Light the Fire (Jackson's Hollow #1)

Chapter 41

"You need to relax."

"You relax," Jo shot back with a forced grin of cheerfulness. She wrapped her fingers tighter around the oreo dump cake sitting on her lap and looked pointedly out the window. Green and gold flashed by, ferns and pine trees and underbrush blending together as they rode to Ryker's house. Jo was sitting shotgun while Ryker drove too quickly.

He had texted her to let her know that while things weren't great, no one was hurt. Duncan had just been testing them again. Or messing with them. Whatever he was doing with the Monroe pack. Ryker had decided to stay over at Brett's house, and Jo understood. She would've probably done the same thing if it had been someone in her family, though she didn't have any siblings.

Ryker had shown up at her house about an hour ago, while she had been putting the finishing touches on her cake. It wasn't much to look at, but it was delicious. Her mom used to make it for her and her friends all the time back when she had been in high school.

"They're going to love you," Ryker said, reaching over to put his hand on her leg. "Lexi already thinks you're amazing. And Brett liked you when he met you."

"He met me as a patient. This is different," she said, but she resituated her hold on the glass dish and put her hand over his.

"Hell, this time you're bringing cake. He'll definitely think you're great. And it's cute."

"What is?"

"The cake thing. You didn't have to do that," he said, squeezing her leg.

Jo shrugged and turned her attention away from the sun-streaked forest. "It's polite. Or maybe I'm trying to buy their approval with sweets. It's a fifty-fifty chance of being one or the other."

"Or both," Ryker said with a grin. "If it makes you feel better, you're my mate, so it's pretty much guaranteed you'll fit in with us."

Jo laughed, which maybe had been Ryker's goal--she could feel herself loosening up a bit. "I may not be a werewolf, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it works."

"Well, since I'm the werewolf, I get to be the authority on this one then."

Jo rolled her eyes but was distracted as they turned off the main road and onto the gravel driveway that went up a steep mountainside.

"This must be a lot of fun to drive in the winter," Jo murmured, craning her neck to eye the driveway.

"If it looks like we'll get really bad weather we sometimes park at the bottom of the driveway," Ryker said with a shrug. "But you learn to handle it, or run around as a wolf instead." He winked at her, then squeezed her leg. "I'll teach you when winter gets here."

"You'll actually let me drive myself to school?" Jo turned back to look at him, smirking a little. She didn't think it was intentional on Ryker's part, but because they liked to spend the time together that they could, he'd been driving her to school pretty regularly the past few weeks. Except for the days he needed to handle pack business.

"You're right, scratch that, I don't wanna think about you hitting ice on a mountain road," Ryker said.

Oh, serious Ryker. Whoops, she'd been trying to keep things playful and distract the two of them from the upcoming meet-the-family shabang. "Don't worry, I'll just melt all the snow in front of the car as we go."

Ryker chuckled, shaking his head. "I entirely believe you would." He squeezed her hand, and Jo realized they'd come to a stop in front of a beautiful white farmhouse with a big front porch and what looked to be a tin roof. There were woods all around the back of the house, but the front was cleared enough that as she got out of the car, she couldn't help but marvel at the expansive view of the Smokies.