“Thank you.” I pulled him in for a hug that made the bear even happier. “Bear appreciates it, too.”
With that, Shelly left me standing alone in the kitchen, clutching a paper lunch sack and silently arguing with my beast that the offhand comment didn’t mean what he wanted it to, what webothwanted it to, before shelving the discussion for another day.
ChapterEleven
Mitchel
As expected, my friends dragged me out to The Lair after work. The conversation, though, was anything but what I expected. I’d just started to tell Taylor about the strange car that had followed me as I left the animal rescue center when Dex flopped down across from me.
“I’m telling you, Mitch, speed dating is making a comeback!” Dex said eagerly. “You should come with me on Thursday!”
Before I could answer, Taylor jumped in with a different opinion. “Why would he want to go speed dating when there’s Bingo on Thursday?”
Across the table, Corbin snorted. “Why would he want to do either of those when Grindr dick is just an app away?”
I looked at my friends one at a time, nearly at a loss for words. “Why the hell are you all so obsessed with my personal life lately?”
Corbin snorted again. “Like youhavea personal life.”
Dex growled in Corbin’s direction and looked at me with pity in his eyes. “Mitch, we’re just trying to help.” He bit his lower lip, seeming to struggle with what he wanted to say. “You told us that you and Dane are just friends, so we want to help you find someone who can bemorefor you.”
“Before your next heat,” Taylor added helpfully. “You know, in case you, um, needed someone.”
I shook my head, more confused than before they started their explanation. “Why would I need someone? You all know Dane schedules his vacation time to take care of me.” If Dex didn’t quit chewing on his lip, he was in danger of drawing blood and the other two couldn’t meet my eyes. “What aren’t you guys telling me?”
Taylor sighed. “Dane doesn’t want to do it anymore,” he muttered. “I heard him talking to Myke Kravets after your last heat. He was, um, telling Myke how to get you to consider him for a fuckbuddy and how to take care of you.”
I was shaking my head before he finished talking. “No. Dane wouldn’t do that,” I said confidently. “He’d talk to me, not just pass me off to someone else like a secondhand toy. He’s just not like that.”
“I heard him, Mitch,” Taylor said softly. “It was really..specific. Right down to how to bait you into a conversation when heruns into you,” Taylor added air quotes, “and the type of books that Myke should tell you he reads so you’ll think he’s a good match.”
“I don’t know what you heard but there’s got to be a mistake,” I insisted. “I’ll talk to Dane tonight and find out what’s going on.” I sighed when Dexter opened his mouth, cutting him off. “No, Dex. I am not going to speed dating. Now, who has something to talk about that doesn’t center on my dick?”
I finished my second drink and excused myself to head out. After all, if I was going to talk to Dane over dinner about whatever nonsense Taylor had mis-overheard, I wanted to stay relatively sober. It was hard enough for me to make sense of their weirdness without trying to explain it to someone else while I was drunk.
Except, when I got back to the condo, it started to look like weirdness was everywhere.
“Shelly, hey! You’re home early.” Dane looked startled to see me.
“Um, yeah.” I ran my eyes over my friend to see if there was a reason he was acting strange but didn’t see anything out of place. “I thought we were eating together.”
“Oh, right. Dinner. Together. It, uh, wanna order in?”
“Dane? Are you okay?”
“Me? Oh, yeah. Great.” Dane’s head bobbled as he nodded it way too hard.
“Okay.” I was about to ask what he was in the mood for when the hall bathroom toilet flushing gave me a hint. “Ohhh,” I stifled a laugh. “Is that why you’re so nervous? I didn’t know you had company.” I winked and headed toward my bedroom. “I’ll just get out of your way.”
“Uh, no,” Dane said quickly. “It’s not like that. It’s just Myke. He’ll, uh, totally be glad you’re here.”
Myke? The same Myke the guys had been freaking out about less than an hour before? I didn’t have time to respond before the powder room door swung open and the other Alpha sauntered out.
“Mitch, you’re home,” he greeted with a grin that he followed with a sleazy wink. “I was hoping we’d get to hang out for awhile.”
“You were?” I asked weakly, throwing a confused look at Dane. He missed it since he was staring intently at the floor. Apparently, the fleur-dis-lis pattern was suddenly fascinating.
“Absolutely!” Myke said heartily, walking over to grab me in an overly familiar hug. “We never seem to cross paths. Tell me all about what you’ve been up to lately.”
