AN
Thank you so, so much again for the reviews and messages I've received! I'm watching that traffic graph of how many people have had look at this story, and it's crazy to me that so many people are out there paying attention! Means the world, guys!
I have such HUGE plans for this story, and I'm excited to keep posting quickly and get them all out for you guys to read! Fingers crossed those of you who have gotten in contact keep enjoying.
Jacob closed the door to his house, turning on the lights as Nessie made her way into the open-plan living area, the shiny leather still covering every inch of her body. She looked over her shoulder, her eyes heavily lidded, as she'd been doing as of late, her long curls hiding half of her face from his view.
"I know what you're doing." Jake's voice was full of reason, but restrained and Nessie's eyes gave away her grin and she turned to him, lifting her hands behind her head to pull all her hair off her shoulders, stretching her torso in a way that made Jake's fingers twitch.
"What am I doing?"
"You're trying to seduce me."
She grinned wider and dropped her hair, bending to unzip her thigh-high heels and kicking them to the edge of the room. "Is it working?"
"Ness…" Jake's voice was a frustrated sigh, and Nessie rolled her eyes.
"Please don't do this to me, Jacob."
"I'm doing this to you?!"
Nessie crossed her arms over her chest, obviously aware of what it did to her cleavage over the unzipped portion of her cat suit. "Why are you hesitating, Jacob? I know I want you! You want me, too, I can see it! Why are you so intent on keeping me all innocent and untouched forever?!"
Jake suddenly let out a warning growl and distracted himself by thinking about the course he was running on. At least try to keep out of my head, Seth.
It's hard when it's all you're thinking about. I almost-argued back. Nessie's going to explode one of these days, Jake.
He huffed heavily. It's all too much.
You say that now…
Did I tell you I was proud of you, by the way? His sudden change of subject was more than enough to distract me. A date yesterday, another today. She seems more than interested.
She's very friendly. I agreed, not allowing myself to read into it any more than that. And I don't think we're using the word 'date'.
She's pretty.
She is.
I thought over the events of yesterday afternoon. The only reason I wasn't camped outside her house right now was the fact I had pack duties to tend to.
Get over it, you'll see her in a few hours anyway.
I smiled. Can you maybe give the guys a warning not to ambush her today? I kind of want her to feel comfortable around me before she's officially initiated into the pack.
No promises. We both chuckled internally. Are you picking her up?
That's going to be her decision. I'd already thought about it, and I didn't want her to feel pressured in anyway. There was something thrilling about the idea of her coming to me, like she genuinely wanted to be here. If she wants me to go and get her, I will.
Don't worry about freaking her out. Imprints, whether they know or not, feel the draw as well. She'll get addicted to spending time with you.
Don't say it like that, it sounds disgusting.
It's helpful, that's all I'm saying.
We finished our shift without anything to report to the rest of the pack. We got dressed outside of Bella and Edward's cottage and I turned to my car immediately. "Can you tell Ness I'm sorry I'm skipping out on breakfast when she wakes up?"
"She'll understand. She's not the most important woman in your life now."
"Yeah, and I'm leaving her in her time of need." I chuckled opening the door of my truck in their driveway and starting it up.
Jake made an obscene gesture in my direction, and I couldn't help but throw my head back and laugh as I pulled out of the drive, onto the winding forest trail. "You're meant to be on my side!"
"Sure, sure!" I threw his own words back at him through the window as I started the drive home.
By the time I'd showered and gotten dressed for the day, it was just after seven. She'd said she was a morning person, so I picked my phone up and opened her contact. It had taken everything in me not to message her yesterday afternoon before I'd given into sleep prior to my shift with Jake. I didn't want to freak her out, no matter what reassurances my brothers had over her definitely wanting to hear from me.
Morning! Still happy for a beach day today? It doesn't look like there'll be too much rain. –Seth.
I wondered if I'd sounded too eager. I wondered if any thirty-one-year-old still wondered about those things. But, no more than a minute later, my phone chimed and there was a reply.
Good morning! Definitely keen, I need to be near the ocean again! Where should I meet you and when?
She'd tacked on a sunflower emoji at the end of her message, and I smiled at how fitting it seemed.
We agreed to meet at my house at nine o'clock. Leah was at work, and the house was relatively tidy. I did what dishes there were to be done and straightened the cushions on the lounge. Seven-thirty. I felt antsy. Years of adjusting to patrol and full-time work had made me immune to almost sleepless nights, but I fell into my bed heavily, deciding there was nothing I could do but wait. I set an alarm for ten-to-nine, just incase I was able to get any sleep, and closed my eyes.
And then I saw her face, and her hair, and her thin calves, and I decided fantasizing about my imprint was better than sleep. I ran over the way she talked in my head, trying to nail down her accent a little better. I liked the way she pronounced certain words, almost as if her mouth was too lazy to enunciate. She dropped the Rs at the ends of words, unless they were followed by another starting with a vowel. When she had something to say, she would talk way too quickly, and I wondered if I didn't have super hearing, would I always be able to keep up?
I also realized, which came as a shock to me as I thought about it, that there was no sexual desire I found in my brothers thoughts. Jared, Paul and Sam before they'd stopped phasing, Quil, Collin, and Jake, though he would never admit it verbally, were all completely held hostage by dirty thoughts about their imprints from time to time. It completely took over their minds in a way that was more animalistic than most of the traits we'd inherited from the wolf gene. I knew it was still very early on in our relationship, but I wondered if it was normal to be so caught up in the fact that I purely just wanted to get to know Daisy, be around her. Keep her company. I thought she was insanely beautiful, and the idea of us being involved romantically in the future made my head spin happily, but as of right now? There was no desire to grab her and force her against the wall as I'd seen my brothers think on so often in the past.
My nerves started climbing, and a warmth began spreading through me noticeably as I consumed myself with my thoughts. I opened my eyes and reached for my phone, as I did so, the alarm blared, startling me. She would be on her way here.
And then, as my nerves climbed higher still, I heard the sound of a small car making its way down the street. I held my breath as it stopped in the driveway and pushed myself out of bed, moving way too quickly to the front door.
She was just climbing out of her car. She was in a green dress today, gray tights and the same boots as yesterday. She had an oversized, knitted jumper that looked as though it just about swallowed her whole, only her slender hands and wrists showing outside of the thick sleeves. She saw me watching her and smiled nervously. "Hi!"
"Hey," I called down. I paused, and she slowly made her way up to the house. "Did you want to start with a house tour first, or a beach tour?"
"A house tour would be a great start," she grinned.
I leaned back against the door to allow her enough space to slip past me. I felt a warmth from her as she did so, though it was nothing compared to my body temperature, and she paused, waiting for me to lead. "Should I take my shoes off?"
"Nah, don't worry about it," I let the door fall closed behind us and pointed to our immediate left. "Kitchen, where the magic happens," she chuckled. I walked past her to our right. "Living room," she followed me as I moved up the three small stairs to the wide hallway. "Study, Leah's room, spare room," I opened the spare room and she grabbed the door frame, swinging her head in to have a look. My mom's old bed was still made up, but her pictures had been removed from the walls when she moved in with Charlie to create a neutral space. There were a heap of old boxes and bags covering the bed and a majority of the floor. All of our old things, and anything we wanted to keep packed out of the way were usually thrown in there. The last person to stay in that room had been my mother, and we were in no rush to organise it. "Bathroom is here," I flicked on the light so she could see. She moved into the room and grinned at me in the mirror. "And…" I turned and she followed me back into the hallway. My bedroom door was still open, the sheets messy from where I'd jumped up only a few minutes before. "My room."
She hesitated for a split second, then walked past me into my room. I followed her in nervously, wondering if I should have vacuumed or cleaned the window before she showed up. It hadn't occurred to me while I was waiting, and I knew it was relatively clean, but my eyes picked up microscopic specks of dirt, and I hoped her human eyes weren't strong enough to judge.
"Tidy," she commented pleasantly. She frowned at my bed. "I really hope you're doing your washing today. A sheet in a town like this is not enough to keep you warm at night."
"I don't really feel the cold too much,"
"Jealous," she breathed. "I was freezing from the second I got here, but the last couple of days have been something else."
"How so?" I frowned. Was she uncomfortable? She wouldn't have acclimatized so quickly to the area, but I didn't want her struggling.
"I don't know," she sighed. "I felt like I was dealing with it okay the first month or so, but the last couple of nights have been the worst. I've had super hot showers and baths and everything, but it hasn't helped. It's like the cold has settled inside of me and I can't make it leave."
"Are you cold now?"
"I've felt okay, since I've been here, actually."
Mental note to tell Ness. The imprint was apparently telling her things through her body. I felt a surge of glee at her admission, which was weird because I was also fretting over her being uncomfortable. She wandered to my wall and smiled at the photos I'd tacked up from the past decade or so.
"You have a huge family."
"I do," I agreed. I followed her and pointed to a central photo. "This is my mom, dad and sister. My immediate family." I waved my arm to the rest of the pictures, photos from pack gatherings, bonfires, birthday photos… "This is my extended family. The guys here are like brothers to me, though I'm not actually related in any way to the majority of them, at least not for generations. This is my cousin, Emily. And her husband Sam, and their kids Levi and Bianca." I pointed out each face, and she looked at them closely, still smiling.
"Girlfriend?" she pointed to a photo of Ness and I, our arms around each other as we posed for our photo.
"Nah," I chuckled. "That's Ness. She's…kind of dating Jacob." I pointed out a photo of my closest brother. "She's like a sister to me, we've always been there for each other."
"She's very pretty." She said softly. The usual lightness to her voice was gone in that moment, and I longed for it to come back. "The waitress in the coffee shop asked where she was yesterday. She's your friend you go there with."
"She's pretty," I agreed. "Not my type, though."
"Who is this?" she asked, pointing at a photo of me, Jake, Quil, Claire and Ness at Claire's fifth birthday party.
"That's Quil and Claire," I cleared my throat on how to continue this one.
"Ness's little sister?" she questioned quietly. I studied the photo for a long moment. She was more than likely to meet everyone sooner rather than later, and I really didn't feel like lying to her when I was only just getting to meet her. I thought about my conversation with Ness, just over a week ago in the coffee shop. The lies I'd had to keep up with to just have a simple relationship. I didn't want that now.
Nessie had only been one year old when the photo was taken, but she was only just smaller than Claire had been. "Um, no, that's Nessie."
Daisy looked up at me over her shoulder, her eyebrows drawn together in confusion. "And that's Jake? And that's…you…" she frowned at the photo, looking up at me again. "How old are you, Seth?"
"Thirty-one," I answered honestly.
She frowned harder. "And how old is Jake?"
"Don't think too hard on it," I said uneasily. Her eyes fell from both myself and the photo, but the crease between her eyebrows didn't disappear. "It's like one huge family out here, age isn't really something we worry about."
"Is she legal?"
I laughed once, awkwardly. "Yeah, but they're technically not doing anything illegal. They're both crazy about each other, but nothing physical is going on between them."
She nodded once, turning back to the pictures, ignoring the photos of young Nessie and Claire for now, for which I was grateful. Her finger moved to one of the more recent photos, a picture of my closest friends taken at our last bonfire. "You all look like brothers." She said softly. "Who are these people?"
"That's Sam and Emily again, Jared and Kim, Paul and Rachel, she's Jake's sister, and then me, Brady, Collin and Samantha, Dan, Jackson, Connor, my sister Leah, Jake and Ness, Claire and Quil, Leo, Nate, Cooper, Zeke and Embry."
"You're so close with them."
"They're the greatest family in the world." I smiled happily.
She sighed dreamily. "It must be nice, to have that many people who love you." The sadness in her voice tugged at my chest, and I felt an overwhelming urge to wrap my arms around her, but she turned suddenly, looking up at me, her head tipped all the way back. I realized this was the closest I had ever been to her, and I swallowed heavily. "Wait a second," she looked between me and the photo quickly. "If you're this tall, what kind of monsters are these guys?!" her fingers fell to Jake and Sam, and I laughed loudly.
"It's a Quileute thing, I guess." I supplied easily. "We're bred big out here."
"Your sister is tall, too…"
"Ness is quite tall," I reasoned, trying to branch away from the darker-skinned of the bunch to lead her away from any suspicions she might have.
"How tall are you?" she suddenly asked.
"Six-three," it had taken me a couple of years after phasing to fully reach the height I was at now, having made the change so young. But I'd been frozen here for years. I didn't think of myself as being overly tall, seeing as the majority of my time was spent with my brothers, but I had a few inches over some of the younger guys.
"I'm five-five," she smiled. "If I ever meet these people, I'm going to look ridiculous."
"You're probably close to Claire's height, I'd say." I pointed her out again in the photo. You've got a bit on Kim, she's a shorty."
"Yeah, they look like they'd have trouble kissing," she laughed, perhaps knowing from experience?
One of Jared's most famous lines ran through my head at that moment, but I didn't let myself say it out loud. Everyone's the same height in bed.
She gave up on my collection of photos for the moment, her eyes trailing along my small collection of books crammed into the tiny shelves against the wall. She smiled and pressed her finger to the stitched nose of the stuffed wolf my father had gifted me as a small child.
"Cute. What's his name?"
"I don't think he ever had one," I answered honestly.
She turned to me suddenly, her eyes bright as she pulled her lips over her teeth in a wide grin. "Should we get going? I'm excited to see how great this beach really is."
We wandered back through my house to the front door, not bothering to lock it behind us. I led the way to my truck and held the passenger side open for her. She thanked me quietly, using the small step below the door to climb in and settle herself in the seat. We could have walked, but I didn't want to risk her getting caught in the rain and having to walk all the way back, no matter how short the distance. It was constantly in my mind that the cold was affecting her, and I don't think either of us were ready for me to warm her up using my touch.
We chatted about trivial things as I drove, what movies we liked, music we listened to. Most of the singers she listed I'd never heard of before, and she told me she'd broaden my listening habits. I felt a small thrill at the thought of her planning to spend more time with me in future.
The beach was almost empty when I'd parked and we made our way toward the water. She took in the scenery with wide eyes, tugging her sleeves over her hands to keep warm. Her boots squished themselves into the pebbly sand beneath her feet, and she didn't hesitate when her toes slightly dipped into the water of the ocean.
"What do you think?"
"It's certainly different from the beaches I'm used to," she mused quietly. "It's beautiful. It looks like a postcard or something."
"It is beautiful," I agreed. I lowered my eyes to study her, thinking on how she could have easily been the main focus in a music video or movie with the moody grey and green backdrop surrounding her. Again, she didn't shy away from my gaze, looking up at me with just as much intrigue.
"You're something else, aren't you, Seth?"
My eyes narrowed tightly in confusion at her statement. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know," she started, thinking on how she was going to continue for a long moment. "I think you're different to most people. You don't comment on me being strange, or make attempts to get things out of me. I feel comfortable talking to you."
"I'm glad," my expression was one of contentment. There was something behind her words again that seemed very sad, as if she was trying to tell me something about herself she didn't think appropriate for this point in our relationship. "I like your company."
"Like we're kindred spirits, or something?"
"Maybe," I laughed quietly. "I'm used to being told I'm the weird one in our group."
"I don't think you're weird," she disagreed. "I think there's something about you that's more centered than most people. You don't seem caught up in what a lot of people our age are."
Our age. I frowned down at her. The absence of creases and lines on her face, the plumpness of her skin and the youthfulness of her features told me she couldn't have been out of her late teens. But she had said her younger sister had had a baby.
"How old are you, Daisy?"
"I'm almost twenty-five."
"Huh, you look a lot younger."
"Speak for yourself! Thirty-one," she ran her eyes down to my feet and back to my face, not lingering like someone who would want to tell me they were interested in my physically, just taking me in. "I know you're huge and all, but you've got a serious case of baby face." She smiled when I laughed again. "We're able to drink from eighteen back at home. It was so embarrassing going out with work friends so much younger than me and being asked for ID everywhere we went. My friends thought it was hilarious."
"Do you miss them?"
"Hmm," she cocked her head, turning to look back out over the water. "I don't really know. There's a couple of people I keep in touch with on a daily basis. I haven't felt homesick like I thought I would. I think I was ready to get out of there for a long time, honestly. I just needed an excuse and I jumped when I had the chance."
"What was said excuse, if you don't mind me asking?"
She chewed on her bottom lip. "Bad break-up."
"Sorry,"
"Don't be," she didn't look at me, and I tore my eyes from her to look out to the ocean as well. "I really dodged a bullet, honestly. He did me a favor. I would have stayed with him forever, and I was miserable."
I looked over my shoulder, motioning for her to follow me to a small collection of rocks and tree stumps so we could sit and chat and take in First Beach. "Why stay, if you weren't happy?"
She sighed, looking as though she were uncomfortable with answering me. "He was my first boyfriend. I waited a long time before dating, because I had it in my mind I was just going to meet one person and he would be the one, and I'd spend the rest of my life with him. The first three months or so were great, but then he got comfortable with knowing I would stay and decided to fall back into who he actually was. The next three years were a nightmare, and I felt more and more stuck over time."
I wanted to ask so many questions, but I didn't want to push her. There was some fragile quality about her, perhaps in her wide eyes which always displayed exactly what she didn't say out loud.
"It's sad when your partner's mother and sister are trying to get you out of a relationship because they can see how badly it's tearing you apart."
"That's really awful," I leaned toward her sympathetically, and she smiled slightly.
"I'm a doormat. People find it easy to take advantage of me."
"I don't know why they would," I swallowed against the confusing anger I felt rising in my chest. "And then you moved across the world to get away from him."
"To get away from everything," she corrected me. "He was the only thing that was ever holding me there, and my grandmother. None of my family or friends liked him, but I was stubborn and tried to show them I could make it work. I thought one day he'd wake up and see me clearly, but that was never going to happen."
"What's he doing now?"
She laughed darkly. "Mistreating his family and playing dream-man to all the girls he'd cheated on me with, I expect."
My hands curled into fists and I shook my head to myself, unable to answer her for the moment. "You know not everyone's like that, right?"
"I know," she replied quickly. "But you can't ever really trust anyone, I've decided. You never know how someone else is feeling, or what they're keeping from you. I've sworn off relationships. It's easier to be miserable alone than miserable with someone. His sister taught me that."
We were silent for a long time, and then she broke it by turning our conversation toward me. "What about you? Most of your friends looked to be coupled-up. Why are you living the bachelor life in your thirties?"
I hesitated for a long moment. "I've had a couple of long-term relationships in the past, but they both ended the same way. I think they got sick of me, honestly. They wanted more than what I was giving them."
"You didn't want to do the whole move in together, happy house thing?"
"I considered it," I chose to look at the water, instead of at her. "It just never felt right. I didn't want to do it purely because I was being pressured, and have them decide down the track it wasn't working and have to sort out an even bigger mess."
"Do you prefer to live with your sister? Are you one of those guys that needs their alone time?"
"Nah," I dug my bare toes into the sand in front of me. "I like being around people. I just knew I didn't feel as much as I should have with them, and it wasn't fair to either of them for me to settle just because they were there and it would be easy."
"You're complicated, Seth."
"I guess I'm doing the same thing you've planned, waiting for the right girl."
"You're not gay, then?"
I laughed loudly. "Nah, sorry if that ruins whatever friendship we've established here."
She shrugged as I looked up at her. "I was in a line of work where the majority of guys I met were gay. They seem to be more inclined to a friendship than the straight ones."
"That seems a bit stereotypical."
She looked at me awkwardly. "A couple of my best friends were guys, and both times it ended with them telling me they were in love with me and wouldn't continue to be friends with me if I didn't want something more with them. It ruined it for me. It's shit."
"That is pretty shit," I agreed. I wondered what would happen if, eventually, I couldn't hold myself back any longer. Would I confess an undying love to her and she'd disappear to keep the awkwardness at bay?
"How do you find being best friends with your Ness? Has it ever been confusing?"
"Nah, not at all," there was more of a question than what she was saying behind her words. "Nessie and I are very clear on where we stand in our friendship. It would be weird if either of us thought that way about each other. She's honestly as close to me as my sister is. She's my family. She's always felt the same way."
"I think it's nice that you can have that with her."
"We're lucky," I agreed.
We people-watched for the next hour or so, keeping conversation light, neither of us delving into any more serious matters like relationships or previous life experiences that would weigh heavy on our day.
The rain started off light, and we stood to make our way back to the truck. It got heavier and heavier as I drove the few minutes home, bucketing down to the point it was difficult to see through the wipers when I finally parked and turned off the engine. I didn't really want her driving home in a torrential downpour like this, and I turned to her, yelling over the sound of the rain.
"Did you want to come inside and wait this out?"
"Sure,"
We made a run for it. She laughed happily, her head lowered as she made her way, right behind me, up to the front door. I pushed it open and let her go in ahead of me, closing the door loudly to shut us in.
"You're crazy," her teeth were chattering as she took in my bare arms and feet. "I know you've lived here your entire life, but surely you're not comfortable right now."
"I'm wet, but I'm not cold."
"I'm freezing!"
I left her in the entry way as I walked to Leah's room. "I'll get you a dry sweater. Take that off and hang it over a chair."
She'd done so by the time I'd picked out the smallest thing hanging in Leah's closet, an old hoodie I hadn't seen her wear for a long time. She wouldn't even notice it was missing. I re-entered the living space, trying not to stare at her now bare shoulders and arms. The dress she'd been wearing was tightly fitted around her chest and torso, and fell from her waist delicately. I wondered if it was something she'd worn at home, and she'd dressed it up with layers now that she was far from the warmth she was used to. She'd kicked off her boots and was stretching her feet against the floor boards, her feet curled completely over her toes in a way that seemed unnatural.
"I didn't take you to be a tattoo girl," I commented as I handed her the replacement clothing.
She smiled and looked down at her upper right arm, where the red-brown ink wrapped its way around her skin. "I'm a rebel," she told me proudly. "I've got more, but they're hidden."
"You have a thing for sunflowers," I noted, taking one last glance at the image before she hid it inside my sister's hoodie.
"They're my favorite flower. My grandma and I used to grow them when I was little."
"Peggie?"
"You remembered!"
"You only told me yesterday. I listen." I crossed the room to switch on the old heater, wondering if it still worked. I don't think it had been turned on since mom had moved out, years ago. It came to life though, initially blowing out hot dust before it settled and I felt the room begin to warm.
"Is Leah at work?" she seated herself at the counter, watching me cross to the pantry and dig through it, pulling out a huge container of cookies and setting them down in front of her. I grabbed a couple and she took one of the bigger ones, chewing on it silently as she waited for my answer.
"Yeah, she has a nine-to-five in an office through the week. One of her friends there was hosting the party the other night."
"How was it you got suckered into streaking down the street, by the way?"
"Punishment for worst costume." I admitted sheepishly. "Why weren't you enjoying the holiday?"
"We don't really celebrate Halloween in Australia, not to mention I didn't know anyone outside of Seattle I could have been celebrating with."
"You really haven't met anyone at all?"
"I know people through my jobs," she told me. "Not well enough to spend time with them socially. One of my neighbors came over to introduce themselves the day after I'd moved in, but she and her partner are homebodies and didn't have any plans. They've invited me over for dinner a couple of times. They're nice, and they've offered to baby sit for me if I ever need it."
"You're hiding a kid in that house?" I knew who she was referring to, but I didn't want to let her know I'd staked out the place.
"Hugo," she nodded once. "My little boy. He's a three-year-old mutt from a shelter outside of Forks."
I swallowed a large bite of my cookie. "He must be special, if you gave up one of your baby names for him."
"Dogs are the only babies I need. Are you a cat person, or a dog person?"
"I actually can't stand cats," I admitted ironically. "We used to have a dog when we were younger, but Leah and I have both agreed it's easier to just be the two of us with working so much."
Daisy nodded in agreement. "I love that I can work from home a lot. Hugo's pretty relaxed, but I don't really like leaving him alone a lot. Stacey, my neighbor, she's a crazy dog lady, and her retriever gets along really well with Hugo. She'd take him on whenever I needed her to. I think she likes the idea of him visiting over me, honestly."
I made a simple pasta for lunch. For such a small girl, Daisy could really put away her food. She ate almost as much as I did, commenting on how good it was multiple times. I offered her cooking lessons once again, and she seemed more than happy to take me up on my offer.
"What are your plans for tomorrow?" I asked her when we'd finished, taking her plate and setting it with mine in the otherwise empty sink.
"I have a nursery to paint tomorrow morning in Forks," she started. "They're going for a jungle theme, and I get to paint palm trees on their feature wall. I started it last week, I think I should be done by lunch time."
"Did you want me to bring some stuff out and teach you an easy dinner?"
"Only if you're free," she smiled nervously. "I'm getting a bit sick of eating toasted sandwiches and cheeseburgers for dinner every night."
I had my family dinner at Sam and Emily's tomorrow night, but she didn't have to know about that, and I was positive they'd be more than happy for me to skip this fortnight to get to know my imprint a little bit better.
"Let me know when you want me to head out, I'll buy everything we need before I get to yours."
"You really don't have to do that, Seth. You've been way too welcoming already."
"Don't be silly." I switched on the kettle and grabbed a couple of tea bags out of the canister on the bench. "I'm taking it upon myself to make sure you don't feel like the lonely kid anymore. Besides, I could use some company. Ness is all caught up in her Jake troubles at the moment, and I'm starting to feel like I'm getting in the way."
"Well, dinner would be nice. You can come over and judge my half-furnished house."