
Here. We. Go.
12
Esperanza
“Seven ... eight ... nine ... ten ...”
Finally!
