The Strength of the Pack (Suncoast Society #30)(24)

She opted for the scary third option in this case because it was scary to her, even though it likely wouldn’t be scary to anyone else.

To have Nate pick her up at the house Monday night.

It would give Laurel an opportunity to meet him, briefly, and then process that Eva was going on a “date” with him.

When he arrived, Eva was ready to go although her stomach felt bound up into one large, nervous knot.

He came to the door and rang the bell, already earning bonus points from Leo as he headed to answer it.

“Glad he didn’t just sit there and honk,” Leo said.

“Be nice.”

“I am. I’m serious.” He welcomed the man in with a hug.

Laurel came running in. “Who’s at the door, Daddy?”

“Honey, this is Nate Crawford. He’s the doctor I go to for my pain.”

“Doctor Pokey?”

Eva and Leo winced, but Nate laughed. “That’s one name I haven’t been called yet.” He held his hand out to her. “Are you Laurel?”

“Yes, I am.” She shook with him.

“I’ve heard a lot about you from your dads and your mom,” he said. “It’s nice to finally get to meet you.”

Eva noticed he used the plural for “dads.”

“Does it hurt sticking people with needles?” Laurel asked him.

“It doesn’t hurt me.” He smiled.

She smiled back. “Does it hurt them, silly?”

“Ask your dads and your mom.”

“They said it doesn’t hurt, but I don’t understand. Needles hurt.”

“They’re very tiny needles,” he said. “Like a hair. Way smaller than the ones you get shots with.”

“Oh. That doesn’t sound bad.”

“It’s not.”

Eva stepped in, knowing they’d be there all night if they kept indulging her questions. “Don’t give Daddy and Poppa a hard time tonight,” she said, giving her a hug and a kiss. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.” Laurel wrinkled her nose again. “Are you two going on a date?”

Eva inwardly groaned. “Yes, sweetheart. It’s a date.”

“Oh. Okay.” She waggled her finger at Nate. “I get to be the flower girl. Don’t forget it.”

Leo and Jesse, already veterans of Laurel’s militant flower-girlism, burst out laughing while Eva groaned.

Nate, however, offered Laurel a smile. “Duly noted. Rest assured, I will not forget that.”

Eva grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him out of the house. “Sorry,” she muttered on the way to his car. “She’s nearly seven going on twenty-seven, sometimes.”

He chuckled as he opened the passenger side door for her. “No worries. I raised Cherise, don’t forget. That was nothing compared to some of the stuff she pulled with me.” He closed the door and rounded the car.

“Like what?” Eva asked when he was inside.

He cranked the engine. “Oh, when Cherise was ten, she lectured one of my dates on how babies were made. Then she proceeded to inform my date that she wouldn’t be happy about having a little brother or sister. Which led to an argument between me and Cherise that it wouldn’t be a brother or sister, it would be a niece or nephew. And that led us into the weeds arguing semantics about parental responsibilities versus familial relationship titles. For about an hour.”

“Then what happened?”

“For some strange reason, I didn’t get another date with that girl,” he said as he backed out of their driveway. “I can’t imagine why.”





Since it was a Monday night, fortunately the restaurant wasn’t as busy as it usually was on a weekend. They didn’t even have to wait for the hostess to lead them inside to their table.

“My treat tonight,” she said.

“Nope,” he said, arching an eyebrow at her over the top of his menu. “I asked, therefore, it’s my treat.”

She laid her menu down. “You don’t have to do that.”

He leaned in and dropped his voice. “You said Leo and Jesse have signed off on trusting me, correct?”

She nodded.

“Unless I’ve agreed to other arrangements in advance, I pay when I take you out. Understand?”

“Yes, Sir.”

She didn’t realize she’d said it—or how natural it felt saying it—until after it was already out of her mouth and hanging there in midair between them.

When he didn’t speak for a while, she thought maybe she’d screwed up. But then, “You can call me Sir, but it doesn’t mean I’m your Dominant. We haven’t even gotten close to those discussions yet. But I’m okay with you calling me that, if you want to.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

His lips quirked in a deliciously handsome smile. “So are we clear about my policy on paying the check?”

She smiled. “Yes, Sir.”

“That’s better. Good girl.” He went back to perusing the menu and Eva was left with a subtle throbbing between her legs that, sadly enough, took her a few moments to identify.

It’d been so long since she’d actually felt sexual attraction that it was almost an alien sensation to her.