First date: Check! Any bets on how long Wesley will be able to hold out??
WESLEY POV I choked on my spit and glared at Reid, who was standing in a t-shirt and his boxers. In my kitchen. Holding a bag of Cheetos. “How does everyone keep breaking into my house?” I asked. Reid scoffed. “Please, I’ve had a key since your first week here.” “But you always knock when you come over.” “Yeah, but that’s cause I know you’re here,” he said with an eye roll. He lifted the Cheeto bag at me and said, “Glad to see you upped your snack game.” “Yeah, you can thank Maddie for that,” I grumbled. “Oh, I already did,” he laughed. I rubbed my forehead to hide my annoyance at finding him here after my date. My very successful date. “How’d you know that was the Sugar Plum Fairy music?” I asked, to avoid lashing out at him. “Really? We only watched The Nutcracker like… a bazillion times that Christmas. Not to mention all the times you listened to the music when you were writing Haven letters.” Reid chuckled and shook his head. “As if I could ever forget any of those tunes
HAVEN POV I had forgotten how crazy the week leading up to opening night could be. Last week was already rough, with early morning classes and rehearsals and last-minute things being added or moved or cut. But this week was even worse. Plus, with it being a brand new company in the area and our very first premiere, the stakes were just higher all around. Nevertheless, Wesley had found ways to spend time with me. Saturday was a bust, as I slept in after our date and we had rehearsal all day after that, but Sunday we had “brunch” together, and Tuesday, he picked me up after rehearsal and drove me the walkable distance to my apartment building on his way back home from work. But even though we were spending time together when we could, and even though we’d shared that mind-blowinglyamazing kiss on our date, neither of us had tried to kiss the other again. But I wanted to. Fuck, did I want to. Kissing Wesley was so different from kissing Lennox. Or any other guy I’d been with. With oth
HAVEN POV “Where are we going?” I asked Wesley as I climbed into his truck, dressed in my purple leotard and black skirt from earlier that morning. “It’s Wednesday,” he said as he pulled away from the theater. I cocked my head at him and waited for him to elaborate. “Where did you see me last Wednesday?” he asked. “Oh!” I exclaimed, my eyes widening. “Oh, that’s genius!” I added as I realized who he was thinking I should give my premiere tickets to. “You’re welcome,” he winked, grabbing my hand and bringing it to his lips to kiss. “And I am definitely a genius.” “You’re definitely cocky,” I teased. His lips twitched into a smirk and I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Oh, my god that isn’t even what I meant and you know it,” I told him, reaching over and shoving him with my other hand. “You said it,” he shrugged. “Well, it’s true,” I told him. “Is it?” “Yes. Even Maya said so,” I said without thinking. His brows lifted. “Did she now?” he mused. “Yes. Right before she told me you
HAVEN POV We ended up staying at Jack and Shirley’s for dinner, and by the time we made it back to my apartment, it was late evening. “Did Shirley tell you what was in this box?” Wesley asked as he shut the apartment door with his foot. “She said it was some stuff from my old room,” I told him. “They kept it all just in case.” “Did you want to look at it now?” “In a minute? I was going to change first,” I said, jerking my thumb over my shoulder at my bedroom. “Don’t change too much,” he winked. “I like you the way you are.” I scrunched my nose up at him and narrowed my eyes. “You’re right, that was super cheesy,” he admitted. I laughed and shook my head. “I’ll be right back.” “Where do you want this?” Wesley called after me as I closed the bedroom door. “On the coffee table!” I replied. I quickly changed out of my dance clothes and into leggings and my old too big Salt Lake City Ballet sweatshirt. I grabbed a pair of fuzzy socks, then paused, remembering how Maya always compl
WESLEY POV I looked out at the rest of the members of the audience as I sat in the theater the night of Haven’s and the company’s premiere of The Sleeping Beauty. The excitement in the air was palpable. I could scent it on everyone in attendance. I didn’t realize ballet would be so popular in the city near our pack, but almost every seat at the performance was sold out. Reid sat between Nolan and me, but I wasn’t sure where Seb was. I’d thought I had scented him entering the theater, but then his scent faded and disappeared. A hand waving caught my eye, and I looked down towards the front of the theater to see Shirley waving at me, a huge smile on her face, and Jack sitting next to her, an almost identical smile on his face. I waved back at them, happy to see them supporting Haven. They had become like family to us since they moved here, and I knew just how much they missed Haven, just how much they regretted the way everything went down when Jack had his stroke. For them to find h
HAVEN POV“Ah ah,” Wesley teased, lifting the bag up and out of my reach. “First, you have to tell Seb he’s a terrible friend for forgetting to buy you flowers.”I glared at him, then looked at Sebastian, then looked back at Wesley. I held the four bouquets out and Nolan took them from me with a small laugh and a shake of his head and a smirk at Wesley.I stalked closer to Wes, watching as his face went from teasing to nervous.“You know, that’s not really your color, Pal,” I murmured, sliding my hands along his chest on top of his light gray suit jacket.“Really?” He quirked a brow and looked down at his suit. “I’ve always gotten compliments when—”“Not the suit color,” I told him, smirking and shaking my head as I leaned closer to him. “Green,” I said pointedly, glancing over my shoulder at Seb for a moment.His brow furrowed, and he looked over at Sebastian and then back down at me. Then the little lightbulb went off over his head and he chuckled, his arm wrapping around my waist, a
HAVEN POVI walked out of the door and into the garden, and right away Maya looped her arm through mine, the bright yellow silk of her gown standing out against the lilac of mine. She had her dark coils smoothed back into a low bun, a rhinestone comb slid snug up against it, and she’d added just enough makeup to her face to give herself a subtle shimmery glow.“I never thought I’d see the day when the wolfketeers would come to the ballet. Voluntarily. And enjoy it,” she said as we walked through the garden under the stars, winding our way through the tables laden with candles, eucalyptus and floral arrangements, and the planters filled with jasmine.“Wait, the what?” I asked, turning to stare at her, a small laugh spilling from my lips. “Did you just call them the ‘wolfketeers’?”She blinked for a second, then pursed her lips and shrugged and said, “Yeah.”“Like the musketeers?”“Yeah. But when we were growing up, they were like a little pack of wolves, always running around the forest
WESLEY POV“Gone? What do you mean, the Wainwrights are gone?” I growled, my nails lengthening to claws and digging into the arms of the chair. Receiving this news after the high from Haven’s premiere and the gala the night before was like a punch to the gut.“I mean gone,” my dad replied, leaning forward and resting his arms on his desk. “House is dark and closed up, and their car is gone. The neighbors haven’t seen them in a few days.”“Okay, but what about their credit card records? Surely those are showing something? CCTV at the airports? Or gas stations?”“Their credit cards show no transactions at all. Their bank records too. They must be using cash that they had saved in their house or something.”“But what about the facial recognition in the CCTV?”“With the limited searching we can do legally, we haven’t found them. It’s likely they didn’t fly though, since their car is gone. I can only assume they took back roads and are using gas stations that are out of our reach.”“Fuck!”