Light the Fire (Jackson's Hollow #1)

Chapter 28

"So...fire, huh?"

Jo chuckled, swinging her feet as they sat on the tailgate of Ryker's truck. Neither of them had been particularly interested in leaving quite yet, but they'd needed to come back to the truck to grab a water bottle for Jo. As desperately thirsty as she was, she was still born a city girl, and it just didn't quite seem like the best idea to drink straight from a pond.

In her defense, Ryker had agreed that was probably a bad idea.

"So...wolves, huh?"

Ryker grunted, but she could tell there was amusement there. "Are there lots of...uh, fire-making people in your family?"

Jo's mood instantly deflated a bit as she looked away, shaking her head quietly. "As far as I know, I'm the only one." She didn't say it, but she implied it--unlike you. He'd indicated it was a family thing, and considering wolves ran in packs and all, she would bet most of his family were werewolves. Especially if real life was anything like half the legends and folklore.

"Oh wow," Ryker breathed. He reached out to take her hand and squeeze it, almost as if he knew she needed comfort right now. He was ridiculously good at this dating thing, she'd never met someone who had been so in-tune with her emotions. "Your family must've been shocked."

Jo bit her lip, afraid of the question that might come next. The why. "I haven't told them," she admitted quietly. "You're the only one."

Ryker was silent for long enough that she turned to look at him again. He was gazing at her with more emotions than she could identify--some of them she knew, there was awe and comfort, and maybe sadness. But others flashed too quickly for her to catch, before his hand was on her cheek and he was leaning in to press a soft, lingering kiss to her forehead.

Jo's breath caught in her throat as the gentle touch inspired a sudden wave of sadness counterpointed by relief, all at once. It had hurt so much to keep her secret, but she hadn't seen any alternative. Ryker's arms looped around her, holding her close, and she sagged against his steady warmth for a moment.

But there was still more to tell.

She drew back, and Ryker met his eyes, one of his hands still lingering on her lower back, his thumb rubbing a comforting circle there. Now she saw the question there. Why? But he seemed reluctant to ask it.

"They would have wanted to know what happened," she said, answering anyway. It was hard to hold back now that someone knew...but there were also still places she didn't want to go, even with someone else who was supernatural. This definitely wasn't something she was ready to talk about with a guy she'd just started dating.

"I think it'll be a while before I'm ready to talk about that night," she said, looking away from Ryker again. Hell, she'd just had to revisit it less than an hour ago, she definitely didn't want to dive back in right now. Her brain was still busy trying to shove that memory back into its compartment.

"Tell me about your wolf family," Jo said, hoping he'd let her change the subject.

He gave her a long look and then let her get away with the subject switch. "Do you mean the whole pack or my actual family?"

"Both," Jo said.

"You've met my brother and my sister," he said, "I mean, Brett's technically my half-brother, but he's my brother. There's also my dad. My mom died a couple years ago--"

"I'm sorry, Ryker," Jo said automatically. She didn't know whether to comfort him or hug him, so she shifted and leaned a little more against him.

He shook his head. "Thanks. She was...my mom was sort of like the rock of our family. It was pretty bad after she died, but we've been fixing things."