"Dad's gone," my cousin's voice was barely above a whisper. "You must come home for the Evaluations," she uttered and the phone line went dead.
*****
After Keri's Uncle - the Alpha of the Silver Bullets pack - loses his battle with cancer, the young...
- Paul Craddock or Lucky Blue Smith as Alec (both suggested by crazyfangurl); Paul Craddock actually reminds me more of another (gay) character of mine - Misha, who is from a more adult series I haven't posted anywhere since it's only in the "Notes" stage
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"How did you know?"
My voice came out surprisingly calm.
Maybe because there already were a few people - Kelly, Steve and Alec - who'd found out my secret or maybe it was because of my decision to give Callum a chance, but I didn't panic once Rhys had popped up the 'is he your mate' question.
The guy in questioned beamed at me before replying:
"Riley figured it out."
I turned towards my best friend's mate; he looked pretty proud with himself, his browneyes sparkling.
"And how did you know?" I asked.
"During one of my shifts at the Milk & Cream," the boy began, "I was watching these two kids who kept arguing and throwing peanuts at each other when their parents weren't looking. It was obvious they both wanted to grab and keep the other's attention, but they didn't want the other to know why, which was because they were crushing on each other. And then I kind of realized - peanut throwing aside - that they acted like you and Callum. Then Kelly organized that dinner with just the four of you, so I thought 'Hey, there may be something there' and told Rhys about it." He explained as he squeezed his mate's hand. "I only thought you were crushing on him though; it wasn't until Rhys said Kelly wouldn't play matchmaker unless you were mates that I realized it might be that."
I sighed.
Great! I have the same cope-with-feeling technique as peanut-throwing kids do!
"And since we suspected, but weren't sure," Rhys went on from where Riley had left off, "we decided it was best to just come over and ask you."
"Congratulations, mystery solved." I took a sip of the tart cherry juice they'd brought and which I'd opened for us since they were Rhys and Riley and tart cherry was kind of their thing. They'd barely touched their glasses, but mine was almost empty. Maybe I was a little nervous after all and used drinking as means to buy myself some time to think before speaking.
