Teacher's Pet Wolf

Now I watch as Sam whacks him over the head with a pool noodle, and he retaliates by lifting her up and tossing her into the water. When he launches his huge body in after her, the resulting splash is like a tidal wave over the side.

Maria raises her eyebrows at me, waiting for an answer.

“I honestly don’t know. But Sam says they’re just friends.”

“Maybe she is. He’s not.”

Probably not. Sometimes I see Brandon gazing at her like a lovelorn puppy, but she’s got him firmly in the friend zone. “Maybe it’s because Ranger and I are spending so much time together. So his brother has no one else in town to hang out with, and Sam…”

Well, I don’t know about Sam. She has other friends.

“Yeah, right. Because when I have no one else around, the first thing I do is spend time with my sister in-law.”

A sister-in-law whom Maria just spent an entire week with. “So how was camping?” I ask her sweetly.

“You bitch.”

I laugh and accept the water bottle Ranger hands to me on his return. He pops off the top of Maria’s hard lemonade, and she takes it gratefully.

“Thank you, Ranger Ranger. But seriously, though. That woman is just…” She pretends to choke the air in front of her, as if strangling her sister-in-law, then drags in a deep breath and offers a bright, totally-not-murderous smile. “So that was a real fun week. But now she’s gone back to her perfect little life in Seattle and I don’t have to see her again until Thanksgiving. The next trip is just Dan and me and the kids—and we’re taking the camper instead of tents. So it should be better. Hopefully.”

“When are you going?”

She gives a long-suffering sigh. “Tomorrow.”

I snicker.

“You’re so mean. I can’t wait until you have kids and a husband and evil in-laws and zero real vacation time.” She flutters her lashes at Ranger. “Please make my dream of dragging Alicia down into the marital trenches with me come true.”

“Can’t.” His long fingers tangle with mine. “No evil in-laws. Most are just like him.”

Brandon, who’s currently letting about ten screaming kids pile onto his giant shoulders in an attempt to dunk him.

“Well, shit.” But she only pouts for a second before reaching out to draw in a tall, blonde man with wire-rimmed glasses. “Speaking of marital trenches, look who apparently escaped the barbecue pit. Dan, this is Ranger Ranger. Ranger Ranger, my husband, Dan.”

“Or Travis,” Ranger says, shaking the other man’s hand.

Maria’s husband grins. “My wife has referred to you as Ranger Ranger for so long, I wouldn’t know who Travis is. Except that you’re the man who’s got half the town pissed off at him by persuading the mayor to enforce that fireworks ban.”

Unbothered, Ranger slides his arm behind my back, fingers curling around the side of my waist in a casually possessive hold. “Only half?”

“I was being nice, since you’re new around here.” Chuckling, he shares a look with his wife. “Hell, we’re still new around here and we moved in five years ago.”

“Yep,” Maria says. “Don’t let this crowd fool you. People only like us for the free booze and the pool.”

“True,” I say and she gasps in mock outrage, then we both start laughing. Because it isn’t true. But it also is. Everyone genuinely likes Maria and Dan. Yet the booze and the pool still go a long way toward getting people to show up.

Even with a pool and booze, Sam and I could never get this many people out to our house.

“So…Travis,” Dan tries out the name that even I haven’t used yet, because it doesn’t fit so easily. He’ll always be Ranger to me. “You’re in the ranger’s residence now?”

“I am.”

When he’s not at my house. When he started his job at the station almost two weeks ago, he left the hotel and came to stay with me—and Sam and I offered Brandon our guest room. But although the residence is officially his now, he’s still in my bed every night.

At some point soon, that’ll change—and it’ll be me in his bed. Or rather, our bed.

I just haven’t gotten there yet.

“All moved in? Because we’re not yet good enough friends for me to actually help you move furniture, but given the strength of the relationship between our women, we’re at the level where I can pretend to offer and then say, ‘Sorry, man, but it turns out I’m busy this weekend.’”

Ranger’s deep laugh rumbles out. “It’s done. I had exactly one bag to carry in. The house is already furnished.”

“Thank fuck for that.” Dan lets out a relieved breath like he dodged a bullet. “And, shit. If I’d known the ranger business comes with free, furnished housing, I’d have signed up.”

Ranger says dryly, “Most of that free, furnished housing is a leaky cabin and a cot.”