Page 13 of Wolfish Heart (Billionaires of Wolfe Mountain #1)

KADEN

S omething is definitely up with Zoe.

I picked her up, we had a quick breakfast at Corina’s Coffee, then I dropped her off at the house. I had to drive west to check the final two data points and pick up groceries anyway, but mainly, I felt like Zoe needed some alone time.

I’ve pretended I can’t hear her from the rest of the house, but I can. I’ve heard her repeat a few sections sometimes, testing different inflections or turns of phrase. She’s meticulous, dedicated to the material being presented correctly.

Driving back to the house slowly to avoid the deep potholes, I realize it goes further than that. Zoe is extremely concerned about how other people see her. Not in a vain, pretentious way. She’s nervous. Sensitive. Worried about how she is perceived?—

Damn .

I should give my head a shake. Why didn’t I see this sooner?

Here I am with an incredible girl, who I’m completely falling in love with, but because of my last name, the entire town is going to be putting her under the microscope.

And here I am ignoring it when I should be protecting her.

I can have a talk with my brothers about not dropping by and surprising her. But there’s no way I can tell the entire town to “treat her as normally as possible”.

I pull into the driveway, then quietly haul the grocery bags into the kitchen. As I put everything away, my mind is spinning.

I could either beat myself up and call myself selfish, or temper that with the truth. Everything is happening so fast between us, there’s a lot that hasn’t occurred to me yet.

We haven’t even gotten to the Big Relationship Talk. To discuss if we both want kids. If she really wants to live here. If she truly wants to be with me.

Since it’s late afternoon, I make a pot of hazelnut decaf for her. Sure enough, five minutes later, Zoe comes into the kitchen, sniffing the air appreciatively. “You read my mind,” she says softly, pouring herself a cup.

“How are the videos going?” I ask.

She sits down beside me, not looking at me. “ I thought they were going well. And my aunt said they were great.”

“And…your mother?”

Zoe sighs. “She’s a bit nitpicky. But overall, I think she’s pretty satisfied.”

“Were you hoping more that she’d be jumping for joy?”

She finally meets my eyes. “You clearly haven’t met my mother. That woman has never jumped for joy or anything else in her life.”

I desperately try to keep from frowning. Zoe is giving it her all. Her mother should be happy and proud, dammit. I’m super proud of her and I’m just the would-be boyfriend who is slightly nervous about getting her to say that word out loud.

“I picked up groceries.” I flash her a smile. “I’m not the best cook in the world, but I’m okay with simple pasta. Should I make dinner tonight, or would you prefer to go out? If you want a break from here, we could drive to West Stoneburg. More restaurants there.”

When she doesn’t respond, I add, “Or we could cook something together, or pick up takeout. Or pick up takeout and I could drop you off at Henry’s, if you want some quiet time?”

I reach out to trail my thumb along the side of her cheek. “Whatever you want. I hope you’ve figured out by now that I’m a pretty mellow guy, and fine with whatever you want.”

She’s still quiet.

I stand up, set her coffee aside, and gently wrap my arms around her. “Baby, what’s wrong? You know you can tell me anything. Really.”

Zoe hugs me close, looking up at me with those beautiful gray eyes. I can tell she’s about to say something important. Just as her lips part, a truck door slams shut outside.

I gently kiss her forehead before heading for the front door. “Sorry. Hold that thought, sweetie.”

I fling open the huge slab of oak to see Kane’s fist about to knock. “Hey, man. We were passing by, so we thought we’d drop off the hard drive.”

Zoe appears behind me just as Kai walks up to the door with a small blue external drive in his hand.

I wave them inside, then turn to Zoe. “Sorry about this. We have a drive with a copy of the most recent algorithms and procedures we’re running, and we back it up at one of our houses every few days. ”

Kai grins. “No pattern even to where the backups happen, so nothing can be predicted, but it means we drop in on each other now and then.” He sticks out his hand. “You must be Zoe. I’m Kai.”

“Hi. Nice to meet you.”

“And I’m Kane.” I can tell he’s trying to soften his voice. He’s the biggest of us and can come off as a bit threatening if he’s not careful.

Zoe shakes his hand. “Hi.”

I jerk my thumb at Kai, then the door to the basement. “Can you do it?”

“Yup.”

He clomps down the stairs as Kane looks back and forth between us.

“Hey, I’m sorry if we interrupted anything. We were on our way to grab dinner at Jim’s. Wanna join us? I can call and ask for the back table.”

I look toward Zoe. Reading her eyes, I think she’s uncomfortable at the sudden intrusion. “We were there just the other night, actually. Another time?”

“Sure.” He smiles at Zoe. “And we’ll learn to call first. Didn’t mean to freak you out or anything.”

“It’s fine.” She gives him a shy smile.

Kai comes bounding up the stairs, silver hard drive in hand.

“We’ll get out of your hair. Looking forward to getting to know you better sometime Zoe, when we’re not rudely butting in.

” He smiles and nods. “If you’re hanging out here, maybe you can warm up this huge empty house that screams desperate loner . ”

They’re barely out the door when I turn to her. “Sorry about all that. I should have warned you about the random backups. It’s become kind of a running joke among the five of us.”

Her eyes are wide. “But he’s right. The house is too big,” she sputters.

“I…I didn’t want any of this. I mean, I want you , but this enormous house…

and the whole company, and being the freaking princes of this town…

You just call and you get the best table no matter what?

And people are afraid to sit too close to you on the patio…

it’s not who I am and ever saw for myself, and… ”

Glancing through the window next to the door, I can see my brothers have clearly heard her outburst, as they scramble to jump in the truck and take off.

Zoe’s hand claps over her mouth. “Oh no… Did they hear that?”

“I don’t think so, not really,” I lie.

To my absolute horror, Zoe bursts into tears and crumples to the marble floor in a heap like a burst balloon.

My poor sweet baby.

I knew my family was a handful, but I didn’t think they would freak her out this much. Maybe it’s more that Zoe is stressed out from this entire situation. It feels like our preferential treatment in restaurants might be part of a larger issue.

I just have to find a way to get her to talk to me about it openly.