~ MACK ~
I wouldn’t make it easy for her. If she was going cold on me, if she rejected the bond outright, I was going to make her tell me. Face to face.
Once I was resolved I went downstairs to the kitchen. I would cook. Natalie hated to cook, and she’d be famished—I was. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it had been a helluva day.
An image of Rig’s face when Cara appeared from the house, the sheer joy—like he’d just found the sun—rocked through me. I wanted that moment. I wanted that day. And I wanted it with Natalie.
Fuck.
My hand trembled as I pulled out pans and started searching through the pantry and freezer to pull something together.
An hour later, the warm scents of the pasta sauce had to be drifting up the stairs. I’d closed my nose because I kept catching whiffs of Natalie that shot straight to my gut. But I knew if anything was going to get her down here, it would be the scent of hot food.