“Right, so that’s your story and you’re sticking to it?” Jenna nodded and gave him a wink. “Don’t blame you. Everyone here is well nosy. But it’s about time you started dating.”
Rowan was about to say he wasn’t dating anyone, but instead, what came out was, “What do you mean ‘it’s about time?’”
Jenna glanced at the monitor in front of her for a moment, then nodded before focusing on him again. “Well”—she tilted her head to the side—“in all the time I’ve known you, I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned anyone.”
He’d dated… hadn’t he? Rowan frowned and tried to think about it. He’d been on dates. He had Bumble and Hinge on his phone.
When last did you go on any of those?The last time he’d checked the red bubble above Hinge, the number was at a hundred.
He’d been out for drinks recently hadn’t he?
Yeah, group outings after work, and youalwayswent home alone.
Was she right? Had he not dated since they’d known each other? He knew he’d sworn off shifters, but had he really not dated anyone since then?
“After I tried setting you up with Brett’s brother,”—Brett was Jenna’s husband—”and that didn’t go anywhere, I figured there was a guy.” Jenna’s words slowly sank in, and he couldn’t help going back to the conversation—argument was a better word—he’d had with his brothers.
He was letting everyone pay for one person’s actions. Rowan wasn’t sure if he believed in mates. He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face—but he knew it was time to finally have the conversation he’d been putting off for two and a half years.
He had to talk to Zac.
Ro had no idea what was going to happen between himself and Mikhail, but since he hadn’t stopped thinking about the man after putting fifty miles between them, Ro knew it was time to do something he’d been shoving off for ages.
Ro finally replied to Jenna, simply saying, “Yeah, there was a guy. But I think it’s time I put that all behind me.”
Jenna’s eyes lit up. “I was right then.”
“I just said that,” Rowan pointed out.
She shook her head. “Not about that part, about the part where you started dating.”
Rowan looked at the monitor in front of him and shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Well, I’m happy for you, babe. You deserve to be happy.” At her words, she finally got on her feet and stretched. “Need to go to the loo,again.” Rowan’s eyes immediately went to her belly—her verypregnantbelly— and he couldn’t help imagining… what if?
Rowan shook his head. Before he could even go there, he had something he had to do. He picked up his phone where it lay beside the keyboard.
Rowan went to the iMessage app and typed in a number he hadn’t used in a long time but had also never forgotten. He swallowed, wiping his now sweaty palm on his scrubs, and tried to breathe even as he felt his chest tighten.
“It shouldn’t be this hard,” Rowan muttered. After another deep breath he typed out, ‘Can we talk?’ and then signed his name. Even though he hadn’t changed his number, he figured he might as well.
The message didn’t send, and that was when Rowan realised he’d blocked Zac’s number a long time ago, and since his iPhone backed up automatically, it was probably still blocked. He went through to his settings and unblocked the number, then sent the message again. When it said delivered, Ro wasn’t sure how to feel, but there was a part of him that wanted to call it back, or better yet, block the number again and just go back to normal—whatever that meant at this point.
A can of chicken soup and tiger bread from Asda,”a voice whispered, “while watching the shows you recorded on Sky Plus.
The bigger part of him, the part that didn’t want to carry on the way he was anymore—even though he wasn’t quite willing to admit there might be a catalyst behind this—put the phone down and stopped himself from blocking the number again, then went back to updating his patient files.
As he typed, he couldn’t help going back to that day when everything changed.
He and Zac were celebrating their first anniversary, and that was the first time Rowan had ever heard the terms ‘mates’ and ‘mating ceremony.’ Zac went on to explain that mates were partners—husbands or wives in the shifter world—and Rowan had admitted he’d never heard the word used that way and not in the context of ‘really good friends.’
Zac had explained it was like a marriage in their world, and he’d asked Ro to think about it while he was away in America on business for the family, and now after almost two weeks away, he was finally coming back, and Rowan was ready to tell him yes.
He’d been in Cheshire the last three days, even going all the way to placement in Manchester from there, and now was anxious and smiling as he thought about the man about to walk through the door. Just the thought of Zac was enough to make his heart beat out of his chest. Or maybe it was the fact he was basically about to say yes to a proposal.
Rowan heard the car as it pulled up, and his smile widened further. Finally, Zac was home.
He waited in the front room dressed only in a robe and nothing underneath since he hoped that sexy time would follow after he said yes.
