Ivy silently plucked a pen from her pencil cup and clicked it open. I suddenly felt awkward, realizing that David’s little paper granted him something she wanted: a recognizable connection with me.

“I did a background check on him when you were in the hospital,” she said. “He’s not hooking up with you to help him out with a preexisting problem.”

My eyebrows rose. I hadn’t thought about that. “He said this was a no-strings-attached affair.” I hesitated. “Ivy, I live with you,” I said, trying to reassure her that our friendship didn’t need a paper or signature to be real, and both our names were above the door. Both of them.

She was silent, her face empty of emotion, her brown eyes still. “You trust him?”

I nodded. I had to go with my gut feeling here.

The barest smile appeared on her. “Me too.” Pushing a plate of cookies aside, she wrote her name on the first line in a careful but almost illegible signature.

“Thanks,” I said, and she handed it back. My gaze went past her as the back door opened. Ivy looked up, and I recognized a softening in her gaze when Kisten’s familiar footsteps thumped on the rug beside the door, knocking off the snow. He came into the kitchen, David on his heels.

“Are we signing the paper or not?” Kisten said, the tension in his voice telling me he was ready to argue with Ivy if she was balking.

Ivy clicked her pen open and shut so fast that it hummed. “I already did. Your turn.”

He squared his shoulders, grinning as he took the pen when she extended it, adding his masculine signature under hers. His Social Security number was next, and he handed the pen to David.

David edged between them, looking small beside their tall grace. I could see his relief as he wrote his full name. My pulse increased and I took the pen, pulling the paper closer.

“So,” Kisten said when I signed it. “Who are you going to ask to be the third witness?”

“Jenks,” Ivy and I said together, and I looked up. Our eyes met and I clicked the pen closed.

“Will you ask him for me?” I said to David.

The Were picked up the paper, carefully folding it and tucking it away in an inner coat pocket. “You don’t want to ask someone else? He might not.”

I glanced at Ivy and straightened, tucking a curl of hair behind my ear. “He’s a member of this firm,” I said. “If he wants to spend the winter sulking in a Were’s basement, that’s fine with me, but he had better get his little pixy butt back here when the weather breaks or I’m going to be royally pissed.” I took a deep breath, adding, “And maybe this will convince him he’s a valued member of the team and that I’m sorry.”

Kisten took a shuffling step back.

“I’ll ask him,” David said.

The back door opened and Erica tumbled in, her cheeks red and her eyes snapping. “Hey! Come on! He’s ready to play! God save you, he’s warmed up and ready to play, and you’re inside eating? Get your asses out here!”