Free The Cougar's Trade by Holley Trent Page A

the porch stairs, gave his mate a kiss, and handed her the kid. “Come on,” he said to Hank. “We need to see how much Cory’s cabinet repair and installation could possibly fuck up our production schedule.”
    “The easy answer is
a lot
.”
    Mason cringed. “Well, let’s figure out specifics. I’ve been wanting to promote one of the installation guys to supervisor, so this might be a chance to see if he can step up.” He waved Hank toward the large, corrugated-metal building Woodworks called its headquarters.
    Hank cut his gaze to Miles, and as always, she couldn’t read anything in it. She couldn’t tell if he was angry or sad or just aloof.
    Not knowing made her look away.
    “She’ll be fine with me,” Ellery said. “I’ve been looking out for her for a very long time. A
decade
before you came along. If you can’t trust me to keep her from absconding, take that shit up with your brother.”
    On that note, Hank walked away.
    As soon as he was out of a Cougar’s earshot, Miles whispered, “I’m not going to abscond. I told him I’d stay.”
    “What? Hold on. I need to sit down for this.” Ellery plopped onto the second-to-bottom stair step and set Nick beside her. She patted the space right next to him. “Sit.”
    Miles did.
    “Explain.”
    “It seemed practical. If it doesn’t hurt, why not help?”
    “You always say that,” Ellery said softly. It was that voice she always used right before she dug into her purse for a handkerchief, and if she cried, Miles would cry, and in the end, they’d have no idea what they were blubbering about.
    “No crying allowed. I’m too exhausted for it. And it’s true. I told him I’d trade him something. I don’t know what, but hey—” She gave Ellery’s shoulder a little nudge. “This way I get a little freedom to come and go. I won’t leave you high and dry. I can keep Hannah from doing anything rash, and Glenda has one less son to worry about losing to a curse. No one should have to deal with what she does.”
    “Even when the poor woman’s sons are professionally irritating. Oh
honey
.” Ellery pulled her into an embrace, squashing poor Nick between the two of them. He took it all in good fun, though, and giggled from between their torsos.
    “Can I stay with you?”
    “Of course you can.” Ellery chuckled and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms. Her eyelids were heavy. She had to be as tired as Miles, just for a different reason. “You know, Mason and I were pretty certain the pairs would sort out the way they did.”
    “Why?”
    “Because it took them so long. If the obvious choices had felt right to them from the beginning, it wouldn’t have taken them a month to claim you and Hannah. I think they knew something wasn’t right with the obvious, and they just couldn’t digest it.”
    “Do you think she’s wrong?”
    “Who?
La Bella Dama
?”
    Miles nodded.
    “Well, she’s not
my
goddess, honey. I’m like you—just an outsider mate. We’re caught up in her whims, but I think in general, she knows what she’s doing. Mason is coming around to accepting that. I’m sure Hank and Sean need more convincing.”
    “I could use a little convincing, too.”
    “It’s Hank’s job to do that, unfortunately. And you can still go. You may have told him you’d stay, but there’s no reason you can’t leave when you want if he’s not treating you the way you deserve. I mean, the fairy-tale romance would be nice if you could get it, right?” Ellery gave her a bump with her shoulder.
    “Maybe, it would be, but what kind of fairy tale? Like, an original Grimm, or the modern cartoon movie version where everyone’s happy and only the villains die at the end?”
    “For you? Only the happy kind.”
    “And what about Hannah?”
    Ellery didn’t have to respond. Her grimace confirmed the same thing Miles was feeling. “Do you think it would help if we talked to her?”
    Ellery shook her head. “She won’t talk to me. I keep