When we were finished with dinner, Gracie helped me put up the leftovers and wash the dishes. It was a nighttime ritual in the Ryan household. Gran cooked the meals, and Gracie and I took care of the cleanup. Dad drank.

After I handed Gracie the last plate to dry, I headed to the front door, ready for some fresh air. The trailer was still too hot. Plus, a walk to clear my head seemed like a good idea. Clips of what I’d seen in the woods earlier and the story Dad had told at dinner shifted through my mind.

I trekked around the trailer park, taking notice of who was home and who wasn’t. Not that it would help me figure out who might be missing from the pack. There was no way to account for everyone unless they were standing in front of me. People came and went from the park all the time. We all led busy lives.

Maybe there wasn’t anyone missing. Maybe the wolf I’d heard Friday night and the blood I found today weren’t connected. Maybe Shane and his brothers had bagged a rabbit like he’d claimed.

My gut told me a different story, though.

I should have mentioned something to Gran and Dad about it, but after hearing Dad’s story, I hadn’t wanted to. What if I told them, and they thought Alec had something to do with it? What if they forbid me from seeing him because of it? I couldn’t let that happen.

Alec was a good guy. I cared for him. A lot.

I spotted Eli unloading plywood from the back of his truck when I made my way back toward my trailer. He placed the piece of wood on a makeshift table and began measuring. I paused, watching him mark off a couple notches on the wood in preparation to make a cut. He bit the inside of his cheek and pulled his brows together as he concentrated on what he was doing. I’d never seen him so lost in something before. Then again, I tried to spend as little time around him as possible due to the weird pull I felt toward him.

I continued walking to my place, but couldn’t bring myself to look away from him. His gaze lifted to mine. It was as though he could feel my eyes on him.

“Hey, Mina. Care to help me with something?” he asked. The ghost of a smile twisted at his lips. It had me wondering if he actually needed my help, or if he just wanted my company.

“Depends on what it is, I guess,” I said.

“Come hold my wood for me,” he said as his eyes narrowed playfully.

Electricity zinged through my stomach. “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and continued walking.

“Seriously though, come hold this piece of wood so I can make a clean-cut.”

“Isn’t that what those clamps are for?” I nodded to the shiny silver clamps hanging off the edge of his makeshift table. While I might not know much about carpentry, I knew enough to recognize what they were for.

“Not at the angle I need it held at.”

“Oh.” I started toward him, feeling slightly stupid. Maybe he truly did need my help. “What do you want me to do?”

He tapped the edge of the piece of wood. “Put one hand here and the other here.”

I stepped closer to do as he said, feeling my stomach summersault at our sudden closeness. “Okay, now what?”

“Now look away. I’d feel horrible if sawdust got in your eyes.”

“What about you? Shouldn’t you be wearing safety glasses?”

“I’m not worried about me.”

I didn’t miss the smirk cutting across his face. Warmth splashed through me. I averted my gaze and held on to the wood tightly. “What are you making?”

“I’m replacing the subfloor in front of that leaky window in the dining room,” he said as he measured out his notches once more before reaching for the saw. It was something I’d watched my dad do anytime he built something. He’d always said measure twice, cut once. Must be something Eli had heard too. “After this, I need to sand a little more beneath the window and paint the wall. Then, the living room is pretty much done.”

“Cool.” I was amazed he’d already done so much to the place. He’d been busy. Which meant he hadn’t been working at the bar. “Did you already get fired from the bar?”

“No,” he scoffed. “Why would you think that?”

“Because, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t weekends the busiest time there?”

“Yeah, but Eddie gave me the weekend off since he learned I moved into my own place.”

“That was nice.”

“Yeah, Eddie’s is a pretty cool guy.” Eli matched the saw up with the line he’d scratched into the wood. “Hold the piece still. I need to make a straight line.”

“Got it.” I tightened my grip.

“Look away,” he insisted.

A high-pitched buzzing sound spurred from the piece of machinery the second I did. It was horrible, but it was nothing compared to the sharp scent of freshly cut wood wafting to my nose. I hated the smell of sawdust. It tickled my nose worse than pollen.

“Beautiful,” Eli said as he admired his work. He swiped sawdust off the plywood. It floated through the air before falling to land on my toes. I knew I should have worn my sneakers before taking a walk around the park. I instantly moved to wipe my feet clean. “Sorry about that. Didn't realize you weren’t wearing real shoes.”

“These are real shoes,” I said.

“Sure they are,” he muttered. “Want to come inside and see what I’ve done to the place so far?”

I hesitated. The last time we’d been together had left me feeling hot and bothered, but I was curious to see what he’d done to the place. Maybe this time would be different. If I kept distance between us, it would be. “Okay, sure.”

“I’m not twisting your arm. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” He snorted.

“I don’t have anything better to do.”

“Nice to know, I guess.” He started up the new steps he’d built since the last time I stopped by and held the door open for me. I slipped past him and inside, careful not to touch him. “Glad I’m at the top of your list of people to visit when you have nothing better to do.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, I just…” My words caught in my throat as I took in what he’d done to the place the last couple days. While it wasn’t finished, he had still accomplished so much in such a short span of time. “Wow, have you taken a second to sleep since the last time I was here?”

Eli crossed to the dining room window. A section of the floor had already been cut out and the rotten piece removed. I watched as he bent down to position the new piece into place. His silver chain dangled in the air, glinting in the sunlight and his arm muscles flexed.

“Of course, but like I said, I’ve had the weekend off. I wanted to get the easy stuff out of the way.”

I wasn’t sure what he was deeming easy.

“None of this looks easy.” I glanced around, taking it all in. “Well, except for maybe the painting.” He’d painted the living room area, and it looked as though he’d started on the dining room when he remembered the leaky window and had to pause.

“Painting might be easy, but it’s time-consuming and it sucks,” he said before hammering the piece of plywood in place.

“I like painting. I’d rather do that than sand walls and cut plywood or build crap any day.”

Painting was therapeutic. I wasn’t sure how many times I’d painted mine and Gracie’s bedroom, but each time, I felt a sense of energy shift from it. There was no cheaper, or easier, way to change the feel of a room than paint.

“If you like it so much, there’s a brush over there. Get to it,” Eli said, nodding toward an abandoned brush sitting in a drip pan. “Why don’t you cut in the rest of this dining room for me? Since you don’t have anything better to do.” He winked.

“Will you just drop that? I didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” I insisted as I walked over to pick up the paintbrush. I dumped more paint in the tray and sloshed my paintbrush around in it.

The color he picked was neutral. A light beige that would go with about anything. While it wasn’t a color I would have chosen—I liked gray tones better than browns—I still thought it beat the nicotine yellow the walls had been before.

“I’m kidding. I know you didn’t,” Eli said. “As soon as I get this section nailed in, I’ll sand the window a little more and then you can paint over here too.”

“What makes you think I’m hanging around that long?”

“The way your face lit up when I asked you to paint.”

Damn. He was observant, if nothing else. “Touché.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone enjoy painting as much as you.”

“I don’t like painting pictures or anything. Just walls when I want something to refresh a space.”

“I know.”

“How could you possibly know that about me?” I tried to add a scoff to my words, but it came out sounding wrong.

“I noticed you change the paint of your bedroom walls nearly every summer.” His words were so smooth. He didn’t care that he’d just admitted to watching me. “And before you say it, no. I’m not stalking you. I smelled the paint every summer and could hear you jamming your rap music.”

I laughed because it was true. Every summer I tossed open our bedroom window, kicked Gracie out, cranked up some music, and painted the entire room a new color. Eli would know this, because he’d always been my next-door neighbor.

I opened my mouth to say something, but caught him walking my way from the corner of my eye. There was something in his hand, but I wasn’t sure what it was until he kneeled beside me to place a cell phone on a docking station I hadn’t noticed before. At the press of a button, music filled the trailer. It was just loud enough to send the awkwardness of silence away.

“What is it you like so much about painting?” The heat from his body radiated to me. He hadn’t stepped away like I’d thought he would. He was still right up on me.

I licked my lips. “I don’t know. I guess it allows me to clear my head. It’s a mundane task I don’t have to think about. I just do it.” I glanced at him from over my shoulder, wanting to judge his reaction to my words and gauge how close he was to me.

“Hmm, is that so?” His lips were so close I could feel his warm breath fluttering across my face. If I lifted onto the tips of my toes, his lips would connect with mine. My toes curled and my heart hammered against my chest. Did I want that? Did I want to kiss Eli? His scent saturated the air around me, intoxicating me. “What are you trying to clear your mind of now?”

“What I saw in the woods.” The words fell from my mouth as though they’d been waiting on the tip of my tongue to be said the entire time I’d been in his presence.

The area between his brows furrowed as he took a step back, whatever had been building between us shattered. “What do you mean?”

I released the breath I’d been holding and shifted my attention back to painting the wall. “I’m not really sure, to be honest. Friday night I thought I heard someone from the pack howling in the woods when Alec walked me home.” Saying his name in Eli’s place seemed wrong for some reason. It made my heart hammer faster and my stomach flip-flop. “I think it was someone going on a run by themselves.”

“That’s not uncommon. No matter what your Gran says, sometimes you just want to go on a run by yourself.”

“Do you run by yourself?” I glanced at him. My insides burned with emotions that surprised me.

“Sometimes.”

“You shouldn’t.” I hated sounding like Gran, but I needed to reiterate what she always said. It was important. “You should always run with someone, Eli. More than one wolf if you can. Or just wait until the full moon and run safely with the pack. That would be best.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” He tossed his hands up in surrender, but it was clear from the smirk twisting his lips and the amusement flickering in the bright green of his eyes, he wasn’t taking heed to my warning.

“No. You don’t know.” I set my paintbrush down and shifted my attention to him fully. “Not only did I hear a wolf running alone, but I also found blood in the woods today when I was with Alec on his uncle’s property that butts up against the lake. There were signs of a struggle and blood. I think the wolf I heard had an encounter with a hunter.”

His features grew serious. I had his attention now. “Are you sure?”

I nodded but didn’t speak. Instead, I allowed him to process what I’d said.

“I thought hunting season was over.”

“It’s supposed to be, but you know as well as I do not everyone in this town follows those rules.”

He smoothed a hand over his face. “Yeah, I know, but I haven’t seen anyone in the woods lately.”

“Then you got lucky. I don’t think whoever was in the woods Friday night was so lucky, though.” My stomach twisted.

“You think whoever it was in the woods Friday night was shot?”

I nodded. “I think they were taken, too. There wasn’t a body. I think Alec’s friend Shane and his brothers took whoever it was.”

Eli blew out a long breath. “Even if they did, I haven’t heard any talk of anyone missing from the pack. If it happened Friday night, someone would have noticed by now. They would have said something to my dad. He would have sent out a search party, something.”

“I know, but…”

“I’m not saying what you think happened didn’t. I just think we would have heard something about it by now if it did. I’ll keep an ear out, though.”

Maybe that was all we could do. I mean, Eli was right. If someone were missing from the pack, we would know it by now. Wouldn’t we?

“Okay.” I picked up my paintbrush and swirled it through more paint. “I already walked around the trailer park, trying to see if I could spot anyone missing from the pack tonight. It was stupid, but I felt like I had to do something.”

“Did you tell your Gran?”

“No. I don’t think she’d believe me. I’m actually kind of surprised you did.”

“Why wouldn’t I believe you?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged.

Eli reached for me. His hand came to rest on my forearm and sparks of electricity burst beneath my skin like tiny fireworks at the contact. “You can always come to me about anything, Mina. I’ll always believe you.”

Warmth filled me, causing my heart to contract and expand so quickly it was a miracle I was still alive. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” he said as he removed his touch. “And you don’t have to finish painting that wall if you don’t want to. I don’t want to keep you.”

He did, though. I could sense he wanted me to stay. The crazy part was that I wanted to stay, too.

“Like I said, I don’t have anything better to do.” I flashed him a small smile and went back to painting.