Page 41 of Same Thing

She’d said that sentiment twice now, that it didn’t feel normal. These werewolves sounded messy.

Nory said, “When I was six, my mom let me help cook for the family Christmas party for the first time. All the ladies in my family cooked together, and I remember I used to watch them in awe, because they all just knew what to do. They knew what the others needed. I would see my aunt hand my mom a knife before she’d even asked about it, or my grandma turn and let one of my cousins try a bite of something, and they would immediately know if it was too light on a certain seasoning. All my younger cousins would be outside playing football, and tag, but I wanted to be right in the kitchen feeling all the happy vibes from the teamwork. Six was the first time I got to cook with the adults, and six was the age I discovered how comforting a kitchen could be. Cooking is a love language, I think. You can take care of your people with a good meal. You can change a mood.” She liftedher gaze to Delta, to see if she was catching on to what she was saying. “You can bring people together with food.”

Delta had sat down again, but at that, she stood and said, “I don’t know about seasoning anything, but I can use a knife and a cutting board, if you show me how you need the potatoes done.”

“Learn to make mashed potatoes one time, and you’ll have that up your sleeve for the rest of your life. Even if you don’t know how to cook a single thing, you can still start building your arsenal. Potatoes are easy, they just take some time.”

“How long?

“About an hour. Maybe a little less,” she explained as she showed Delta how to peel a potato.

While she did that, Nory seasoned and buttered the chicken breasts, and coated them in the crunched-up saltines, and got them into the double oven.

It wasn’t until she and Delta had the potatoes boiling away on the stove that Liam and Nate returned. They froze in the doorway. “Smells really good,” Liam said. He’d come in here looking exhausted, but his eyes were brighter now as he made his way into the kitchen.

They were making a little appetizer tray of lunch meats, crackers, and grapes. Nory was cutting tiny cubes of cheddar from a block of cheese as Liam came up behind her and checked the pot of potatoes. “What are you two up to?” he asked.

“Nory is teaching me to cook potatoes,” Delta said so softly, Nory nearly missed it. She glanced up at Nate, who had frozen in the middle of the living room. “I like it.” Delta’s smile was so pretty when it reached her eyes like this.

Nate made his way into the kitchen and stole a cheese cube from the cutting board, then paused behind Delta, rested his hand on her hip and kissed her cheek. Nory didn’t miss it. Delta was humming with happiness when she leaned into his kiss, andwhen he left the kitchen, her cheeks were the prettiest shade of pink.

“You’re happy,” Liam murmured to Nory, and she looked up at him with a ready smile and nodded. “You and cooking.”

“And good company,” she said.

Nate left the house, and the door closed too firmly behind him. Delta wilted until he returned with four beers. They must’ve had a beer fridge in the garage or something.

He handed one to Delta, then to Liam, and then hesitated near Nory. His eyes were bright gold anymore, only a light brown, but he stared at her, unblinking, for a three count before he handed her a beer. He cleared his throat. “Can I do anything to help?”

“We have a system down,” she said. “You boys go relax. Dinner will be ready in half an hour.”

Liam was over there opening the oven door. “Holy shit. You made enough to feed a village.”

“Well, maybe we should tell the Pack there is food,” Delta said in her soft voice.

Liam shut the oven and turned to look at her over his shoulder. “You don’t want leftovers?”

Delta shrugged. “I think they might like it. Smells good, you know?”

Liam nodded, and then smiled at Nory, and patted her hip as he passed. He pressed a kiss onto her shoulder and then went outside. Through the front window, Nory could see him pacing the porch, on his phone.

Atta girl, Delta.

Sometimes one of the hardest parts of being shy was being the wallflower. It was watching, and feeling invisible, and not being able to fix the things they could intuitively see was wrong.

Not today.

She and Delta were going to drag these wild boys here and fill their bellies with warm food. They would ask for nothing, because this was a first, and wild animals needed to learn to trust.

Nory did this with her puppy clients too. Slow and easy. Make it enjoyable and then let them go home and think about it.

They may just show up on the porch and grab their food and leave, but they would think about it.

And that’s what they did.

Vic showed up first—dressed fully this time, thank the Lord. He sat at the kitchen table and scarfed down his portion in two minutes, and a wolf named Tabian came in as Vic was rinsing his dishes in the sink. Dodger came in, and without saying a word, he took his food to the porch with Tabian, and they ate out on a pair of rocking chairs.

Bridger was the last one to show up. He seemed angry, and wouldn’t look at Nory during the introduction, and he turned to leave quickly.