Page 21 of A Bear's Journey

Olivia’s motherspent most of Saturday cooking. Olivia tried to help, though she mainly got in the way. Ultimately, her mother told her to roll out the biscuit dough and cut the biscuits while she quizzed the girl about her cousin.

“You told him he could bring his mate, right?” her mom asked, casting Olivia a sidelong look.

“I don’t think he has a mate,” Olivia answered.

She pressed the biscuit cutter into the dough, feeling the satisfying squish before it hit the counter.

“No?” her mom asked. “Still no mate? Either one?”

“I didn’t ask, mom,” Olivia said.

“And he’s still living and working on that ranch run by wolves.”

“I think so. That’s where the square dance is anyway, I didn’t really ask about that either.”

Her mom sighed dramatically.

“Have I taught you nothing?” she teased her daughter.

“Sorry,” Olivia said, teasing right back. “Next time I’ll ask for his full five-year plan, including whether he’s got a mate, what he’s doing about it, how many kids he and his imaginary mate are going to have, the whole kit and kaboodle.”

“But be subtle about it,” her mom said, winking at Olivia. “You can’t make him feel like he’s being interrogated.”

“Got it,” Olivia said, cutting the final biscuit. She put the biscuits on a baking sheet and then balanced it carefully on top of a pile of food in the fridge so they’d be fresh-baked later.

This goes on the list too, she thought, closing the fridge and wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. Gossiping with mom in the kitchen.

The sliding door that led from the kitchen to the back yard opened, and her dad came in.

“Smells great,” he said, reaching for a morsel.

Olivia’s mom swatted his hand away, and her dad took it back, grinning.

“I had to try,” he said.

* * *

Olivia couldn’t imaginethat Austin felt anything but interrogated. The moment he came to the door, holding flowers for her mom, she made a show of looking around for his mate.

At least Austin had been doing this for a few years now, and seemed completely unruffled by the whole charade. Olivia was impressed; she probably would have shifted and tried to claw someone’s eyes out after the third time her mother dropped a heavy hint about her sister’s friend’s son, or how Austin’s cousin Julius’s mate worked for a dating site and she must know someone.

Sitting next to Austin at the long table, surrounded by her mom, her dad, and her papa, Olivia gave silent thanks that at least her mom wasn’t on her case about a mate.

Not yet, anyway. She figured she probably had six more months before her mom started pointing out cute boys at the grocery store.

At last, Olivia’s papa broke in with the other topic of the night: the wolves.

“How are they to work for?” he asked around a mouthful of pot roast.

Olivia’s mom shot him a look, but he just wiped his mustache with his napkin.

“Barb and Bill are great,” Austin said. “I’m the ranch manager now, so I do a lot of the day-to-day business. I look at more spreadsheets than most cowboys,” he said.

He took another biscuit and slathered it with butter.

“These are delicious, Aunt Lydia,” he said.

“That’s why we mated her,” said Olivia’s dad.

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