Page 60 of Tiger Bitten

“Of me?” Mars asked.

“Yeah, he didn’t like me lying to you about whatever I was. I don’t think he had quite worked out for sure that I am a Half-Cat, but he didn’t want me to keep stuff from you. I think he wanted to figure out my intentions. How could he know it would send me into an Almost-Change. Those are my issues. His are being sour and then sweet.”

“He will probably insult you the next time he sees you and deny bringing you the flowers,” Mars deadpanned.

“I think I’m starting to understand the way he works.”

“That makes one of us,” he murmured. “Come on. I saw some to-go cups in the pantry. Watching you walk down the road with two completely full coffee mugs would be entertaining, but we can do this better. I’ll drive you up to Misty.”

“You can come too, you know. We could bring some for Dame.”

“I’m on it.” He leaned down and kissed her, then patted her butt, knelt down and picked up the mugs and disappeared inside.

To-go cups with lids made way more sense than what she had been about to do, but in fairness, it was seven in the morning. Misty had been sending her pictures of last night at six-thirty this morning. It seemed she wasn’t the only early riser here.

Mars, the non-early riser, was quiet as he packed coffees in to-go cups and led her out the door and around the barn.

When Ren glanced over at the RV, she saw Stellan sitting in a camp chair near a little fire pit there. He was staring at her with an unreadable expression, and bright gold eyes. Ren came to a stop and faced him head-on, cocked her head. She twitched her head toward Mars’s truck.

That was all. A head nod, an invitation, and then she gave him her back and continued the short trek to Mars’s truck. She tried to hide her smile when Stellan showed up next to her and got into the back seat.

“We’re still not good,” Mars gritted out, looking at his brother in the rearview mirror.

“When were we ever?” Stellan asked.

Mars huffed a breath and pulled onto the gravel road that would lead them to Dame and Misty’s house. “Fair enough.”

“Thank you for the flowers. I put them in a vase.”

“Don’t talk about the flowers,” Stellan said.

Maybe he was grumpy in the mornings like Mars, or maybe Stellan was just permanently grumpy no matter what time of the day it was.

She handed him her coffee, and he glared at her for a three count before he took it. There. Her gratitude had been accepted.

Stellan took a sip and pulled a face. “Is it just creamer?”

She giggled. Of course he would complain about a gift. “I don’t like the taste of coffee. I have to camouflage it,” she explained, knowing he would not care even a little.

“Well, thanks for the diabetes but you can have this back,” he grumbled dramatically as he handed her cup back.

With an eye roll, she put it into the cupholder and waved at Misty, who was sitting on the front porch of the big house, already holding a steaming mug of coffee.

They unloaded and Ren didn’t miss that Stellan went back to the truck and pulled the sweet drink she’d left in the cupholder. He caught her looking, and muttered, “Shut up,” as he passed her by.

Mars was waiting for her, a pursed-lip smile on his lips. She could hold her own with Stellan.

Greetings and ‘good mornings’ out of the way, Ren settled into the chair beside Misty, with Mars on her other side. He settled his chair right beside her and relaxed back, draping his arm over the back of her chair.

The conversation was easy, as if last night hadn’t even happened, and she was thankful for it, but she did want to address the elephant in the room.

She started, “Last night—”

“Was illuminating,” Misty said. “It’s all good. You’re good.” Misty looked around. “We’re all good.”

Ren bit the side of her lip to try and control the stupid tears that wanted to blur her eyes. She didn’t know why she was so emotional about this. “I’m not like you guys. Wish I was.”

“What’s your dad’s name?” Stellan asked from where he was leaning against the porch railing.