“Oh, be quiet with your nonsense,” Mavis said, and turned to Stella. “Are you all right?”
Stella nodded, standing straight. Her side wasn’t pressed to Nate’s any longer, but she reached for his hand, and he took it. “Thank you,” she said, sounding a little dazed. “I didn’t realize—I appreciate that. Your words. Thank you.”
“Believe me when I tell you that it was my pleasure,” Mavis said firmly. “Now, how about Nate takes you home?”
“We can follow you, if you’d like,” the Colonel rumbled from behind her.
“We have it covered,” Carlos said. “But thank you, sir.”
“Well, do call on us if you need anything at all,” said Mavis. “And whether you need something or not, let’s all have dinner soon. I’m realizing that we haven’t been keeping up with you as well as we should, have we, Wilson?”
“Not if one of my men can be in town to deal with a problem like this, and I didn’t even know about it,” the Colonel said wryly. “Come over Friday night, all of you, and bring Ken and Lynn, too.”
“We will, thank you,” said Stella. Her eyes were bright, and she came forward to hug Mavis.
Mavis embraced her back. “We’ll talk more about your business then, too,” she said.
Stella smiled all of a sudden. “I almost forgot about that just now,” she confessed. “Thank you for everything.”
“And Sanders,” the Colonel put in.
Nate straightened automatically. “Yes, sir?”
“Deal with that man.”
He fought the urge to salute, and just nodded instead. “Yes, sir.”
***
Stella
Stella tried to thank Carlos also, in the car on the way back to the house. Carlos waved it off just like Mavis and Wilson had, and Stella was left thinking.
It was crazy how...isolating this whole thing with Todd had been. Stella had been embarrassed at first, and then ashamed—first that she couldn’t just make him go away, and then that she’d dated someone like this in the first place. Didn’t it demonstrate that there was something wrong with her? That she could have found Todd attractive, even sweet, back when they first met?
Stella hadn’t wanted to admit how bad it was getting. If Lynn hadn’t been paying attention, if Eva hadn’t started getting concerned...how long could it have gone on, how bad could it have gotten, before she asked for help?
She didn’t know.
But now this—this was almost the complete opposite. Not just Nate by her side, not even just Carlos, but also Mavis and Wilson, acting like Stella had nothing to be ashamed of. Like Stella was worth protecting. More than that. Like they wanted to protect her, and even have her around for other reasons. Even if Todd might show up. That dinner invitation...
Stella blinked back tears. She’d always thought of herself as someone who liked people, who was happy to have them around. But somehow, in the last couple of months—maybe even before that, maybe since she’d gotten together with Todd, and he’d wanted to have her all to himself, all the time—she’d withdrawn. Made herself smaller.
Well, no more. She had a gorgeous, amazing mate. She had a new career to think about. And she had a group of friends. A little quasi-pack. And she was going to make the most of all of it.
“Are you okay?” Nate asked her quietly.
She found a smile for him, and it felt real. “I’m just fine.”
***
Nate
Back at the house, Stella went to go spend some time with Eva, so Nate sat down with Carlos in the front room, where he’d been bedding down—and where Carlos would be setting himself up.
“He’s going to escalate,” he said quietly.
Carlos nodded. “Did you see his face? He’s furious. But that kind of guy isn’t man enough to get furious when someone might be a match for him. He’ll do something sneaky.”