Nina drifted into consciousness with the greatest sense of well-being she’d ever felt. Her entire body felt flushed with warm happiness. She didn’t want to open her eyes and end the illusion.
Then she felt an arm tighten around her.
Hardly believing it could be real, she opened her eyes.
Joel was smiling down at her. “Good morning,” he said. “Have a good nap?”
It was real.
Nina lifted her chin, and before she could even go for a kiss herself, Joel took the cue and dropped one on her lips. He tasted like wildness and man, and she couldn’t help going back for seconds.
Seconds stretched into minutes, until finally she pulled back with a gasp. “What time is it?” It wasn’t dark yet. She felt like this day was a thousand years long.
Joel glanced over his shoulder. “Four-thirty. We’re meeting Cal at the diner at six, if that’s all right.”
Nina was struck by a cold sense of apprehension—familiar, but unwelcome after such a delicious little vacation. “What if he doesn’t like me?”
“He’s not the sort of person who...likes people,” Joel said, looking thoughtful. “He’s mostly gruff at them. He won’t cause you any trouble, I promise.”
“All right,” Nina said, although she still felt worried.
Joel seemed to sense it, because he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “Hey. It’s going to be fine. I promise you. It really is.”
Nina felt warmth flood her body. This was so strange. She wasn’t used to having anyone tell her things were going to be all right. She was used to worrying about the future, and then just having to set that worry aside because other things were more important right now.
Instead, that worry was being calmed. Joel kissed her forehead again, softly, and just his confidence, his presence, was enough to relax her muscles. She could feel the tension in her neck just...unwinding.
Joel believed it would be okay, so Nina believed it would be okay.
This was so much better than being alone. Nina had fantasized about having someone, about having a mate or a pack or a family or anything, but the fantasy hadn’t even come close to the reality of this.
She smiled up at Joel, and pushed herself up to sit. “I’d better get in the shower if we’re going to be meeting the leader of the pack,” she said.
Joel grinned at her. “Second door on the right,” he said, and Nina walked off with a spring in her step.
***
Her anxiety started creeping back as they approached Oliver’s. She really wasn’t sure what to expect, and what if Cal was awful? What if he was creepy, and Joel didn’t realize because he was a man?
Alethia was part of this pack, Nina reminded herself. Alethia, and Teri, and the woman with the baby. Leah. Surely they wouldn’t all seem so happy if the pack leader was a creep.
Joel draped his arm over her shoulders as they started walking from the car to the door, and once again, Nina felt all the tension begin to melt away.
It was weird. It was like, as long as she was with Joel, it wouldn’t matter what the problems were, what the world threw at her. At them. She truly believed that they could handle it together.
She pushed the door open firmly, and stepped inside the diner.
“Hey there, Nina,” said Patsy, one of the other waitresses. “Eating where you work tonight?”
“We’re meeting someone,” Joel told her, and nodded over at a booth. Patsy nodded, snapping her gum, and stood aside as Joel steered Nina over to the booth with a hand on the small of her back.
The man in the booth was about forty, with short brown hair going grey at the temples, a weathered face, and iron-gray eyes. He stood up as they approached, and looked her over. But it wasn’t a creepy look; there was nothing sexual about it at all. It was like he was just...getting her measure.
When she was close enough, he held out his hand. “Cal,” he said.
Nina shook. “Nina.”
“Nina’s my mate,” Joel put in.