Chapter 34

"All right, so what exactly is in a Moon Over the Mountains?"

"Lavender syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, two shots, and..."

"And a marshmallow."

Jo sighed. "Right, and a marshmallow."

Ms. Blue laughed and reached over to grab one of the laminated menus, which were all made of pages of old books with recycled paper menus pasted onto them. They were pretty neat. "It's okay, Jo, I don't expect you to have everything on the menu memorized the first week. Or ever, really."

"Yeah, but I'd like to," Jo said, leaning against the counter. It was after hours at the antique store, and Jo had asked Ms. Blue to test her while she practiced fixing a few drinks. It had been a few days since she had gotten the job at the coffee bar, and she was enjoying the work, even if the espresso machine sometimes didn't like her. Overall, she felt that she was getting pretty good at making the drinks.

"How about you clean up here while I go count the register?" Ms. Blue said, "And I'll give your boy a free drink if he helps you."

"I'm not sure he deserves it," Jo said with a smirk. She glanced over at the corner of the shop where Ryker was sitting in a rocking chair, studying for one of his classes as he waited for her to get off work. His hazel eyes met hers with a half-frown, obviously wanting that free drink.

"If you want a free coffee, you have to sweep."

"Then it's not really free," he replied.

Honestly, the attention was sweet, but it was also starting to get stifling. She knew he was on edge about Duncan and their discussion about mates, but she was going to have to put some boundaries in place. Having him hover all the time wasn't healthy for either of them. And if he put up a fuss about it, well, she knew where to find his siblings. She would bet that Lexi and Brett would be on her side about the whole thing.

The steady sound of brush swishing across the floor almost made her laugh as she wiped down the counter. All right, fine, she owed him one black coffee, his favorite. Which was absolutely boring.

She was determined to start trying out new drinks for him, ones that might appeal to him while all the more elaborate drinks did not. Something simple, maybe. She would have to get the hang of mixing flavors first. At the moment, she just didn't want to break a machine.

After the tables were wiped, Jo quickly re-filled the napkin dispensers. She was just finishing up when a pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist, tugging her back against a broad chest.

"Hey," Jo protested, even though she was smiling. Ryker's love language was definitely physical touch as far as she could tell. And it was kinda hard to complain about that, even if she wanted a little more room to breathe sometimes.

"I'll finish these if you get my coffee," he murmured, planting a kiss against her neck.

Jo snorted and twisted out of his arms, promptly handing him the last dispenser and a bundle of napkins. "Deal, but only if you straighten up the sugar packets."

Ryker frowned over at the packets on the little table where people could add sugar and cream to their black coffee. "What's wrong with them?"

Chuckling, Jo grabbed a to-go cup to pour Ryker's coffee into. "They have to be in perfect rainbow order. Get those browns out of the yellow." Jo ignored his muttering under his breath as he went to re-sort the packets; she instead focused on packing up her stuff, leaving Ryker's coffee on the counter for him.

"Be right back," she murmured, heading over to the little office in the back. After popping her head in to let Ms. Blue know they'd finished and were heading out, she went back into the shop to find Ryker ready by the door, her bag already slung over his shoulder along with his own. Friggin' strong werewolf-man.

"By the way," Jo said, keeping her voice casual as they headed to Ryker's truck. She was deliberately trying to set the tone, knowing what was coming. "I'm having a girls night with Lexi and some of our friends tonight."

"Mmm," Ryker said, opening the passenger door for her. "So I need to stay upstairs or something?"

Jo narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't play ignorant with me, Ryker Monroe. Girls night. No boys allowed in the house."

Ryker rounded the truck and opened his door as she got in. "So I gotta stay in the woods."

Jo threw her hands up, growling in annoyance. "Ryker!"

"It's so sexy when you growl at me, babe."

Jo threw her fiercest glare at him. "Don't try to distract me."

Ryker's grin was unrepentant as he turned the truck on. "So that means it's working, right?"

"Definitely not."

She pulled her phone out of her bookbag and started texting the group chat. Lexi would probably be there by the time she got to the house, and then Katie from their lunch group would get there a little later.

Gia Hobbes and Darcy Graham were also invited. Gia was another worker at the coffee bar who Jo had met when she dropped off her application. She had been so personable and warm that the two of them had hit it off.

Jo, Lexi and Darcy all had their English course together and had wound up on the same project team. Well, Jo and Lexi had been a group and Darcy had been alone, so they had invited her in. She was soft-spoken and shy with an extreme love of sci-fi and fantasy literature, and it seemed like she had watched every movie ever made since the 1920s.

"I think you should stay home. At your home. At your house," Jo said, not looking up from her phone because she didn't want to see his puppy dog eyes.

"Not with Duncan out there," he said quietly, like he didn't want to start a fight.

Jo put her phone in her lap. "You can't sleep in the living room every night."

She could feel him look at her as they stopped at one of the few stoplights in town. "I don't have to sleep in the living room."

Jo blushed. "You know what I mean. You don't have to constantly keep an eye on me. That's no way for either of us to live."

Ryker reached out for her hand. "You think we're spending too much time together?"

"That's not it," Jo said, offering him a small smile, "I think you're going to drive yourself crazy trying to protect me all the time. Also, I do need time alone once in a while, and so do you."

"Are you trying to pull the absence makes the heart grow fonder argument on me?"

Jo snorted. "Well, if you're right about the mates thing, I don't think your heart can grow any fonder."

"You'd be surprised," Ryker muttered, so quietly Jo wasn't sure she was meant to hear. As she studied him, she realized his expression had become closed-off, guarded almost, his hands uncharacteristically tight on the steering wheel.

Crap, had she upset him?

Well...she guessed saying she wanted space from her boyfriend-mate-person might not have been the most tactful thing to say.

For the first time, Jo wished she'd had a little more dating experience in high school. This was the hard part about how fast their relationship had developed too. "Ryker," she said quietly, brushing her hand over his thigh. "You have to understand...I've always wanted to be my own person, not just someone who only knows who they are in the context of a relationship. I want to be strong on my own and with you, all at the same time."

Her mind blanked at the thought of even existing without Ryker, which was a little alarming considering how long she'd known him, but she was going to blame it on the mates thing. She rubbed at her chest, trying to make the strange ache go away. No matter what, she had to know she'd be okay even when he wasn't around. And he had to know that too.

There was also the fact she'd noticed the growing shadows under his eyes as he tried to balance protecting her with his Alpha-heir duties. That was not cool with her either.

Ryker's expression softened a little, and one hand left the steering wheel to cover hers, both of their hands still resting on his thigh. "I have no doubt you're strong," Ryker said, shaking his head. "And I would never want to get in the way of that. It's just...it's hard knowing...what he could do.."

"I know." She squeezed his hand. "But that's why you're cruelly making me get up at 5 am to train every morning, right?" Recently they had started doing self-defense and fire-throwing lessons, with Ryker teaching and Jo, supposedly, learning. Except he didn't know the first thing about throwing fire, so it wasn't going so well.

Ryker chuckled, glancing at her briefly before turning his attention back to the road. "Okay, how about a compromise. At least let me include your property in the territory the pack patrols?"

It was hard to say no to that when they patrolled past everyone else's place. Honestly, as protective as Ryker was, she was surprised her place wasn't already included. Maybe it was because he'd been making best friends with her couch.

"Okay, fine," she conceded.

He barked out a laugh. "You're not gonna argue with me?"

Jo arched an eyebrow. "Do you want me to?"

"Nope, nope, I'm good!"

After 50,000 promises to lock all her doors and windows and text him if anything suspicious happened, Ryker finally let her leave the truck and join Lexi, who was impatiently waiting on the front porch.

"Good," Lexi huffed. "I thought the pizza was gonna beat you here."

Jo laughed as she unlocked the door, aware of Ryker watching from his truck to make sure they got into the house before he left. "You already ordered?"

"You act like you haven't met any werewolves. We're always hungry."

Jo grinned. "True. The only good thing about that is that it means y'all always think my cooking is the best." After the incident with Duncan showing up at her house, they'd finally told Lexi and Brett that Jo knew about them being werewolves. Ryker kind of insisted, wanting to make sure she was protected when he wasn't around. And since Charlie now knew as well, it'd only been a matter of time anyway.

They'd managed to side-step sharing about her own abilities though, because in the midst of all the concerns about Duncan, no one had yet questioned Jo's acceptance of the supernatural among them. She figured she could always fall back on having read a lot of supernatural books in her teen years, but honestly, she wasn't sure she'd be able to lie to Ryker's siblings if they asked. And as comfortable as she was starting to feel around his family, she was starting to forget why she'd wanted to hide it in the first place.

"My brother thinks everything you do is the best," Lexi said, rolling her eyes. Jo smirked at her, waggling her eyebrows teasingly, which just caused Lexi to groan. Although Lexi might have thought differently if she'd been sitting in the truck with them a few minutes ago.

At the sound of wheels on gravel, Lexi hurried to the door and threw it open. "Darcy and Gia are here!"

Jo stepped up beside her and waved to her two friends as they got out of their cars. Well, one car and one jeep, to be exact. "Err, are either of them...."

"Nope," Lexi said, popping the 'p.' "I'm the lone wolf here."

"Oh good, I was worried my pantry might not survive the night." Yeah, that probably deserved the smack on the arm that Lexi delivered.

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A/N: Hi, everyone, thanks for reading the chapter! I've also started posting another story, Popcorn and Twizzlers, which is a fun realistic romcom kind of story. I'll include the summary here in case anyone is interested!

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You know those romance novels that make you giggle, cry, and flush with embarrassment all at the same time? You know how there's always a moment where the guy briefly goes out with another girl for some reason or other? Maybe it's to make the girl he loves jealous, maybe it's because of a misunderstanding.

Yeah, anyway, that girl that gets all of two seconds of his attention...ever wonder what happened to her?

That was me.

And this is my story.

Well...

Mine and the guy who taught me how to handle the "after."