MoonlightDrifter by Jessica Coulter Smith Page A

ushering Allie out of the diner.
He helped her into the truck before sliding in behind the wheel, sitting in
silence a moment, gathering his thoughts. There was a lot to accomplish today
but, God, how he wanted her! Maybe he could hold himself in check until they’d
looked at the houses. Other than him mentioning the flyers, they hadn’t really
discussed the whole house issue. He hoped she was open to it.
    He pulled the flyers out and set
them in her lap. “These are the houses I mentioned. There are five, but I
wasn’t sure you’d like them all. Flip through them and see if there are any you
want to look at. If you don’t like those, I’ll ask Matt to find others. Those
are his listings so he said he could cut us a deal on one, as a mating
present.”
    Allie turned one page after
another, until she reached the end, then she went back through them and pulled
out two. A cute yellow house with white trim and doghouse windows on top and a
white one with black shutters that had a porch across the front. Both were
cute. The yellow had been his favorite of the group. He took them from her and
pulled out his phone to call Matt. When Matt answered, Cain told him they’d
chosen two to look at and rattled off the addresses. Matt promised to meet them
at the white house in ten minutes.
    Cain disconnected the call and
headed in that direction. They were closer than Matt was so he took his time,
taking in the scenery along the way. The street the house sat on was filled
with Bradford Pear trees and several homes had flowering azalea bushes in
front. When he stopped in front of the white house, he noted the jasmine
climbing up the left side of the porch and the snowball bushes on either side
of the steps. It was cute; definitely something he’d like coming home to every
night.
    Allie leapt out of the truck
before he could stop her. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with her. She
was determined to do reckless things. If she didn’t slow down, she was going to
give him a heart attack. Yes, plenty of women carried babies all the time and
carried on with their typical lives, but this wasn’t your average pregnancy.
Since they didn’t know if the baby would be a tiger or a wolf, they needed to
err on the side of caution.
    He followed her up the steps and
peeked in the windows. A car pulled up in the driveway and Matt climbed out,
smiling at them. When he stepped up onto the porch, he jingled the keys.
    “Ready to see the house?” Matt
asked.
    Allie smiled and nodded
enthusiastically. Cain was happy to see she was really into the whole house
hunting thing. It seemed he’d worried for nothing.
    Matt opened the door and ushered
them inside. There was a small entryway with the living room off to the right.
Cain could see the kitchen at the back of the living room. To the left lay a
small hall with three bedrooms and a bathroom. It was the smaller house of the
two and Cain wondered what Allie thought of it. It was bigger than the wolf
dorms or Allie’s apartment, so they’d be moving up even if they took the
smaller home, but he wondered if she would be happy in the long run. When the
baby got older, and possibly had a sibling or two, the sound of the kids would
be deafening in such a small space.
    Allie wandered through the house,
touching the kitchen counters, opening the cabinets, inspecting the bathroom
fixtures. She hadn’t said a word yet and Cain wasn’t sure if that was a good
sign or not. Did she like it so much she was speechless? Or was she mentally
calculating what she thought was wrong with it? Matt had assured him that it
had passed inspection just the month prior when he’d bought it so, hopefully,
they wouldn’t have any repairs or broken appliances too soon after moving in.
He had mentioned the roof needed to be replaced in a year or two, but Cain
could easily do that himself. Well, if his job allowed him the time. Speaking
of… he really needed to drop off that application. He had it in his truck,
ready