Lance was standing there like a bump on a log. “I’ve never seen a shifter’s animal before. You’re really tiny. With tiny ears and little hands.” He held his hands up, fingers splayed. “You have cheek pouches.”
“It’s okay,” Ava said, pushing him toward the door.
“And a little nub of a tail,” he said. “And very sharp teeth.”
“Is he going to be okay?” Natalie asked, staring after him.
“Just a little shock is all,” Ava said, and then she squatted down and eased Birdie’s arm over her shoulder and stood, dragging her up with her.
Natalie kept the tablecloth in place, wrapped around Birdie like a flour tortilla, bless her heart, because the other humans were filtering back in here—Brock and the gold-eyed guy. Reed.
“When I imagined meeting you, I never imagined doing it naked,” Birdie murmured.
“You wanted to meet me?” Ava said softly as she pushed the ladies bathroom door open and helped her inside.
“Yeah. For months. You are a rare shifter, and the only rare one I’ve ever been able to track down, and I thought if I came to this UnValentine’s Day celebration here, I would be able to meet you and…and…”
“And what?”
“Not feel so alone? There are only eight other Nine Banded Armadillo shifters in existence besides you. I thought maybe you would know what it was like.”
“Just so you know,” Ava said as she grabbed a stack of clothes someone passed through the bathroom door, “Your animal is the cutest shifter on earth and beyond. She’s so cool.”
“Come on,” she groused. “There is nothing cool about changing into a rodent and eating for four straight hours and then Changing back and dealing with a food hangover for the next twelve hours.
Ava snorted, and lowered her gaze, but Birdie had seen it—the smile. She was trying not to laugh.
“It’s not funny,” Birdie muttered, miserable. “And now that fine-ass man will always remember the day he carried me around and named me Raisin and fed me fruit roll-ups, and now how is he supposed to find my titties attractive?”
“You look gorgeous.”
“He will always remember my beady eyes. Hot men don’t do relationships with women who can grow nub tails, or however he put it.”
“You’re being too hard on yourself,” Ava said through a barely contained grin, handing her a pair of jeans.
“I really liked him,” she pouted, pulling the jeans on.
“Well, okay. It’s true, Lance didn’t react the best, but you have to remember he’s a dumb boy and boys don’t always do the right things. It’s a bit of a shock the first time. Give him a little bit, okay? Think about if it were reversed. If you fell for someone, and you carried him around in your pocket all day and thought he was your pet, and then boom, he turned into the person you had a crush on, you would probably need a minute too.”
She inhaled deeply and exhaled an explosive sigh. “You’re even cooler than I imagined you would be.”
“Guys,” Natalie said, shoving the bathroom door open. “The bartender said last call, so I ordered us bathroom drinks.”
“Bathroom drinks?” Ava said with a giggle as she took a margarita from her hand.
“Yours is just ginger ale, girl,” Natalie said, handing over a regular glass of bubbly soda. “I saw some of what you ate today. You don’t need any help with that stomachache.”
“I’ll actually be fine in a few hours,” she said as a smile crept across her face.
“Okay, I know you were trying to convince me that your shifter animal is lame, but when you Change, you get to eat as much as you want, and you still look like this.” Ava waved her hand at Birdie’s petite body. “All I do is rootle around and eat grubs.”
“Ew,” Natalie said around a sip of her drink.
Okay, now Birdie’s smile was turning to a grin. They were making her feel better about her unfortunate reveal. It was actually nice hearing that she wasn’t the only one with a pointless shifter animal. “I can’t even run fast, and I fall a lot, and I am not really there. Like…I have flashes of memories of my dumb hamster almost dying seven times a Change, but I have no control. I can’t even understand English in that body.”
Ava snorted and sat on the bathroom counter as she sipped her drink. “When I get scared, which is a dozen times a Change, I just curl into a ball and freeze. Half the time Brock just carries me around like a pet rock.”
“I love rocks so much,” Birdie said, and sipped her ginger ale. “I promised myself I wouldn’t talk about rocks when I met you. That was an accident. Pretend I didn’t talk about them.”
