Heron Lake Plateau Hoping for real betterness

Ha!  Was that a laugh!  She got a laugh out of him!  This wasn't hopeless after all!

But wait oh no, she didn't really know what to talk about either, and maybe talking about the gardens wasn't a good idea becaue either he wouldn't be interested and it'd be embarrassing or he would be and it might actually be worse because they were kind of for Raven, right?

And there was something about the look on Raven's face — just Raven's — that she wanted to savor there... and if he ended up hating it she kind of didn't want that association there.  So what else was there to talk about, anyway?

So uh, how's the weather? she joked, letting out a forced kind of chuckle that tapered off into a nervous little nnnnnnngh.  No but uh, before all this.  Before the alpha-thing and the constantly-patrolling-because-you-have-kids thing, what did you used to.. do?  Like for fun?  To relax?  Scoring points with Raven by giving her husband something like Raven's garden wasn't as skeevy as it felt, right?