Page 55 of Truthfinder’s Promise

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Meredith staggered into the kitchen under the weight of far more groceries than she’d ever before purchased. Jensen followed with the remainder, minus the staggering.

Random’s eyebrows raised as she plunked them down. “Did you buy the entire store?”

“Yes. I was told Shifters get cranky when they’re hungry.”

Jensen slung his bags down next to hers. “Actually, what I said was that while Shifter metabolisms can slow to conserve caloric intake if necessary, irritability is a side effect.”

“Which means you get cranky if you need a snack.”

Jensen grumbled something under his breath.

“How did you fit all of this in that tiny car?” Random asked.

“I am an efficient packer, and I packed on top of Jensen.” She’d snapped a photo of him covered in grocery bags because, well, it had been cute. “Have you not left my kitchen? Where is your wife?”

“The kitchen is the heart of any home, and yours needs a defibrillator restart.” He eyed the groceries. “Which I guess I can now give it.”

“If you haven’t been cooking, what have you been doing in here this whole time?”

“Organizing.”

Great. She already couldn’t find anything in her cabinets and now he’d likely gone and rearranged everything on her. “And Val?”

“She went to grab clothes and stuff from our place and Jace’s.”

Meredith assumed “and stuff” encompassed a large array of weaponry. She glanced down the hall where Jace and Siren had disappeared earlier. “Have they come out?”

Random shook his head. “They moved to the guest room an hour ago but...”

“Do you think they’re okay?” She’d thought they would have worked things out by now. The thought they might not work things out had never occurred to her. “They can’t break up.” It would destroy the whole of her faith in human relationships.

Jensen cleared his throat. “If it’s any help, I’m pretty sure they’re not breaking up.”

“How do you know?”

“Let’s just say they didn’t move to the guest bedroom to continue talking.”

“What do you—” His meaning dawned on her and her eyebrows crept up.

“You can’t know that’s what they’re doing.”

“Shifters have a great sense of smell.”

“You can smell that? Do Shifters have any privacy?”

He shrugged. “It’s kind of just normal to us.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. That was one gesture she’d picked up from Jace and never managed to drop. “Do me a favor. Don’t you—or any of the Shifters in this house—let my friends know you can smell them having sex.”

He gave her a mock salute. “And just so you know, they’re done having sex and coming out. I’ll make myself scarce so you guys can talk.”

He trotted up the stairs as Jace and Siren walked into the kitchen. Siren’s eyes were still tinged with pink from a large amount of crying, but since Meredith knew what to look for she could also peg the attempt to finger-comb bedhead back into submission, and the flush in Siren’s cheeks that wasn’t crying-related.

As for Jace… “Your shirt is on backwards.”

He looked down. “Damn it.” He walked out and returned a few seconds later with his shirt on in the right direction. Siren’s cheeks went a little redder. No one said anything.