Chapter 8

As soon as Roxie ran up the stairs, Dylan and Luke went into the kitchen and began making breakfast for her. “Do you think she’s going to let us stay here?” Luke asked, his voice low.

“I’m not sure.” Dylan suspected Roxie might be okay with him staying with her, but as far as Luke went, he thought she might feel he should stay with a family. That was what he would suggest. Though the kid had been through a lot already with losing his parents and then witnessing a murder. Luke seemed happy to be with them, and that was a good thing. But Dylan thought he would feel just as good if he was able to settle in with a family that was permanently living here and could give him all the nurturing he needed.

Then they heard Roxie coming down the stairs. “Boy, I hope you left some bacon for me,” she said, sounding cheerful now that she was back to her human self.

He’d been amused that she’d been so growly as a wolf. He felt sympathetic for her but was glad he didn’t have issues like that. He was relieved that Luke didn’t have trouble with that either.

“I made sure Luke didn’t cook them all up the first time.” Dylan smiled at her. “Would you like a cheese omelet?”

“Yes, that sounds great. With bell peppers, mushrooms, and onions,” she said.

“Coming right up.”

“So what do you think about us staying with you?” Luke asked.

“Let’s see if a family will take you in,” Roxie said. “Dylan won’t be here for long and—”

“Oh, gotcha.” Luke poured her a glass of orange juice. “You two need to be alone.”

Dylan glanced at her to see her reaction. She blushed.

“I think you need to have a family to look after you,” she repeated. Then she got a call, and she answered it. “Hello, Peter. I’ll put you on speaker.”

“Oh, good. I was going to call Dylan next if you were unable to answer the phone. Luke’s phone isn’t working. I suspect the phone company closed out the account when his parents died. Anyway, we have a family who’d love to take him in. Our pack leaders, Darien and Lelandi, have three fourteen-year-olds, two boys and a girl, and they want Luke to stay with them. If he doesn’t like the arrangement, he can stay with another family. We want him to feel comfortable with whomever he stays with,” Peter said.

Luke sighed resignedly. “Sure, I’m fine with that.”

“Good. I’ll be picking you up in a bit,” Peter said.

“All right. I’ll go pack my bags.” Luke sounded less than enthused and headed to the guest room.

But Dylan figured he couldn’t stay with Roxie when she was on her own, and maybe Luke wouldn’t want to after Dylan left. “Hey, Peter, I have another case to work on too.”

“Yeah?” Peter said.

Dylan explained the situation to him.

Peter didn’t hesitate to offer assistance. “We’ll help you with that too.”

Dylan had never figured he would have regular law enforcement helping him with his job, but finding the trapper and his traps benefited all their kind who could step into one of those traps.

Dylan didn’t say anything to Roxie about it, assuming they would talk after Luke left. Dylan dished up the hash browns, a cheese omelet, and bacon for Roxie.

“Wow,” she said. “Thanks so much.”

“Thank you for allowing us to stay here.”

It didn’t take long for Peter to arrive at Roxie’s house just as she finished eating her breakfast. She gave Luke a hug. “We’ll have you over for a meal again. You’re still part of my family and of the pack as a whole.”

Luke gave her a hug back. “Thanks, Roxie.”

Dylan shook Luke’s hand. “I’ll be sure to see you before I leave.”

Luke nodded and swallowed a lump in his throat, then headed out to the sheriff’s car. “He’ll be in good hands,” Peter assured them.

“Right,” Roxie said.

But Dylan was thinking Luke might not like being with a family that had younger teens, even if being with the pack leaders’ family elevated his position. Dylan figured Darien wanted to take him in to make sure the teen was protected in case the hunters showed up in Silver Town.

When they left, Roxie said to Dylan, “I felt a little badly that he had to go. I think he did too.”

“Lelandi came and spoke with me about how I was feeling when I was at the clinic. She told me she is a psychologist. If Luke needs one to talk to, she will be perfect for the job—being a wolf and all,” Dylan said.

“Oh, good. That’s so true. Thanks for breakfast. It was first class.”

“You’re welcome. I don’t want to put you out, but if you’d like me to stay here and help you while you’re dealing with shifting issues…”

“Yeah, sure, and thanks. I didn’t want to say anything until Luke was going to a family’s home because then he might have felt left out. But that would be fine with me. So what are you going to do? Sit still and stay here?”

Despite doctor’s orders or his boss saying he needed to take time off, he didn’t want to sit around Roxie’s house.

“You mentioned the hunter’s grandfather’s cabin,” Roxie said.

“Yeah.” He had to check it out. Though he figured other law enforcement officials would too. But they wouldn’t be wolves. They wouldn’t know if Jim’s, Fennel’s, or Xander’s scents were there or if they were recent, like the wolves would.

“You can’t go alone.” Roxie was serious about it. She realized he was used to working on his own, but it was too dangerous for him after being injured and considering the danger these men represented since one tried to kill him. “You said it was near the national forest. Darien’s cousin Eric Silver is a forest ranger there. He can meet you there. And others of the pack would go with you. They’ll be eager to arrest the hunter setting traps too. But you can go only if you have the doctor’s permission.”

He smiled at her. “Sure thing.”

“I know how you guys are. My brothers are the same way. They have a mission to accomplish, and they do it even if they’re sick or injured.”

“Yeah, I guess we’re all kind of like that. What about the Valentine’s Day party?”

Roxie smiled as they cleaned up the kitchen. “Yes, you can ‘take’ me though I’ll already be there because we’re throwing the party for the pack at our ski lodge.”

“I’ll escort you from your house then.”

She glanced at him. “It’s a deal. It is a black-tie affair, by the way.”

“You don’t think I own a tux?”

She laughed. “You very well might. But while you’ve been running out here? Chasing down bad guys? I doubt you have it packed in your bag, just in case you had the chance to take a she-wolf to a black-tie Valentine’s Day party.”

He chuckled as he finished scrubbing the frying pan he had used for the omelets. “Okay, in truth I don’t own one. Do they have a store in town that sells them?”

“You’re in luck. We have all kinds of celebrations here—Victorian Days, even. A couple of shops carry whatever we need for whatever event is going on.”

“I’ll have to check them out. You’re really okay with me staying here? I didn’t even ask if you might be seeing some guy. He wouldn’t like that a bachelor male wolf was staying here with you.”

“Oh, I’m sure there will be some bachelor males in the pack who are a bit envious. No one I’ve ever dated—not that I’m saying I’m dating you, mind you—has ever stayed with me overnight. And here you come along—”

“I nearly drowned in your pool, for starters…”

She smiled and dried the pan he’d just washed. “Yeah, you know never has a guy gone to such drastic measures to meet me.”

“Well, it worked, didn’t it?”

She put the pan away and she pulled him in for a kiss. “Yeah, and I’m damn thankful you were okay, after the fact.”

He wrapped his arms around her and began to kiss her like he wanted to keep her. She liked that feeling. Warm, glowing, the heat growing. Her heart was beating faster, and so was his. His hand moved to the nape of her neck and caressed her. She felt tingly all over.

She tasted his mouth, felt the tenderness in his touch, and soaked it in. Ohmigod, she loved kissing him and him kissing her. She wanted to take him to the Valentine’s Day party and keep him even after that.

But she had to get him dressed for the occasion and that meant taking him shopping. She placed a playful kiss on his nose. “Come on. If you’re up for it, let’s go and get you that tux before you change your mind,” Roxie said.

He laughed. “No way would I change my mind about taking you to the Valentine’s Day party.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear it.”

Then they headed into town in her car. As soon as she reached the town, she parked at the shop, Faye’s Formal Wear, and smiled. She could just imagine what everyone would be saying if they saw her visit the shop with Dylan.

Dylan had never shopped for anything as dressy as a tux. As a special agent for the FWS, he worked mostly undercover, and dressy had never been his style. He was glad Roxie would be there to help him figure this all out.

She introduced him to Faye Blackstone, a pretty redhead with shining green eyes. “She’s the owner and manager of the store,” Roxie said. “We need to find Dylan a tux for the Valentine’s Day party.”

Faye was still staring at him, and she finally said, “You’re the man who almost drowned in the pool.”

Roxie laughed. “He’s a special agent for the Fish & Wildlife Service, but everyone will remember him as the man who almost drowned in the pool.”

Dylan smiled. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“I’m so glad you can take the ribbing so good-naturedly,” Roxie said.

He got a kick out of the wolves of Silver Town. He really was having a good time here.

Faye offered them pieces of homemade fudge and cups of hot cocoa. He thought that was a cool way to entice customers to buy even more. The chocolate fudge chock-full of pecans was out of this world. Dylan took a sip of the cocoa. Roxie ate some of the mocha-and-chocolate-swirl fudge. Faye encouraged them to try out the different varieties. After they had their cocoa and fudge, they washed their hands and then Dylan began to look through a rack of tuxes. This wasn’t going to be easy.

Roxie was pulling out white dress shirts and holding them up to eyeball them and him to calculate whether they’d work on him or not. “Any of these would work so that you can wear it to the more formal functions but also for more informal wear. You never know when you might need one.”

He wasn’t planning on telling her he didn’t ever wear fancy white collared shirts to anything and ruin whatever image she might have of him. “Right.”

“Do you have black socks?” She ran her hand over the socks.

He smiled. “Nope. Not with me.” The ones he did have back home weren’t dress socks.

She set a pair on the counter. “What about a bow tie or a tie?”

“James Bond always wore a bow tie.” He smiled.

The ladies laughed.

“James Bond it is.” Roxie picked out a bow tie for him.

Dylan was still undecided about a tuxedo as he poked through the ones hanging on the rack.

Roxie started pulling dress pants off a rack and handed them to him. “You can try these on.” Then she began checking out each of the tuxes. She was pulling them off the rack, looking them over, and handing each of them to him that she liked. She didn’t seem to be in a hurry to rush through the experience. It was more like she worried he would get exasperated if they took too long at this. Sure, shopping wasn’t normally his idea of a good time, but he’d never experienced having anyone interested enough in him to do this for him, and he had to admit, he really liked it.

Faye was taking a phone call and telling a customer what she had available in the line of tuxes. So Dylan wasn’t the only one who needed one at the last minute. He was glad for that.

This was a lot easier than he thought it would be while Roxie was the one picking them out.

She found three waistcoats she liked and was about to hand them to Dylan, but Faye ended her call, took them from Roxie, and gathered up the dress shirts too. “I’ll put these in a dressing room for Dylan.”

Before Faye could return for the pants and tuxes, Dylan and Roxie heard the doorbell jingle and they turned to see Lelandi bringing Luke in to get him a tux.

“Hey, I didn’t expect to see you here,” Luke said, eyeing the handfuls of pants and tuxes on hangers that Dylan was holding on to.

“Yeah, you should never put off things until the last minute,” Dylan said.

“That’s what Lelandi said!”

Lelandi smiled. “I sure did. Why don’t you look at this rack, Luke? The clothes are more your size.”

Roxie handed Dylan one more tuxedo. “That’s it. Why don’t you try them on and see which you like the best?”

“Are you going to wait for me so I can model them for you?” Dylan had no idea which he would like the best. Besides, getting a second opinion worked for him.

Roxie nodded. “Of course.”

Lelandi helped Luke pick out some clothes. Then he rushed with the clothes into the dressing room next to Dylan’s to try them on.

Dylan came out of his dressing room to model the first set of clothes and said to Roxie, Lelandi, and Faye, “What do you think?”

The three ladies looked him over. “Love it,” Roxie said. “With black dress shoes, socks, and the bow tie, it will be perfect. Oh, and cuff links too.”

“Yeah, that looks great,” Lelandi said, Faye agreeing.

“Okay, great. So that’s it then,” Dylan said, glad that was over with.

“Nope,” Roxie said. “This is an investment. I want to see them all on you.”

This was going to take forever. Here he thought he’d be out of here in no time. Before Dylan could return to his dressing room, Luke hurried out, still buttoning his white shirt.

“What do you think?” Luke asked Dylan.

Dylan smiled. “You look like James Bond Jr.”

Luke smiled and turned to Roxie and Lelandi. “Do you think this is all right?”

“Yes,” Lelandi said. “You look great.”

“I agree. Very handsome,” Roxie said.

“I don’t have to try anything more on?” Luke glanced at Roxie as if she knew better than anyone about these things.

“Nope,” Roxie said. “That looks perfect on you.”

“Oh, wow, thanks. Be right back. Save me some fudge.” Luke rushed back into his dressing room.

Dylan cocked a brow at Roxie, hoping he’d get a reprieve, but she waved him into the room. “They resell kids’ formal wear because they grow out of their things so quickly. What he picked out is perfect for him. He looks great in it. You will be keeping yours for other events so you need to make sure it’s the one you like the best,” she said.

Smiling, Dylan shook his head and returned to the dressing room. He really liked the fit and style of the shirt and trousers, so he would just try on the other tuxedos and waistcoats. By the time he left the room to model the second tux, Luke was setting his new clothes on the checkout counter and asking Faye if he could have some fudge.

Lelandi paid for his clothes and sampled some of the fudge too.

Everyone watched as Dylan came out in his boot socks and the tux ensemble each time, but they all agreed that they liked the first one he had modeled best. Luke was grinning at him, as if he knew he had gotten out of having to do all that extra work for nothing.

“You had to try all of them,” Roxie said, justifying her actions. “It’s so costly, you need to be sure it’s the right one.”

“Yeah, I know. And you will too, Luke, when you’re fully grown and will keep the formal attire for longer.” As if Dylan thought he’d ever wear it again unless he was invited to another formal event down here.

He still had to buy dress shoes and cuff links. Faye had the cuff links in her store so he picked out stainless-steel ones he wanted. He would have to go to the shoe shop for the dress shoes.

Once he had made his purchases, he was glad everyone had helped him decide. He would have just picked out the first set of clothes he pulled off the racks. Though in retrospect, those were the ones everyone had liked best.

Faye gave both Luke and Dylan a box of her fudge to go home with them. They thanked her for the fudge, and she thanked them for coming to the store and buying their tuxes for Valentine’s Day.

“A trip to the shoe store is next, right?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah!” Luke said, sounding eager to do this, which surprised Dylan.

When Dylan was that age, well, if he hadn’t been running around in the wilderness when he was sixteen, he wouldn’t have been interested in shopping for dress clothes.

They placed their packages in their vehicles and walked down to the shoe store a short distance from the formal-wear shop. Inside, they found shoes for men on one side, shoes for women on the other, and kids’ shoes in between.

Luke and Dylan were soon trying on shoes, the women checking out the shoes in the women’s department.

“So how are things going with you and the Silver family?” Dylan asked Luke.

“It’s been great. The triplets were disappointed that I get to go to the Valentine’s Day party, but Lelandi said that was only for teens sixteen and up and they’d get their time when they are that age.”

“Are you…” Dylan hesitated to say anything further while he was pulling on another shoe, thinking it might hurt Luke’s feelings if he was going solo.

Luke looked up expectantly, waiting for him to finish what he had to ask.

Well, hell, Dylan had started the conversation. He might as well finish it. He stood and looked in the mirror at the shoes. “Are you taking anyone to the party?”

Luke smiled. “Yes! Everleigh Boatman. Her parents own the new movie theater, Silver Town Theater, and she is my age. She and her brother, Benjamin, are going to the party, but I get to escort her.” Luke beamed.

Dylan slapped him on the back. “Good. Do you know how to dance?”

“Lelandi is giving me a quick dance lesson. What about you?”

Dylan smiled. “She might need to give me one too.”

“You better hurry and do it. Valentine’s Day will be here before we know it.” Luke walked around in a pair of new shoes, made a face, and sat down to try on another pair. “Those pinched my toes. I like sneakers better.”

“Yeah, I agree with you there. Or hiking boots.”

Then they both picked out a pair of shoes and found the women had picked out some too.

“Dylan said he needs dancing lessons too,” Luke joked to Lelandi.

Everyone laughed. Dylan should have known Luke might bring it up.

“I can teach you what you need to know,” Roxie said, “unless you want Lelandi to show you.”

“Yeah,” Dylan said, not wanting to admit he knew how to dance in front of Luke. “You can show me, Roxie.”

Lelandi just smiled at him as if she knew what that had all been about.

When they left the store with their purchases, Luke was talking away about the Valentine’s Day party, about skiing with the Silver triplets, about skiing with Everleigh when she wasn’t working at the movie theater selling popcorn. “I’m going to start working there too.”

“That’s wonderful,” Roxie said.

“Yeah, and Lelandi and Darien are teaching me to drive. They’re getting me a used pickup truck to drive to work and to the ski lodge once I have my driver’s license,” Luke said.

It sounded like Luke was happy to be with the Silvers, and Dylan was glad about it. It was better that he wasn’t living with or adopted by the Boatmans, whose kids were his age, because it seemed Luke had really taken a liking to Everleigh.

At their cars, they put their purchases inside and said goodbye to Lelandi and Luke, then headed home. Dylan was glad to get this done.

“So you need dance lessons?” Roxie asked.

“Lelandi is giving them to Luke, and I said she might need to give me some.”

“To make Luke feel better about it?”

Dylan laughed. “Yeah, and it sort of backfired when Luke brought it up.”

“Well, if you need any, just let me know.”

They finally arrived at her place and hauled their purchases into the house. “What did you buy?” he asked Roxie.

“A pair of dress shoes to go with my dress so I can spend the night dancing with my date.”

He smiled. He loved a challenge.