Seth

"Are you all packed up for our big trip?" I ask Katie excitedly the afternoon before we're supposed to leave for Montana for Christmas. The plan was to leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning for our fifteen-hour drive to Great Falls.

Katie's been staying with me since her semester ended two weeks ago. I loved having her here, and I think Leah was even starting to enjoy it, too. On more than one occasion, the three of us ate dinner together and even watched cheesy Christmas movies and talked through them, spatting about how unrealistic and cheesy they were.

I guess the conversation I had right before Thanksgiving with Leah about giving Katie an actual chance had worked, because after Thanksgiving, Leah was practically a whole new person. Around Katie only, though. To the rest of the world, she was still just as cynical and brash.

Katie shrugs. "Yeah. I'm ready to go home, but it's just such a long drive."

I run my hand down her arm before intertwining my fingers with hers. "It's not too late to buy plane tickets," I try. I'd offered to fly us out, but she refused – several times.

Katie sighs, "It's too expensive, Seth." She pulls her hand from mine to twist her hair into a ponytail. "Are you all packed?" she asks. Katie hated talking about money. Whenever the topic came up, she'd find a way to get out of the conversation as soon as possible.

She rambles on, "You'll have to wear more clothes than you're used to, you know. You'll need a coat. And a shirt to sleep in," she adds, craning her neck to smile up at me. "I don't want my sisters gawking at you the entire week."

I smile, knowing she's not going to change her mind or let me bring up the plane tickets again. "Is it okay if I take your car to go see Jake? I want to make sure we're squared away on patrols before I leave for such a long time. I'll fill it up on the way back so we can hit the ground running tomorrow morning," I add as an embellishment.

I'm not crazy about driving Katie's car over eight hundred miles – I offered to take my truck, but she claimed that it used more gas than hers, and was thus too expensive. So, while I do intend to clear the patrol schedule, I have an ulterior motive for visiting Jake.

I see Jacob's feet poking out from underneath a truck when I enter his shop.

"Hey, Jake," I greet, kicking his foot. "Ready for Christmas?"

He rolls out from underneath the vehicle. "Not even close. What about you? Ready for your big trip to meet the parents?" he asks, bracing against the frame so he doesn't knock his head as he sits up.

I laugh. "Can't wait." I run my foot across a scuff mark on the concrete. "Actually, I was hoping you could check out Katie's car and make sure it's up for the drive."

"Sure, let me finish up with this and we'll pull it in."

It doesn't take him long to look over the Corolla; it's only been five minutes before he straightens from underneath the hood. "You want the good news or the bad news?"

I sigh. "Hit me."

"The good news is that Katie must be blessed. It's a miracle her brakes even work at all," he explains. "And she needs new tires and oil. And a new belt for the motor would stop the rough idle."

Ouch. This was going to hurt. "Can you get all that done before tomorrow morning?" I ask, persisting. Katie had to have a safe car – it wasn't a question.

"Just call me Santa," Jake responds with a smile. "Labor's on the house. But…" he trails off.

"What?" I prompt, worried that Katie and I would be unable to start our journey as intended.

"Can you pick up a few more weekend shifts when you get back?" He asks, wiping his hand on a rag. "Some of the wolves are complaining about the schedule not being fair."

During Katie's semesters we're only able to see each other on the weekends. If I had to do more shifts than I already was… some weeks, I'd be lucky to see Katie at all.

But I had a duty to the pack, too. I purse my lips as I nod. "Sure," I say, hoping it wasn't a kiss of death.

"Get everything squared away?" Katie asks from the couch when I get back, her suitcase sitting neatly by the door. I wonder if she's underplaying how excited she is to go home.

I respond, "Yeah." Leah is out on patrol, which is why I feel comfortable saying, "Your car is still at Jake's shop, actually."

She looks up to find my eyes. "Why?"

I shrug. "I just wanted to make sure it was up for the drive. It, uh… It needed some work."

"How much work?" She asks, her tone nearing exasperation.

I explain my conversation with Jake earlier, and she ducks her head low as she asks, "How much is it?"

I clear my throat and sit next to her on the couch before I answer. "Jake's doing it for free, so it's only the parts—"

"Seth," she interjects, crossing her arms.

"Eight hundred," I sigh.

Her brow furrows instantly as she stares down at her lap. "I can't afford that," she mumbles, cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

I reach for her shoulders. "I already paid for it, Katie."

She clenches her jaw. She opens her mouth like she's going to say something but closes it again. She continues to stare down as she asks, "When are you going to stop doing that?"

I don't answer her question, because she won't like the answer. Instead, I say, "You need a car that's safe to drive, road trip or not. You know winters can get dicey here. If something happened to you—" I cut myself off. I can't even begin to imagine that. "It's important that you're safe," I finish.

She shakes her head, and when she meets my eyes again her eyes are watering from frustration. "When I get my stipend next semester, I'm going to pay you back."

"No," I say.

"No?" she repeats back to me incredulously, her voice an octave higher.

"Nope."

We stare at each other, and I raise an eyebrow, challenging her.

She sighs deeply, turning back to the TV. "I should have just let you buy the stupid plane tickets," she mumbles.

I chuckle, kissing the top of her head in response.

We arrive at Katie's childhood home the next evening as planned on the 22nd. We'd spent the drive playing games with road signs and license plates, before Katie moved on to give me a refresher course on the family members I'd likely meet over the next week.

Greg Prescott, family patriarch, is a corporate lawyer and loves bourbon, golf, and his job, in that order. But all of those loves were overshadowed by his love of God and "his girls", Katie had said. Katie told me not to expect to see him much this week. He'd take off for Christmas Eve and Christmas and be back to work the day after.

Katie's mom, Laura, is the doting Midwest transplant mom, who loves to bake and lead a woman's Bible study for their church. She was a cheerleader all through school, and now she coaches her daughter Bailey's team in between PTA meetings and charity fundraisers.

Bailey's the baby of the family, and Katie explains that she milks it to the extreme. She got away with basically everything growing up and got a brand-new car when she turned sixteen. Katie tries not to act like she's jealous when she tells me that tidbit.

Shelby, Katie's older sister, is an up-and-coming pharmaceutical sales rep who lives with a few friends in Missoula. She's independent, responsible, and extremely observant. Katie warns that I'll have to be the most careful around her.

I park the car, but as I'm reaching for the door handle, Katie grabs my face and smashes her lips against mine forcefully.

I curl my hand around the back of her neck, holding her close to me even after I pull back. "What was that for?" I ask.

She blushes, and I run my thumb over the color. "I just want one more private moment," she mumbles, pulling my lips back to hers.

From inside the house, I hear someone yell "Katie's here!", and I have to end the kiss again.

"Someone's coming," I say, and she nods with a sigh before grabbing for her door handle.

I'm pulling our bags out of the trunk when I hear the front door open.

"Katie! You're home!" I look up to see a young blonde woman bounding off the porch toward us.

"Bailey," Katie calls back warmly, running to embrace her younger sister. The two girls giggle as they hug in the middle of the driveway.

"Is that Seth?" Bailey whispers against Katie's shoulder. She doesn't know I can hear her.

"Yeah," Katie affirms.

Bailey giggles again. "He is cute," she says before pulling back.

"Hey, I'm Seth," I call to her, waving before I pick up the suitcases.

Katie and I had decided on the drive that my best tactic to avoid detection would be for me to avoid physical contact with people whenever possible. Hands were likely unavoidable but could be explained. I'd wear sweaters for the entirety of the trip, in the chance that a random hug could expose my extreme heat.

"I'm Bailey. Thanks for keeping my sister out of trouble," she says, crossing her arms to fight off the chills I notice taking over her body. It's not even forty degrees.

We're moving to the porch as I respond. "How do you know I'm not the one getting her into trouble?"

Bailey's eyes – the same brown eyes that Katie has – go wide, and she erupts into giggles as soon as she realizes I'm joking.

Shelby, Katie's older sister, is much more stoic than Bailey. She's taller than both of her sisters, her hair a darker shade of blonde. Even still, there was no denying they were related. I feel her eyes on me as soon as I cross through the door. She's sizing me up.

"You must be Shelby. I'm Seth," I say, waving.

Shelby nods, but doesn't smile. "Nice to meet you," she returns.

An older blonde woman rounds the corner. "Katie Kat!" Okay, that was adorable. I'd have to remember that one. She pulls Katie against her chest roughly.

"Mom," Katie groans against her mother's shoulder briefly before collapsing into her open arms.

An older man – Katie's father, I'm sure – leans against the doorframe Katie's mom just passed through.

"Mom, Dad, this is Seth, my boyfriend," Katie says, taking my hand. "Seth, these are my parents."

I give her hand a small squeeze before extending my other to Katie's dad. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Prescott. I'm Seth Clearwater."

"Pleasure to meet you, Seth," he says, returning my handshake with a vice grip. If the warmness of my hand shocks him, he keeps it to himself. I match his grip, and after he finds whatever he's searching for in the gesture, he drops my hand. What he doesn't say, though, is Call me Greg.

Katie's mom pulls me in for a surprise hug, and I let out a chuckle. "You can call me Laura," she says. "Let me show you where you can put your bags."

Katie conveniently timed our arrival to minimize idle down time. I tried to remind her that as long as I was with her, I didn't care what we were doing. But she claimed it to be too risky to spend too much time around her father and Shelby.

We spend the day before Christmas Eve helping her mom and sisters bake cookies, and I feel Shelby's eyes on me almost the entire day.

I try to avoid contact with Katie because I know she's not fond of PDA, and I get the feeling that rule is doubly enforced in front of her mom. But when he have a moment alone in the kitchen, I risk punishment to lean down and capture her lips with mine.

She smiles against my lips. "I missed that," she whispers. "I don't sleep well without you," she adds, voice dropping even lower. Even if someone was in the kitchen, they wouldn't have heard her.

"My door's always open," I whisper back, winking as I move away from her only five seconds before Bailey reenters the kitchen.

Katie is more of a risk taker than I think, because around midnight, my door creaks open and Katie slinks in, shutting it behind her quietly.

I hold my arms open and she slips under the unused cover, nestling into my side with a contented sigh.

"What's going to happen if your dad catches us?" I murmur into her hair, taking in a deep breath of her scent. It's the best high I've known.

She giggles softly. "Oh, he'll turn purple. Won't be able to speak for a full five minutes. And when he does… he'll probably forget he loves Jesus for a minute."

I place a slow kiss on her lips, and she reaches up to hold my face to hers. Our lips knead together, the air charged between us. "We'll just have to make sure you're up before he is," I whisper against her lips before moving to her throat.

"Seth," she whisper-groans, "We should probably try to sleep," she breathes, words ragged. The way that she chokes out my name makes me stiffen against her, and her breath hitches again.

"I'm sorry," I groan softly, laying back on the bed. I try to steady my breathing, willing my embarrassment and my problem to go away.

"It's not that I'm not flattered..." she whispers. "Have you… have you ever been with anyone?"

"No," I respond, my voice surprisingly throaty. "I guess I've always just been waiting."

Her pulse increases. "Waiting for what? Marriage?"

This shift in conversation is doing me no favors. "Not really. Waiting for the right girl mostly," I admit, rubbing my thumb across her shoulder.

"And what if…" she pauses, her heart continuing to thud into the space between us. "What if the right girl did want to wait? Until marriage."

We hadn't discussed this aspect of our relationship before. And we'd caught ourselves in some compromising positions – like what this had almost turned into. Her tension, although understandable, is unnecessary. "She'd still be the right girl," I murmur against her hair. "And we'd wait. No problem."

Katie relaxes into my chest. "I love you," she murmurs against my neck before her eyes flutter closed.

The next morning, Christmas Eve, sunlight filtering in through the window shines directly in my eyes. Katie is sleeping soundly next to me, her leg hitched over my hip.

I hear someone awake in the house, but I can't pinpoint who it is. "Katie," I whisper, shaking her shoulder gently.

"Mmmf," she groans, nestling farther into my chest.

"Katie, baby, you gotta wake up. Someone's awake," I caution, jostling her.

Her eyes open slowly, and as she wakes up further, she must notice where her leg is, because she jerks it back and rolls to her feet softly. She leans back down over the bed to give me a quick peck on the cheek before tiptoeing to the door and slipping out quietly.

I listen for sounds that someone discovered us, but nothing sounds amiss.

I take a deep breath as I realize I'll need a cold shower before breakfast. It seems like the No problem I'd told Katie last night wasn't exactly completely true.

"How's your car, Katie? It's been a while since I've been able to check it over," Greg says over breakfast.

Katie flushes as she takes a drink of her orange juice. "Seth took care of it," she mumbles, giving me a side glance.

Greg's eyebrows dart up in surprise, and I feel the tips of my ears go red as his eyes land on me. "Really?"

I nod, clearing my throat. "I just didn't want her to make such a long drive without it being safe."

He returns my nod slowly. "Maybe we can take a look after breakfast, just to make sure."

His words are loaded, and I can't do anything but nod. I'm not scared of him, really, but I am a little concerned with whether his opinion of me will affect how Katie views me.

After breakfast is cleaned up, Katie tilts her head at the coat rack as a gentle reminder. I put on my unnecessary jacket and follow Greg outside.

"I've got to say, this is good work. Did you do it yourself?" He asks from underneath the hood.

I shake my head. "No, I wish. I have a good friend who's a mechanic."

He nods. "How much do I owe you?" He asks.

"You don't owe me anything, sir," I say, hoping he'll leave it there.

I think he's about to insist that he pay me back, but instead he asks, "What do you do for a living?"

"I work at a lumber yard, and I work security for my reservation." Katie and I'd rehearsed my lines on the drive, and it pays off now. I sound confident and sure.

"Two jobs?" He asks, giving me a side glance as he moves back to check Katie's tires. He sure loves loaded questions. It must be his training as a lawyer.

"Yes and no. I don't get paid for the work on the reservation. I make my living from the lumber yard. It's honest work, and it pays well," I say, shoving my hands into my coat pockets.

"Why do you do the security job if you don't get paid for it?"

"It's important, and it needs to be done. It's close to the Olympic mountain range, so we have to protect everyone from wildlife that could wander in. I just feel like it's a duty of mine," I say. I don't know what's more surprising: the fact that the lie rolls so easily off my tongue, or when I realize it's not actually a lie.

He bends down to look at the tire treads, but I say, "The tires aren't brand new, but they're better than what she had. Hers were bald. These should get her through the winter."

He squats next to the wheel well anyway, giving me a long look I can't decipher. "What are your intentions with Katie?" he finally asks.

Here it is. The moment I was unsure if I should prepare for or not. "I love her, sir."

He chuckles. "I'm sure you do, but that wasn't what I asked."

Oh. I see where Katie gets her persistence. I look down at the ground, trying to figure out how to get my words right, especially in light of my conversation with Katie last night. I take a breath. "She's it for me. I have every intention to marry her one day."

Greg doesn't rush to answer. He stands, leaning against the car and crossing his arms conversationally. "The road to hell was paved with good intentions," he says much too low for it to be meant for my ears. Louder, he says, "You seem like a good kid. Hard working, dependable. You've got a good head on your shoulders. And you're taking care of Katie, from what it seems." He nods at the car.

"Yes, sir," I affirm.

"Katie is bright, headstrong, and talented," he starts again. "And I know she's going to do what she wants regardless of what I want for her. But I would like her to finish school," he says. His tone is firm, and there is an unspoken threat behind the words.

I nod. "I understand, Mr. Prescott."

He studies me for a long minute, and I think he might be about to tell me to call him Greg. But instead, he claps me on the shoulder, hard, and says, "Let's go inside."

I hear Katie up late talking with her sisters in Bailey's room that night, their parents asleep for hours already. They must think I'm asleep, too. I wonder if Katie knows better. I wonder if she's going to risk coming here two nights in a row.

Trying not to listen is useless. I'd sneak out, but I don't know the code to turn off the alarm, and it's dangerous. Shelby had hawk-like senses. Over breakfast this morning I felt her calculating eyes on me at every turn.

"So how serious are you and Seth, anyway?" Shelby asks.

Katie chuckles. "It's pretty serious. We say 'I love you.'"

Bailey giggles. "Have you, like, done stuff?"

I imagine Katie blushing dark red. I myself find my ears getting hot at the implications. I focus on steadying my pulse while I listen for Katie's answer.

"Just made out a few times," she mumbles.

Shelby makes a noise of disbelief. "Then why did I see you sneaking out of his room this morning?" No wonder she'd been shooting daggers at me.

Katie gasps. "Shelby!" Her sisters burst into hushed laughter. "Fine. We sleep together. Literally, actually, just sleeping. Nothing else."

Shelby groans and says, "Boring! Does he have any siblings that are single?"

Katie laughs. "Sorry, Shelb. Just a sister."

Everyone is silent until Shelby takes a deep breath. "That's okay, too. Better, I think."

Bailey gasps, and I hear Katie start about four separate sentences before finally settling on, "Seriously?"

Now I really feel like I shouldn't be listening. Can I put in headphones and drown them out? Or was the damage done?

Shelby launches into the story of her great personal discovery, and I shove a pillow over my head, trying to focus in on Katie's heartbeat. It works like a charm, and I fall fast asleep.