Chapter Twenty

Jared hadn't realized the full extent of just how much he'd missed spending time with Kim until they were reunited again. But now they were together again and he'd explained everything to her about wolves and imprinting, and she believed him, and he'd even told her that he loved her. It didn't even matter that she didn't say it back; they'd only been dating for a few weeks after all. What did matter was that she said they would have years together ahead of them.

Life was perfect.

Well…almost perfect.

"Kim?" Jared asked hesitantly. It was a few days after they cleared the air between them and they were currently lying side-by-side in Kim's backyard enjoying a rare sunny day, while Kylie sat on the other side of the yard 'gardening.' But Jared was having a hard time actually enjoying it, because there was something that had been on his mind for the past several days.

"Yeah?"

"I've been thinking…" Jared said slowly, "About something you said the other day."

"Yeah?" Kim said again, and this time Jared picked out some trepidation in her tone. Well he certainly felt the same way.

"It's just…are you really not a dog person?"

Kim's sudden giggle did absolutely nothing to calm Jared's worries.

"I'm serious, Kim," Jared insisted, turning his head to face her. She continued giggling, and he couldn't help but notice how pretty she looked as she lay there laughing with the sun shining on her face. It was very distracting.

"I know," Kim finally managed to reply. She turned to face him now as well, and he had to fight himself not to lose himself in her smile. "That's what makes it so funny."

"C'mon…please, Kim?" Jared looked at her earnestly.

Kim let out one more short giggle, before her expression turned apologetic. "Sorry, but it's true."

"But…are you sure?" Jared pressed.

"Pretty sure, yeah," Kim replied. "The good news, though, is that you're a wolf, not a dog."

"Really? I mean…really? It's that easy?"

Kim rolled her eyes. "No. But I'm pretty sure I didn't run away screaming yesterday, did I?"

"This is true," Jared admitted and maybe, just maybe, he really didn't have anything to worry about. Life really was perfect.

"Exactly," Kim stated. "Besides, I haven't been actually scared of dogs since I was little. Just don't attack me and we'll be perfectly fine."

Jared's eyes widened in alarm and Kim winced.

"I'm sorry," She said immediately. "That was—I shouldn't have said that."

"It's fine," Jared said shortly.

"It's not fine," Kim retorted, sitting up and twisting to face him. "It was inconsiderate and completely out of line and I shouldn't have said it and—and—"

"Kim," Jared said firmly, sitting up now, too, and grabbing her other hand so that he was holding both of them. "It really is okay. I understand; I know you didn't mean it." He leaned forward and kissed her briefly. "Really, it's fine. I—I know you're not scared of me."

"I'm really not," Kim reaffirmed softly. Then she stood abruptly and attempted to pull Jared up with her. "Come on, we need to do something with ourselves other than lie around all day doing nothing."

"No, we don't," Jared protested, though he got to his feet at Kim's insistent urging all the same. He'd be lying if he said he didn't always want to do whatever he could to make her happy.

"Yes, we do," Kim retorted. "Trust me, this will be a good thing in the long run."

Well now Jared was definitely intrigued…mostly because Kim was blushing. Just what were they going to do right now?

"We're going inside to check on something," Kim called to her sister as Jared followed Kim across the yard. "Yell if you need anything."

Kylie narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her older sister. "Maybe I should come in, too."

The brief tightening of Kim's grip on his hand was his only indication of her frustration.

"Don't be silly," Kim told her sister cheerfully. "We'll be quick. If it takes longer than that, then just let me know you want help coming in. But for now, you stay out here and keep…er, planting flowers."

"I'm not planting flowers," Kylie informed her sister as if this should be obvious. "I'm digging them up."

Jared had to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud; he had no idea how Kim managed to keep an even tone.

"Well you keep up the good work, dear," She said. And then she resumed pulling him in the direction of the house.

"Your sister is hilarious," Jared stated once they were safely inside and out of hearing range.

Kim frowned. "My sister is a spy."

"…what?" Jared questioned after a brief pause.

"She's a spy," Kim repeated firmly.

"What?" Jared was still confused.

"I was confused at first," Kim confessed, "Because for all that she's not big enough to climb that tree, she's never been clumsy enough to fall out of one. I just know my mom bribed her to break her leg so she'd be at home so that we'd have a chaperone."

Jared simply stared at Kim for a moment. Honestly, he'd only followed about half of what she was talking about. There was one thing he was able to understand perfectly, though. And that was when he burst out laughing.

"You spend far too much time laughing at me over completely valid concerns," Kim stated thoughtfully.

"A chaperone, though?" Jared questioned, still grinning. "Kylie?"

"You never know, anything is possible," Kim informed him sagely.

"Yes," Jared agreed, "But I highly doubt that your mom bribed your sister to break her leg."

"Okay, that's true," Kim conceded, "But you weren't here when my mom got home last night and found out you were…er, back."

"I thought your mom likes me," Jared was confused again. "Was she...mad?"

"Oh, she does," Kim replied. "What she doesn't like is the idea of the two of us spending too much time along together. Of course," she added, more to herself than to him, "Knowing her, she's probably doing something ridiculous like trying to protect your virtue rather than mine."

Jared's lip curled up in a half-smirk at that. "And do I need protecting?"

"Shut up," Kim said immediately, a flush spreading up her neck. Then she turned on her heel and began walking through the house. "Are you coming?" She called back at him over her shoulder.

When Jared caught up with her, she was heading down the hallway that he knew led to her bedroom. Well this was certainly getting interesting. Kim, however, walked past her room, only to stop at a closed door at the end of the hall. Come to think of it, in his previous—and admittedly very brief—foray into this area of the house, he'd never noticed this room.

"What's this?" Jared questioned.

"This is our third bedroom…kind of," Kim replied with a small shrug. "We've always used it as storage. Mom keeps saying that once we clean it out, then Kylie and I don't have to share anymore."

"So I should be worried about my virtue?" Jared's smirk was back.

Kim rolled her eyes and slapped him lightly on the arm. "Stop saying that! I can't believe I said that; you don't need to keep repeating it. We're both starting to sound like my grandma."

Now Jared rolled his eyes.

"Anyway," Kim continued, "I thought maybe we could start cleaning it out."

"That's more fun than being outside and enjoying the nice weather for once?" Jared questioned with a raised brow.

"No," Kim admitted. "But you needed a distraction and I figured I might as well exploit you for manual labor."

"You're just the best girlfriend," Jared told her sarcastically. But when her brow furrowed slightly, he thought he might have said something wrong…though what that might be, he had no idea.

"What is it?" He questioned.

Kim made a face. "I didn't really want to say anything…"

"About what?"

"Am I? Your…girlfriend?" She asked hesitantly.

"What?" Confusion really was a recurring theme in Jared's life today.

Kim sighed. "Alright, it's like this: I know we're soul mates. I get it, I accept it, we've gone over all of that already. What we haven't really talked about, though, is what we…are, for lack of a better word, to those not in on the supernatural secret—which, for the record, is most of the people in my life."

"What?!" Jared repeated, completely scandalized now. He hadn't actually asked Kim to be his girlfriend? What was wrong with him?

But surely he'd…and he'd planned…except…he had planned to ask her…after their fifth date that hadn't ended up happening, and it was going to be after he was sure she was okay with the whole wolf thing. Clearly he'd made the mistake of assuming that she was his girlfriend after their soul mate talk the other day. Well he'd definitely messed this one up.

And he proceeded to tell Kim just that.

"I am so sorry, Kim," Jared concluded.

"It really is fine," Kim told him. "I already told you I didn't want to say anything to begin with. You know what, never mind, I shouldn't have mentioned it."

"Don't be ridiculous," Jared told her, reaching forward and taking both of her hands again. "I want you to be my girlfriend. I want people to know you're my girlfriend…and that I'm your boyfriend."

"Well good," Kim grinned at him. "And do you know what you can do to make up for not mentioning so sooner?"

"Help you have a super-fun time cleaning?" Jared asked with fake enthusiasm.

"Close," Kim replied, "What I was going to say is that you can help me begin facilitating the process of me finally getting my own room which might…maybe…one day…possibly…work out to your advantage. But yeah, I guess having a...er, super-fun time cleaning works too."

Kim really was too adorable for her own good, Jared couldn't help but think to himself as she turned to open the door behind her. He was quickly distracted, however, by the sight that met his eyes when she opened it.

"This is going to be Kylie's bedroom?" He questioned uncertainly.

"Yes."

"But this is a closet."

"No it's not. It has a window, see? That automatically makes it a real room."

"No, it makes it a glorified closet."

"But it will be a glorified closet that Kylie will love," Kim pointed out.

"Well if you're sure…where do we start?"

Several hours later, they hadn't actually made much headway in cleaning out the room. If anything, it was probably more of a disaster zone than earlier.

"Maybe this wasn't such a great idea…" Jared commented, standing up with a stretch and observing the open boxes spread around the room.

"Maybe," Kim acquiesced. "But it's a start, which is a good thing. And since it's started, I know my mom will want to continue it tomorrow when she's off."

"And it's good that your mom will be busy with cleaning tomorrow because…?" Jared questioned searchingly.

"Well she's bound to make Kylie help out, too," Kim pointed out, "So that way I won't have to be the one waiting on her hand and foot for once. And if I'm not busy with Kylie then that means…" She trailed off expectantly.

"You and I can go out together, just the two of us?" Jared offered hopefully.

"That's a definite possibility," Kim agreed. "But actually, I was hoping you could take me to visit Emily."

Well Jared definitely hadn't been expecting that.

"You see," Kim began slowly, "I've been thinking for the past few days, and I feel really bad about how I reacted to you being gone to help Emily—"

"That's not—" Jared tried to interrupt, but Kim cut him off again.

"I know it's not my fault," Kim said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "That doesn't mean I can't still feel guilty. But I think it would help if I could meet her. Actually," She admitted, "I really just want to meet her in general, since we're the only two imprints in the, er, pack."

"Really?" Jared asked eagerly. How amazing would it be if his imprint and Sam's imprint became friends? "I think that's a great idea."

Kim smiled. "So you can take me tomorrow?"

"Sure," Jared replied with a shrug. "She got released from the hospital yesterday and I've been meaning to visit her anyway. And I'm sure she'll be really glad to meet you, too."

"Perfect. Now, help me up. I need to go pay actual attention to that kid before she starts making up stories to tell my mom..."