“Any chance of telling me how to win the event?” Jack chuckled. “Nora and I are a good team too. I would love it if we could win the whole damn thing. Help a guy out?”
“Nope,” Parker said. “If I did that, Jade would murder me in my sleep. She takes the rules very seriously.”
“Just not the rules that keep Nora and me away from the crowds,” Jack pointed out with a laugh.
His friend shrugged. “She’s been friends with Nora a long time, and she knew that Nora was too shy to make a move on her own. Jade swears she was only giving fate a little nudge.”
“Shit, if she keeps on talking like that, she’s gonna end up sounding like Mrs. Francis,” Cohen said, casting his line far into the water. “And we’ve already got one of those nosy ladies. We don’t need another.”
“I don’t mind Mrs. Francis,” Jack admitted.
Cohen pursed his lips. “Your dealings with her have been a little different.” His tone and his words were tight, like they cost him something to admit.
The sheriff and the elder didn’t always see eye to eye, but Jack wouldn’t dare butt heads with Mrs. Francis as Cohen did. After all, Mrs. Francis had been his teacher when he was a teen, and as such, he would always have a sense of deference to her. She wasn’t just the eldest and most respected elder in Half Moon Key.
She was the woman who had saved his teenage life. She had set him on the course ofbothhis careers, two jobs he wouldn’t change for the world.
Mrs. Francis had also put him on the path that led him to Nora, and for that, he would always be eternally grateful.
It was on the tip of his tongue to ask Parker and Mason how they knew their women were their fated mates, but the question never moved past his lips.
His lion would have told him if Nora had been his mate a long time ago.
He didn’t need his animal to confirm what he already knew. He definitely loved Nora … and yes, so soon after being with her.
Good! I don’t mind her at all. Actually, I really like her. If we were to spend the rest of our life with her, it would be cool. Actually, that’s what I’m trying to s…
“Fellas, I think we need to call it,” Cohen grumbled. “All of this yammering on has scared the fish, and we are not about to get some now.”
Cohen was quick to pack up his shit, but Jack took his time. He was still mulling everything over as he reeled in his line.
Jack’s lion’s opinion counted, but not as much as the clenching in his heart every time he imagined Nora’s face. Maybe fate had forgotten to give him a mate, and it had sent Mrs. Francis and Nora to make up for it.
That would certainly explain why Norafeltlike his true fated mate.
Jack knew he would have to be honest with her now that Sage had found him. He would have to tell her all about shifters and mates and hope that she agreed to be his forever.
That was the only way of protecting her.
He knew that now.
If Nora refused him, he would have to leave Half Moon Key … his home … forever.
Losing Nora was not a blow he could recover from. He had to make it work somehow.
* * *
Jack was a bit frustrated.
Not angry, but slowly getting there with each passing second.
The electricity and internet were down in townagain, and of course, it had to be at the worse possible moment. The scavenger hunt was about to start, and Nora was nowhere to be seen.
She wasn’t at the ice cream parlor; he had walked in front of it earlier, and theClosedsign was on thanks to its solar panel, and the lights were obviously off given the most recent outage.
Nora wasn’t at her place or his. She wasn’t at any of her family’s businesses.
In fact, no one had seen her all afternoon.