Chapter 12
Hope knew the second she rolled through the door that her plan had worked.
I am the greatest sister in the world, she thought smugly, and waited for Ivy and Hugh to tell her their good ne
ws.
To her surprise, however, the happy announcement didn’t come. For some reason, Hugh and her sister seemed hell-bent on pretending that they weren’t now mated.
They still maintained a constant, careful distance, sidling round each other as though terrified they might spontaneously combust if they so much as bumped shoulders. They exchanged only the minimum of words, their voices polite and strained like two strangers stuck in an elevator together.
But though they were still determinedly keeping their hands to themselves, their eyes were all over each other. Hope could have toasted marshmallows in their heated gazes. They were basically walking heart emojis.
Hope guessed that Ivy’s pride was holding her back from admitting what had clearly happened. After all, Ivy owed all of her newfound happiness to Hope’s awesome matchmaking skills. Now she’d have to finally accept that her little sister was actually smarter than her when it came to some things.
Hope would, she’d already decided, not make a big thing of it. She would accept Ivy’s grudging apology gracefully, like the mature adult she was. She wouldn’t rub her sister’s nose in it.
Well, not much.
For now, though, Hope played along. She obediently lay back on the couch and held still under Hugh’s tingly-tickly healing hands, and secretly laughed her head off over the way that Ivy was clearly checking out his butt whenever he bent over.
Not that Hope could blame Ivy for that, she had to admit. Hugh was easy on the eyes, if you were into the whole angst-and-muscles thing. And dudes, of course. Ivy could have done a whole lot worse, when it came to a mate.
He’d be good for Ivy, Hope decided. Whatever his inner animal might be, he was clearly no pushover. He could handle her sister. And maybe, in his magic hands, Ivy would finally chill out a little. Let Hope live her own life at last.
So Hope held her tongue, even though it just about killed her to pretend that she hadn’t noticed the way they were drooling all over each other. She knew her sister well enough to know that it was better to let Ivy come clean in her own time, when she was ready.
After all, she’d have to admit the truth soon. It wasn’t like any shifter could actually keep their hands off their fated mate for long. It was kind of hilariously tragic, watching the pair of them try.
At least, it was funny at first.
As the morning wore on and they still didn’t admit their secret, it started to get old.
By the afternoon, it was downright irritating.
When Hugh went off after lunch to take a nap—apparently healing wore him out, although Hope herself felt as refreshed as if she’d been floating in a hot tub all morning—she couldn’t hold her silence any longer.
“Well?” she demanded of her sister, once they were finally alone.
Ivy didn’t look round from washing up her tin plate and cutlery from lunch. “Well what?”
“Are you going to tell me about Hugh or not?”
Ivy’s fork and knife clattered against each other as she twitched. “I don’t know his animal. And don’t you dare bug him about it, either. It’s rude to pry.”
The tense line of Ivy’s back, the too-quick answer to a question Hope hadn’t actually asked…Hope knew when her sister was lying.
But why? she wondered. If Hugh had shown Ivy his shift form last night—and Hope would now have bet her busted wheelchair on that—what reason could she possibly have for lying about it? Especially to her own sister?
She set the mystery aside for later consideration. “That wasn’t what I meant. Come on, Ivy. Tell me what’s up with you and Hugh. You know you have to eventually.”
Ivy’s shoulders stiffened, but she didn’t turn around. She seemed focused on her task, dumping each cleaned item back into the Box o’ Death, as they called the red-banded plastic container where Ivy stored everything she’d handled with bare hands.
“Ivy. Ivyyy.” When her sister still didn’t respond, Hope scaled her voice up to her most annoying whine. “Ivyyyyyy. You know I can keep this up all day. Ivyyyyyyyyyyy.”
Steel clanged on steel as Ivy threw a fork into the Box o’ Death with a rather excessive amount of force. “I am so not discussing my private life with you.”
“I knew it!” Hope cackled with delight. “You totally did it! You banged Hugh and now you’re mated!”