“But the past two months…”

“The past two months have been hell on everyone.” All traces of the smile were gone as he slumped into the seat opposite me. “And I didn’t make it any easier on you. I’m sorry about that. Really. I was so lost in my own head I couldn’t see straight.” He started brushing crumbs off the table in an uncharacteristic bout of nervousness. “I’ve been seeing someone,” he finally blurted out.

I was glad he was concentrating so hard on clearing the table of toast debris he didn’t see my reaction.

“Is she nice?” Something was wrong with my chest, like maybe my lungs went missing.

“He’s great.” Charlie looked up and caught my expression. The bark of laughter that followed was so abrupt I nearly fell out of my seat. “A shrink, Scout. I’ve been going to therapy.”

“Oh, good!” Crap, that wasn’t right. “I don’t mean good good, I just mean, you know…” Either the temperature in the kitchen suddenly skyrocketed or my face was glowing red with embarrassment. “So, the therapy thing is helping with stuff?”

“I’m not spinning through the meadow, singing about how alive the mountains are or anything, but yeah, I’m learning to deal.”

“What is it with you and musicals, Chuck?”

“You know Judd?”

“From Oklahoma!?”

Charlie sighed. “From Randy’s”

“Oh, that Judd. I think I saw him wrapped up in a zebra print Snuggie this morning.”

“Yeah, that’s Judd,” he said as if the guy was often seen in animal print novelty items. “His dad is the guy I’ve been going to. After you left this morning, Judd called him and asked him to come over. We’ve been talking things out for hours.”

Great, I drove Charlie to a marathon session with a shrink. I was made of win. “Was he able to help?” Maybe give you some helpful hints as to how to cut me out of your life forever before I completely ruin it?

“He did.” Charlie took a deep breath and then focused on me. Intently. Frighteningly so. “He helped me figure out some stuff.”

“Stuff like…?” I was being nosey and rude, but I had to know.

“Stuff like how you and I can’t go back to where we were or get to where we were going, and that it’s unfair for either of us to try.” I couldn’t say anything since my tongue decided to glue itself to the roof of my mouth, but I nodded as if I understood. “And I realized there are some things about us that will never change, no matter what.”

“What things are those?”

Charlie reached across the table and took hold of my fingers. “We’re friends, Scout. To infinity and beyond. No matter what, I will always be your friend.”

Dammit. I was crying. Again. “Friends. Until the rest of ever.”

Big, manly fingers tightened around my boney ones. “We cool?”

All this time I thought I wanted Charlie pushed far out of my life. I was wrong. And I knew I was wrong because at that moment, when I realized he wasn’t going anywhere, my face nearly split in two from smiling so freaking hard. “Like a cucumber.”

“Good, because Jase and Talley aren’t right now.”

And with that joyous breakthrough, we were moving on to the next crisis.

“Since we’re cool now, could you please just explain to me what I did wrong without vaguing it all up to the point I can’t understand what anyone is talking about?”

Charlie pulled his hands back across the table. “How much to you know about mating?”

“In the general, animal kingdom sense, or specific Shifter stuff?”

“Specific Shifter stuff.”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Nope. Not a thing.”

Charlie’s forehead folded up like an accordion. “Then how did you know to tell Talley’s dad she was mated?”

My dead boyfriend told me in one of my crazy person dreams.

“I overheard someone say something about mates somewhere and just threw it out there. Honestly, I had no idea it would actually work.”

“So, you don’t know anything about declarations or oaths or lifelong bonds?” I shook my head. “You really have no clue what just happened, do you?”

“I pissed off Jase and made Talley cry. That pretty much sums up everything I know up to this point.”

Charlie leaned back in the chair, raising two of the feet off the floor. “Mating is something that can only happen between Shifters and Seers. You remember in history class how the prince of one country would marry the princess of another country so when they became King and Queen their countries would be allies?”

“Yes.”

“Mating works a little like that.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose between two fingers. “For the love of all things holy, please tell me you guys don’t arrange marriages.” I was so going to have to go all Rosie the Riveter on the Shifter world over this crazy crap.

“Not exactly. The Seer is always free to pick her mate, if she takes one. Most don’t bother.”

“Seers don’t believe in marriage?”

Charlie’s chair plopped back down. “Marriage and mating aren’t exactly the same. If this is having a spouse,” he lifted one hand, chest high, “then this is having a mate.” He lifted the other hand as high as it would go, considered it for a moment, and then turned his hand so his fingers stretched towards the ceiling.

I frowned. “It’s more what? Demanding? Intimate? The ceremony makes Prince William and Kate’s wedding look like a Vegas drive-thru? Are they one of those annoying couples always attached at the hip?”

“Yes.”

“Yes to which part?”

“All of it.” Charlie looked at the ceiling, his hands suspended in front of him. He seemed to be seeking guidance. “It’s complicated,” he finally said.

I kicked him under the table. “Try again.”

“I don’t know, really. It’s all sort of mysterious and secretive. I just know mates can’t get a divorce, ever. And there is some sort of bond that happens, like a weird psychic connection or something that dulls the further away you are from your mate. It’s the reason Mrs. Matthews came here.”