Page 27 of Fool Moon First Aid

Okay, so they don’t want to kill me, but what do they want to do with me?

“But how did you convince Mia and Eloise to agree to this?” I shoot a look at Ethan, catching him exchanging a knowing glance with the others in the rearview mirror.

“What?” Tyler tries to joke, but there’s an edge to his voice now, a hint of something I can’t quite place. “Can’t we just feed a pretty girl while she’s picking up her pet snake?”

“Nope,” I reply, my suspicion growing. “You guys tricked me, and I’m dying to know why and how you managed to sway my friends.” I should have seen this coming.

“We’d never trick you, Ava,” Brody assures me, his voice gentle yet firm. The worst part? I believe him.

“Call it a date,” Tyler chimes in suddenly, his tone playful and earnest.

I whip around to face him, ignoring Ethan’s low growl of warning. “Excuse me?” No way. They can’t possibly be into me. Can they?

Tyler’s smiling, his eyebrows arching high. I take a moment to really look at him. He’s still in his paramedic uniform, the deep blue fabric hugging his broad shoulders. His curly hair, a wild mane of blond, frames his face with a boyish charm. There are laugh lines around his eyes, telling me he laughs often. Something inside me stirs.

I find myself wanting to be part of those laughs and to share in their moments of joy.

Turning back around in the car’s plush seat, I realize Ethan never actually answered my question. He just holds my gaze with those intense, wolf-like eyes, as if waiting for me to turn around in my seat or look away first. Isn’t there a saying about not looking a wolf in the eyes? Something about it being a challenge?

Clearing my throat, I settle back into my seat. The soft leather brushes against my skin, a subtle reminder of the car’s cozy confines. If I’m being totally honest with myself, I might actually say yes to a date if they’d asked formally, despite knowing my father would totally hate it.

“My ideal date is twofold,” I start, trying to sound casual, which earns a laugh from Tyler in the back. I feel Brody’s intense gaze on me as the words leave my lips. He has this way of listening that makes you feel like you’re the only person in the world. “First, a bookstore, where I can pick out a book. Then, we go back to either your place or mine—it doesn’t matter. There, we’d have a charcuterie board filled with all my favorite ‘girl dinner’ options.”

“What the fuck is a girl dinner?” Ethan snaps out, turning his head slightly to look at me. The frown lines across his forehead, visible under the car’s dim interior light, contrast starkly with Tyler’s easy smiles. Something in me yearns to smooth out those lines.

Brody leans forward and grips the back of my seat. He smells like the forest we’re driving through, a scent that feels oddly like home. “A girl dinner is basically just snacks,” he explains with a soft, understanding tone.

I snort. That isn’t what it is. It is a meal. I’m about to correct him when Tyler yanks him back and leans forward.

“It’s not just snacks,” he clarifies with a grin, his teeth almost glowing in the car’s muted light. When he exhales, I catch a whiff of mint, fresh and clean. If he had bad breath, I could knock a point off his perfect attractiveness score. How dare he smell so good? “It’s a board of foods, usually a woman’s favorite finger foods. What are yours?”

“I like grapes, the red ones and the cotton candy ones,” I say, nearly shuddering with delight at the thought. “Cheese, all the meats, crackers for little finger sandwiches, and bread with jam.” I groan, remembering the chocolate fig jam Mia gave me last year. “So good.”

“I know a few wines that would pair well with that,” Brody muses, his voice deep and thoughtful, but I quickly dismiss the idea.

“I don’t drink.”

“Really?” Ethan pulls onto a lane, the car’s headlights cutting through the evening mist that’s settled around the dense forest. Mystic Falls isn’t a huge town, more of a large community nestled in the middle of a forest. But the forest is sprawling enough for shifters to roam freely without encountering humans and only an hour from the nearest city.

I shrug at his question, feeling a pang of sadness. “I used to, back in college, but then my mom died, and the cops said she’d been partying, which wasn’t like her at all. Her toxicology report showed she was triple the legal limit.”

“So you stopped drinking because of that?” Tyler asks, his tone genuinely curious, as if trying to understand every facet of me.

“It’s a control thing, I suppose. I don’t want to feel out of control, and drinking does that to me. Besides, I metabolize alcohol quickly, so what’s the point, you know?” I remember all the times I had to hold Mia’s hair back and wince at the memory.

As we breach a clearing, a house comes into view. It’s not a cabin like I’d imagined, but a home that wouldn’t look out of place in a town development. With green siding and an architectural style that’s somewhere between colonial and Victorian, it has a porch wrapping around one side and a garage on the other. It’s nestled among the trees, looking modest yet perfectly cozy.

Ethan pulls up to the front and turns off the engine. The car’s hum fades, leaving us surrounded by the quiet of the forest.

Oh, so they really are making me tacos. Well, damn.

The moon hangs heavily in the sky, bathing the world in a silvery glow that’s straight out of a fairy tale. “Uh-oh, boys,” I tease, turning to Ethan with a grin that’s sly. “It’s a full moon tonight.” I lean forward, the leather of the car seat groaning under me, and I unbuckle my seat belt to inch closer. “Do I have to chain you up in the basement?”

Ethan lounges in his seat like he owns it and snorts. “Kinky, but no,” he retorts, his voice a deep melody that fills the car.

I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and can’t resist poking the wolf a bit more. “So are you telling me you’re into whips and chains, or are you just plain vanilla, baby?” My heart does a little dance of devilish glee, and I bite my bottom lip to keep from laughing out loud.

Tyler, sprawled like a king in his court in the back, loses his cool. His laughter, loud and infectious, bounces around us.

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