Peyton looked.“Okay, so what’s her name?”
Badger grinned.“That’s fer ye to figure out.”
“Wait, what?”
“I just gave ye all ye’ll need.If she’s yer mate, your nose’ll lead ye right to her.”
Peyton barely managed not to bare his teeth at Badger and growl at him.“That’sallI get?”
“She’s legally an adult, an’ my objective opinion is she’s a smart-lookin’ lass.Smart-thinkin’ one, too.As long as she’s agreeable to ye, I don’t think ye’ll be disappointed.”
Fuuuuuck.“Fine.”Peyton gave Dewi a good-bye kiss and headed out, plugging the address into his phone’s map app.
It came up as a restaurant and Peyton fought the urge to go back in and strangle Badger.
He’s going to drag this out as long as he can.
For that reason alone he’d try to find her without further help from Badger.
He’sstillholding a grudge against me for eating his cake?
To be fair—again—he’d only been ten years old at the time.
If he managed to find this woman—and she agreed to be his mate—maybe she’d help him make Badger a replacement cake from the recipe out of his mom’s cookbook, which Peyton knew still sat in the pantry closet in the kitchen.
Next door.
Red velvet cake had been one of her specialties.
He’d never eaten at this restaurant before.It looked like an older establishment, and he forced himself to sit in his car for a moment with the A/C blasting cold air on him as he perused its online ratings.
Popular neighborhood fixture, typical diner fare, and a family business that had been around for over twenty years.
Of course he was stalling—his hands shook so badly he didn’t want to go in there and look like an asshole.
And what if she says no?
What if she’s a clueless human?
Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and forced himself to open the car door and head inside.
He stopped in the small entryway, where two couples were ahead of him and standing at the hostess station.Sure he could barge his way in there and use his Prime to get seated immediately, but he didn’t want to be a dick like that.
Despite the fact that he already sensed the faintest tendrils of that… same… delectable… scent…
MATE!
He closed his eyes, fisting his hands, letting his nails dig into his palms to help control his urge to plow through the dining room to find the woman who smelled so lusciously, perfectly…
His.
“Sir?”
Peyton opened his eyes.The older woman standing at the podium wasn’ther.“Are you waiting for any other people in your party?”she asked.
“No.”He shook his head.“Just me.”
For now.
