Midnight Serenade

Chapter 24

Over the following weeks, I became very comfortable in my new life. Living with my aunt and uncle really did give me stability the way Aunt Nora said. I didn't feel odd and like I was constantly taking things from people that I had no right to. I felt like I was finally home. Cameron even started to feel like a brother to me. He'd joke around and tease me much like I always imagined a brother would. He'd also snip at me the way he'd snip at Ashley or the way I'd seen Sawyer and Jess do. Which wasn't always fun, but I loved that he had accepted me so completely.

Things with Ashley weren't great, but I hadn't expected that they would be. At least she seemed content to show her displeasure from a distance though. If she wasn't outright ignoring me, she'd glare or mutter something nasty. I still didn't like it, but at least I didn't have to actually combat anything.

Leah, Brooke, and Jess were very excited to help me create my room from scratch. Some of my other new friends even wanted to help. I almost didn't have to do a thing besides veto options I didn't like and help with the work part. And I loved the end result. The walls were mostly white, with one that was a light aqua color. Brooke was apparently very artistic, and she'd hand painted branches with varying shades of pink flowers across the accent wall. I got bedding to match and throw pillows and a rug, and lots of other little details in the same color scheme.

The biggest surprise was that I kind of enjoyed being away from Sawyer for short periods. It gave me a chance to miss him, and when I did get to see him, I was thrilled. The goodbye at the end of the night always kind of sucked, but our reunions were a lot of fun. Plus we could still text or call at night. And it was so much more fun to tease him when he couldn't kiss me or tickle me to make me cave.

I wasn't sure whether what I felt was really love yet, but I knew that it wouldn't be long before I could say for sure. Which made me want more than ever to officially choose him and gain that final link, but something still held me back. I just couldn't say that I was one hundred percent sure of my future yet. I wanted to be. I felt like I should be, but I just didn't know.

One of the downsides of having everything stabilize was that Sawyer went back to work. I meant what I said about not wanting him losing money or anything, but after spending so much time with him initially, having to be away from him for huge chunks of time, in addition to evenings, really kind of sucked. It would get even worse after we both started school. I was grateful that he didn't plan to actually go away to college - he'd be taking several classes at the community college for now - but between both of us being in school and him working, we'd almost never see each other.

Taking advantage of the time we did have, I usually drove him to work and then we'd do something fun after he was done. As was becoming customary, we were in the middle of a lengthy goodbye outside of the wilderness store. Since the store wasn't that isolated, we chose to have our little make out session around the corner in private.

"Want to go running tonight?" he asked against my neck.

"Mmm," was the best I could do. As mentioned previously, he was very good at this particular activity.

"If we get started right after work, we'll have about four hours." Unfortunately, I had a curfew, so we wouldn't be able to have any all night wolf adventures for a while.

"Mmm," I murmured, smiling.

He returned his mouth to mine for a little longer, but all too soon, he pulled away.

"I'm really starting to hate that you have to work," I grumbled.

"You and me both," he said. "I'll see you tonight." With one last kiss, he left to clock in.

Despite the prospect of being without him for the next eight hours, I sighed contentedly as I began walking to my car. I was now legally allowed to drive. Aunt Nora took me to get my license shortly after I moved in.