Both Carter and Jax slept in after the full moon gathering. When they finally rose, Jax was bouncy and hyper, normal for a kid his age after night of playing in shifted form. Carter, however, felt like he hadn't slept a wink. His dreams had been broken and disjointed, full of fragments of thoughts and worries about Brand and fated mates and who knew what else.

Carter wished Sean hadn't said anything, but at the same time, he was grateful. Hell, he didn't know what he felt. He felt like he was waiting for a surprise. He hated surprises. Correction, he hated knowing about a surprise. Actual surprises were fun and exciting. But if you knew a surprise was coming, it stopped being a surprise and became a secret.

Carter fucking hated secrets.

After draining his first two cups of coffee, he finally felt he had enough presence of mind to message Brand. His fingers hovered over his phone in indecision for several minutes before tapping out a simple message: Want to grab coffee?

Carter realized more caffeine was probably the last thing he needed, but he could always grab a dessert or tea instead.

He waited for Brand to text him back.

He played some video games with Jax and waited.

They went out for lunch and he waited.

His wolf was growing more impatient by the hour, pushing him to find his mate, to be near him, but Carter wasn't about to track the man down just because he hadn't answered a text. Brand had probably been working late last night. Maybe into the morning. But as dinner came and went without a response, it became harder to ignore the worrying circling inside him.

His first thought was that somehow Brand was hurt and unable to get to his phone. But Carter realized that was a slightly extreme possibility. Another possibility was that he was ignoring Carter, and that scared him almost more than the former. But Brand was his own man, a grown man, and Carter was determined to stick to his resolution to not crowd him.

Finally, just as Carter was crawling into bed, his phone dinged and Carter practically fell out of bed reaching to answer it.

Sorry, was out of service all day.

That was it? After all the worrying Carter had been through… But of course, Brand wouldn't have a clue about that. Thankfully, a second message followed soon after.

Tomorrow is family day. Lunch on Monday? Or coffee after work?

Lunch sounds great. Carter sent immediately. Jax would be in school, so he'd be completely free.

Great. We'll figure out details Monday.

Awesome. Goodnight.

Carter waited for Brand to message back, to somehow close the conversation or to continue in some kind of juvenile "no, you hang up" reluctance to part. But nothing. Carter knew his disappointment was unfounded, but his emotions had been completely mangled with Sean's words the day before. He set his phone on silent so that he wouldn't lay awake waiting for a message that would never come.

It didn't help much. Even after turning out the light and nestling into his bed, sleep eluded Carter, even as tired as he was. Sean's words and visions of a future with Brand joining Jax and Carter's little family refused to stop playing on an endless loop in his head. It was well past midnight when he finally drifted off to sleep, and his sleep was as restless as it had been the night before.

* * *

Sunday passed just as slowly as Saturday. At least Monday morning, Carter had a list of tasks for work to focus on. He promised himself he wouldn't text Brand before nine-thirty, and his eyes kept straying to the clock on his computer.

He dropped everything when his phone buzzed with a text.

Looks like I'll be running a little late today. Would 1:30 work?

Carter breathed a sigh of relief, his wolf finally relenting his incessant urging to find Brand. Apparently, any form of moving closer to him was acceptable, whether it was confirming plans or physical proximity.

The joy of working from home means I'm not a slave to a schedule. That works for me.

Do you know anywhere in the middle we could meet?

Carter's wolf grumbled a little. Neither man nor wolf wanted to make things difficult for Brand, even simple things. Again, joy of working from home means I have the time to go anywhere. How about Monelli's? Carter named an Italian place he'd been to a couple times while Jax was in his therapy session. Their Spaghetti Bolognese was to die for.

Perfect. Meet you there. 1:30

Carter let Brand's message end the conversation for now. He knew if he sent a response, he would be completely distracted until lunch waiting for Brand to say something back whether Carter's message warranted it or not.

Carter felt like he was in a holding pattern. Sean's words had sent him in a tailspin, but now that Carter knew he would see Brand soon, Carter's emotions had levelled out, at least temporarily. Even though Carter knew Brand wasn't privy to what Carter had been through in his brain the last few days, part of Carter still expected that something might have changed for Brand.

Stay calm, he reminded himself. The last thing he needed was to set unrealistic expectations. Stick to the plan, Carter. Brand will come around.

Someday.