Page 33 of Next Door Midlife Alpha
“I wanted to,” she assured him. “I really like Stacey and her kids. I also really like how happy you look when you’re with her. That’s how it ought to be.”
“I think so, too,” he admitted. “I wasn’t sure how it was going to go tonight, but my toughest crowd is yet to come. I still have a lot of explaining to do to Stacey. She was pretty flabbergasted when I told her, and I don’t know how she’ll take the idea of being fated to someone. I just hope she accepts me since all these people here have already decided to accept her. I’ll have to find a good time to talk to her.”
Jace appeared at his elbow. “It looks like you’ve got your chance right now. She’s at the door.”
“Are you shitting me?” But even as he asked, he could sense it. Stacey was always somewhat close since she lived next door, but the beast inside him knew she was even closer than usual. Their connection was growing stronger, and now he’d have to see if he could make it work. Dylan raised his voice. “Everyone, the meeting is dismissed. Thank you all for your support, and I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.”
Still chattering excitedly, the members slowly began to work their way out of the clanhouse.
Lila shooed Dylan away as he reached for an empty folding chair. “I’ve got all of this. You go.”
With that, he turned for the door.
18
Stacey squirmed as she waited.The man who’d answered the door had to be related to Dylan, and he’d seemed to know who she was, but she hadn’t met him before. The last thing she’d wanted to do was insert herself where she didn’t belong. Actually, as she’d caught a glimpse of the crowd in Dylan’s house, she realized theverylast thing she wanted to do was interrupt whatever it was he had going on that night.
She swept her eyes up to the stars. Her mother had spoken about fate, but that wasn’t anything Stacey had ever put much stock in. She knew about schedules and routines, meetings and appointments, black and white, yes or no. She’d been the kind who sat down and wrote out lists of pros and cons whenshe had a tough time, not the type to leave it all up to her heart. Until now. Or at least, that was what she was going to try now.
The door opened so swiftly that it made her jump. “Hey, Stacey. Sorry to keep you. I, uh…” He gestured over his shoulder, where several people were still moving about. One or two craned their heads to look at her.
She rocked back on her heels and clutched her left elbow in her right hand, unable to remember a time when she’d felt this nervous and excited. Even as a bride on the day she’d married Todd, she hadn’t felt so jangly inside. “No, don’t be sorry. I think I came at a bad time. I was just going to see if you might want to take a walk. I had some things I wanted to talk to you about. It can wait until later, though.”
“No, it can’t.” Dylan stepped outside and shut the door behind him, closing off the noise and curious looks. “I think this is a perfect time, actually.”
Stacey glanced over her shoulder as they stepped off the patio. He definitely had company. “I don’t want to keep you.”
“Really?” he smiled. “I was kind of hoping you would.”
Caught off-guard for a moment, she felt hercheeks heat up. Stacey swallowed and shook it off. Dylan had revealed something deeply personal about himself when he’d disclosed his identity as a shifter. How could she be embarrassed about anything in front of him? And after all, she’d come to him because she knew they had to get down to the core of what was between them. “I’ve had some time to think since we last spoke.”
Dylan led the way out onto the beach. The stars were brilliant overhead, and the sliver of the moon gave them just enough light to see by without needing anything artificial. He walked just outside the tide’s reach as it swept in and then lazily glided away. “I imagine what I told you would take a lot of thinking. Probably more than a day’s worth.”
“Probably,” she agreed. Even after rolling it around in her head for a full day, she still had a hard time understanding how an entire population of shifters had been living right there on Earth among the humans without everyone knowing. The more she thought, the less she understood. How did their bodies accommodate two different forms? Did it hurt? How did they control whether they were man or beast?
None of those questions mattered right now, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to get to the ones thatreally did. “I guess I just want to know more. It was so much to take in at the time. I probably missed some of it. I want to know more about you.”
He was watching her carefully, and even in the dim light, she could see the softness in his eyes. “It means a lot to me that you do.”
How could I not?Stacey already knew he was an incredible man, and that was well before she’d even understood that people like him existed. Though the reality of it all had made her insides turn into water balloons, she couldn’t help but feel even closer to him than she had before. “I guess I can’t help it, but I’m not sure what to say.”
“We could start with the little get-together at my place.” He gestured with his head toward his home, where lights still shone in the windows. “It’s my house, but it’s also the clan’s. We have regular meetings to discuss what’s happening for our members, whether it’s that someone in our little community needs some assistance or is celebrating a big moment. It’s also a good chance for everyone to socialize, which helps keep us close.”
“That sounds nice.” It truly did. In fact, that was the sort of thing Stacey had always wished she had. Though her relationship with her mom had always been close, it wasn’t the same as having a big family.It seemed that the Brighams were born into a large support system. She wondered if they knew how lucky they were. “You really shouldn’t have let me take you away from that.”
“We were done,” he assured her. “Actually, I brought them together to tell them about you.”
“Me?”
“I told you our secret, and it’s only right that they know that. By telling you about me, I revealed something about them to a complete stranger. It was my choice to make, and there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’d be wrong not to let them know.” His voice was as calm and constant as the rush of the water.
Dylan was so much a part of this place that almost everything about him made her think of the nature they were surrounded by. Would she ever have that kind of belonging, or would she just be pretending for the rest of her life? “I can’t imagine how that went over.”
He smiled as though he knew something she didn’t, but he didn’t offer to tell her what it was. “Better than you might think.”
Stacey thought about a house full to the brim with shifters. Wild creatures, but also not. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“What else do you want to know?”
