Page 34 of Emerald Moon (Pitch Mountain Pack #2)

twenty-three

Jo washed their hands, proud of the bowls of carefully cut fruit for Billie and the evening shift to use in the tarts. They’d prepped other parts of the baking process, too, but there was something about seeing their successes piled up that was so satisfying.

“Alright, Emmaline, I’m headed out,” Jo said, slipping their apron over their head.

“Are you going up to the front before you go?” She asked.

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

Emmaline grinned. “You might want to. Go grab you a snack for later.”

“Okay,” Jo replied slowly, giving their hands one final wipe on their apron before slipping through the doors to the front of the bakery. “Emmaline told me to – Cass?” Their eyes jumped from the sight of Wil at the register to Cass sitting at a table off in the corner.

At the sound of her name, Cass stood, the chair clattering behind her. She was holding a bouquet and was dressed in a crisp, short-sleeved striped button down without a hint of birds on it. “Are you done with your shift?”

Jo nodded as they stepped closer to her.

Cass’ lips quirked up in the corners as she held out the brightly colored bouquet. “Jo, would you like to go on a date with me?”

Jo laughed. “Yes. I’d like that.”

“Is now a good time?”

The phrasing brought Jo back to the conversation in the car when they were planning on what they’d tell Jo’s family members about their dating history. “Is this –”

“The date I’ve had planned since I first met you? Yes.”

“Then I think my next line is something about needing to go home and change.”

“Do you think you need to?”

Jo looked down at their band t-shirt, sweaty from working in the back and dotted in flour and fruit juice. “Yes, definitely. If I remember correctly, you’re taking me to your favorite restaurant next and I can’t go looking like this.”

“I wouldn’t mind. They wouldn’t either.”

“Speak for yourselves. I’m gross and I’m changing. Want to walk back with me?”

They fell in step together on the way back to the Pitch Mountain Pack house.

Cass asked how Jo was feeling and they could honestly say they were feeling more like themselves again.

Jo rambled about their day so far, monologuing as Cass nodded along and tried to not make their steps so big that Jo couldn’t keep up.

Cass chimed in when she could, chatting about work at the butcher shop that day.

Right before they reached the front door, Cass gently grasped Jo’s hand and tugged them back towards her.

“Are you okay?” Jo asked, checking for signs of her tripping or something.

“What can I call you now?”

They waited for a beat, then answered, “Jo?”

“I mean, I’m your girlfriend, right?”

Jo hadn’t said it outloud or even inside their head yet. Giddy bubbles tingled in their chest as their smile stretched wide across their face. They nodded. “Yep, you’re my girlfriend.”

“And you’re my —” Cass let her voice trail off.

“Themfriend. Enbyfriend. Enbybuddy!” Jo chuckled at their own joke, then squeezed Cass’ hand. “I’ll think of something better for you.”

“Lover.”

Heat flooded Jo’s cheeks. “That may imply some things that haven’t happened.”

“Yet.” Cass winked, exaggerating the gesture, but her smile quickly slipped. “I mean, if you’re comfortable with that type of stuff. I’m realizing I never asked. I’m sorry if I overstepped.”

“It’s fine. It’s fine. I, uh, want those things, too.

You know, when they happen.” Jo hadn’t given it much thought since they started dating because anything sexual hadn't been a part of their life for some time, but now, they were thinking about it and what they thought of made them a bit nervous, excited, and made it impossible to look Cass in the eye.

“Right, when they happen.” Cass tapped her chin in thought. “How about just ‘my love?’”

Forget the summer heat. Jo could’ve cooked an egg on their overheated face. “I like that,” they mumbled. “It’s cute.”

“It’s not too much?”

“Coming from you, it’s wonderful.”

Cass tipped forward and pressed a kiss to Jo’s forehead.

“I’m all sweaty! That must’ve been so gross!” Jo said through their smile.

Cass grinned.

Jo tugged on the front of Cass’ shirt and she got the message, dipping down the rest of the way for them to meet in the middle. Their lips brushed, neither of them able to stop smiling long enough to make it a proper kiss until the end.

“Okay, I’m going to go change and then we can go on our date,” Jo said, that bubbly feeling taking over the rest of their body.

The AC hit them as soon as they opened the front doors and Jo heaved a sigh of relief. They started up the stairs and belatedly realized Cass wasn’t behind them. “You coming up?”

Cass shook her head. “I’ll wait down here.”

“You’ve been in my room before.”

“But it’s different now.”

Jo nodded as another smile crept onto their face. Cass was right. Everything was different in the best kind of way. “Fancy or not fancy? I don’t know why I asked. I don’t have anything fancy except what I wore at my sister’s wedding.”

“Not fancy is fine.”

“But you look nice.”

“I look like I always do.”

“The shirt doesn’t have birds on it and it looks like you ironed it.”

“I iron all my shirts.”

“We could not be more different. Let me go pick out something that smells good and isn’t currently on the floor.”

Jo cursed themselves for having too many band t-shirts as they flipped past each black t-shirt they’d overpaid for at a concert.

Finally, they landed on a white shirt dotted in pineapples and picked out a pair of clean, black shorts because it was still far too hot to even consider pants.

Grabbing their nicest, but still old, pair of Converse sneakers, they made their way back to Cass, and out into the evening.

Cass’ favorite restaurant wasn’t even close to fancy like Jo expected someone to pick for a date. It was a homey spot with mismatched tables in the front, a long hallway, and then more places to sit shoved in a room in the back.

“They have great biscuits here,” Cass said as they sat down at a table with well-worn edges in chairs that rocked side to side just a little on the slightly uneven tile floor.

”You know how I feel about biscuits.”

”I do, so I hope these are up to your very high standards.”

The menu was Southern comfort food with a twist, but not so unrecognizable that Jo wouldn’t like it anymore.

They ordered food and cocktails that came in Mason jars which Jo found almost a little too kitschy, but it was fun and they liked it.

Honestly, Jo could’ve been eating plain white bread with a glass of room temperature tap water and it’d still be wonderful because Cass was on the other side of the table, lighting up as she spoke about a birding trip she had coming up with some of her convention friends.

”We’re headed to the coast,” she said after swallowing another bite of food, careful as she was to not talk with her mouth full.

Jo tried to do the same during dinner, but sometimes words popped out on their own without their permission when they had a comment they absolutely needed to make and it couldn’t wait for something as silly as chewing.

”While it’s still summer?”

Cass nodded. “We’re going not long after the next full moon.”

”That’s coming up soon. Just shy of two weeks.”

”Are you excited for the next run?”

Jo’s features brightened. “I’m always excited, but I have to admit, since remembering a tiny bit of what happened last time, I’m way more pumped than usual.”

”Makes me happy to hear that.”

”Wish our packs could run together, though. That’d be fun. Too bad territorial instincts win out when there’s a full moon.”

”We can run together other times, though — like now.”

”Just get up from the table mid-dinner and go wolf out?” Jo laughed.

”Well, we’d pay first,” Cass responded like it was the only thing stopping them.

”I thought the next stop in your plan was a walk in the woods.”

”Plans can change.”

”Are we doing this?” Jo’s heart filled with equal parts excitement and dread. “I’m still a handful when it comes to changing back.”

“It’s a good thing I like handling you.”

A blush crept up Jo’s neck thinking of all the ways they’d like for Cass to handle them. It’d been so long since anyone had touched them like that and Jo found that instead of feeling nervous like earlier, they were filled with a deep need they’d long ignored but couldn’t ignore any longer.

”Yeah! Let’s go run!” Jo yelled a bit too loudly for the restaurant, but they needed something to do with all the horny energy that was welling up inside them. A run sounded perfect.

Cass drove to the edge of town where the lights were swallowed by a dense forest. Outside of the car, as Jo’s wolf scratched their way to the surface, they could hear the faint sounds of downtown Hickorywood mingling with the sounds of the forest at night.

The air smelled like pine trees and sun-drenched dirt.

“It’s okay to run as wolves here?” Jo asked.

”Probably,” Cass replied, already taking off her shoes and socks.

“Cass! Didn’t know you could be such a rule breaker.”

”I don’t see any posted rules. Therefore, I’m not breaking anything. We’re not near a park or human homes, so no rules apply here.”

Jo found it hard to argue with that logic.

They also found it hard to look away as Cass unbuttoned her shirt.

She caught them staring, her lip curling up in one corner as she slipped her shirt off one shoulder and then the other.

Jo turned to face the other direction, stammering something about going deeper into the woods to change in case other people came by the same spot.

Shedding their own clothes, a sense of relief washed over them as each sweaty, sticky layer was removed, but anticipation and anxiety swept in to replace it the moment they were naked between the trees.

“Hey Cass, you sure you don’t mind helping me change back?”

”I told you — I like handling you,” Cass called out, stepping closer judging from the sound of footsteps behind them.