“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said.

    b“/bbIf /byou’d let me apologize

    i” /i

    “What are you even doing here?” I asked.

    He straightened a little at my sudden change of subject, but answered, “Ca invited me this morning… before I left the clinic. She said I was part of the staff and shoulde.”

    In my mind, I cursed. I couldn’t be angry at Ca. Without knowing the full context of Julian and my history, she couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t want Julian here. To her, he was a generous Alpha who had given up so much of his precious time for the good cause of helping to heal sick people.

    To her, he might as well have been a saint. At the very least, he was someone who worked at the clinic.

    She hadn’t been wrong to include him for this celebration, but it still hurt having him here, especially after what happenedst night – much of which I still didn’t remember. And what I did remember made my cheeks burn in embarrassment.

    I pushed away all of those thoughts for now by instead motioning toward Olivia. “And who invited herb?/bb” /b

    Julian clenched his jaw. He didn’t look pleased at all as he too nced at Olivia, still in light conversation with Ca and a few others who now joined them.

    b“/bNo one,” Julian said.

    “Then why is she here?” I asked.

    “I don’t know,i” /iJulian said.

    “Amber!” Chase called as he stepped closer, firmly imnting himself between Julian and me. “How good to see you. And what a surprise to find so many others have joined the celebration tonight…”

    My brow pulled together. “Didn’t we agree everyone shoulde?”

    He sighed, though he smiled as he did so, so I knew there was no hard feelings. “We did, yes. I might have thought that you… Well, it hardly matters now, does it? I’m very much looking forward to spending time with everyone tonight. Tell me, was that your daughter who was here just now?”

    “Yes, that’s Alice,” I said, realizing now that Chase had never met her. “Would you like to meet her?”

    “I’d love to,” Chase said.

    “That’s not a good idea,” Julian tried to say, but I was firmly done talking with him at the moment. Instead, I waved Chase over and together we walked toward the w machine. Julian watched our every move, though did not follow us.

    We arrived at the machine just in time to watch a stuffed animal slip from the metal w back down to the pile of other plush animals.

    b“/bYou almost had it!” Alice said with encouragement.

    Anna, at the controls of the machine, just shook her head. “Sorry, Alice.”

    “Perhaps I could try?” Chase asked.

    Anna and Alice both turned to look at us.

    “Alice,” I said. “This is Chase. The one who is treating us tonight. Chase, this is Alice.”

    Chase held out his hand to shake Alice’s. Alice seemed confused as the rest of us for a moment. Usually

    people didn’t treat children like adults.

    It made me wonder if Chase had ever really been around children before…

    Still, Alice seemed somewhat charmed by it and shook Chase’s hand.

    “Nice to meet you, Alice,” Chase said.

    “Nice to meet you…” Alice repeated somewhat awkwardly.

    Then Chase turned toward the machine and said, “Now, let’s see about winning you one of these bears…”

    A few moments and far too much moneyter – enough that Chase could have just bought her a far nicer bear at the store for less – Chase finally pulled a plush animal from the machine and handed it to Alice.

    He looked relieved.

    Alice held it closely to her chest, both arms wrapped around it. “Thank you!”

    Chase smiled. “Happy to.”

    “Party of fourteen! Your table is ready,” the hostess called.

    iWe /iall followed the hostess in a long train, to where they had pulled several of the dining room tables into a long row. People scurried for seats.

    When the dust settled, Alice sat between Anna and me, but there was an open seat on the other side of

    me and one across the table beside Olivia.

    Two hands fell on the chair beside mine.

    One belonged to Chase, and the other to Julian.

    They red at each other.