Irish Melody Read Free Page B

rainbows, too. He thought he’d probably like that. They didn’t look messy or cheap, which was what his mom said sometimes when she saw the colors Hannah did to her nails, but never to Hannah’s face. He thought Hannah never looked cheap or messy. She was classy like Audrey Hepburn. Ippy liked when he and Hannah watched movies with her in them. Ever since her dad, Liam, had introduced them to the classic movies they’d been seeing a lot fewer of the more recent movies. Except for the horror movies. They’d seen all the classic horror movies first.
    Hannah got to her feet and Ippy went with her. He stood beside her as Samson and Christopher spoke. Liam was there, along with Hannah’s other dad, Travis, and Ippy wondered when they’d come. And why Hannah wasn’t standing with them. Your dads are here, he told her, in case she’d missed them standing a few yards away. They kept looking back at Hannah and Ippy. He wondered why.
    She nodded. “Yep. I saw them. Thanks though.”
    Why aren’t you with them? he asked. There was nothing stopping her from going to them, no barrier that he could see. Only a bit of driveway, and even that wasn’t all that much.
    Hannah turned and gave him a little shrug. “No reason. Guess I just wanted to stay over here. I like it on this side.”
    Why? There was nothing special about this side of the driveway. The sun wasn’t even at the right position to give them a bit of a view on the few flowers that grew wild along the edge of the woods.
    She turned away and he thought she might not answer him. But then she did. “Because you’re over here.”
    He didn’t know what to say to that, but he tried anyway and hoped it was the right thing to say to her. I like that you’re over here, too. And I like your nails.
    Hannah turned back to him and smiled. “Thanks. I was just messing around. Daddy Liam was going on and on and then sent me upstairs to come back with a balanced budget worksheet for the pack. Then I saw my nail polish bag and well, long story short, I’m in a bit of trouble for getting distracted.”
    I get distracted a lot too, Ippy told her, knowing all about getting in trouble for that fault.
    “Yeah, but you’ve got a good excuse. I was just bored.” She shrugged and stuffed her hands into her pockets as the men came toward them. Ippy mimicked her, putting his own hands into his pockets as he waited for them to come up.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    Samson wasted no time yelling at them as soon as he’d pulled them into his office. Christopher stood beside him and Hannah’s dads were behind Ippy and Hannah as they sat in chairs that were far too big for them across the large desk from their alpha. Ippy shrank back, trying to become small in the room full of wolves far more dominant than he. He looked over to Hannah and was surprised to see her looking angry when she should be small too. Like he was.
    “It was all her fault!” Hannah shouted.
    Ippy gasped and simply stared at her. She rarely yelled, especially not around him, and doing so to their alpha was just wrong. He quickly got out his notebook, intending to write something that would defend his best friend. But he couldn’t think of anything. Saying that she hadn’t meant to would be a lie. And Sara had started it, but he didn’t know what she’d actually been doing, so he couldn’t exactly explain that part either. So instead of coming up with an excuse he simply asked Samson not to be mad at her. He held up the paper for his alpha to see and averted his eyes.
    Samson sighed loudly and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why not, Phillip?”
    Ippy wasn’t expecting to get a response and so it took him a moment to figure one out. Finally he chose honesty, because that was the only option for him. Because he loved her. He showed the paper to his alpha and didn’t know why Samson’s eyes got really big and his mouth opened as he looked between Ippy and Hannah.
    “You love her?” he asked Ippy.
    He nodded.