Me:Awesome!
Goodness,he was such a gentleman. And not a false one, like the ones I was used to. But a real, genuinely nice and polite guy, who was fun to text with. There had to besomethingwrong with him.
Maybe he was a serial killer?
Shaking my head at my own musings, I tucked my phone into my sundress—it had pockets!—slung my water canteen over my shoulder, then got out of my car.
Across the way, a striking figure stood under the golden lights that illuminated the main path into the park.
Rowan. Over six feet tall, broad shoulders, and hair just as perfectly coiffed as it had been in the photos on his profile. Honestly, I needed to get his routine because he didn’t have an ounce of frizz despite the humidity.
“Naomi?” he asked as I got closer.
I swallowed hard. Even from several paces away, I could tell his photos weren’t a catfish in any interpretation of the word. He had intense features—a strong jaw, high and wide cheekbones, a defiant, Roman nose. Strange, his skin tone was a touch paler than mine and a little peachy, and yet he reminded me of actors like Oded Fehr and Sendhil Ramamurthy, maybe even a little Adrian Brody? Even if it was an unusual mix, it worked for him. Especially when his lips parted in a trulydazzlingsmile.
Holy shit, his teeth are white!
“In the flesh,” I said quickly—probably too quickly. Instead of getting wrapped up in my over-eagerness, I let it slide out from under me and kept the ball rolling. “Nice to officially meet you. I see your username rings true.”
“What’s tha—Oh! Haha, the cardigan. Yes,” the man looked down and chuckled softly. He was wearing a breezy, linen button-up with a sleeveless, satiny hooded cardigan, complete with silver embroidery along the edges, over it. Clearly, the man had style. “Should I be grateful you didn’t bring any wolves along?”
“Huh?” I blurted, horror lancing through me before my brain caught up. My username wasHowlingAloneTogether.Perhaps a bit on the nose, but I’d never exactly bragged about my creative abilities. “No, no wolves here. At all. Like ever. Just, uh, dogs! Lots of dogs! Cause, ya know, I’m a dog walker.”
“That you are,” he said with a nod, still smiling at me. I hoped that meant that he was accepting my bizarre behavior as adorably quirky rather than socially inept. Because one of those would take me quite a bit farther than the other. “Speaking of walking, would you like to take a stroll with me? A certain lovely lady told me there was ice cream that is, I believe her exact quote was, ‘to die for’, over toward the promenade.”
Suddenly, I was a bit sheepish about my earlier enthusiasm, which made no sense since Rowan sounded quite genuine rather than mocking. “Maybe ‘to die for’ might have been a bit of an exaggeration. I promise, no dairy-induced cardiac arrest is on the menu with all the lactose-free options they’ve got!”
I remembered reading in his bio that he had a bit of an issue with dairy, so I’d double-checked with their online listing to make sure they had more than just one or two choices. Although the truck didn’t have an official menu, it did have a list of allthe flavors they tried to keep as regulars, as well as seasonal and limited-time concoctions.
But Rowan shrugged good-naturedly and shot me another one of those swoonworthy smiles. Jeez, he could be in Hollywood with that kind of star power. “Eh, I’ve had a good run of it. Succumbing to a frozen treat so delicious that it punctuates my existence sounds like one hell of a way to go.”
That startled a bark of laughter out of me, but instead of looking judgmental or even surprised at the sharp noise, Rowan looked pleased.
“And thank you, by the way.”
“For what?” I asked curiously.
“For remembering I’ve got a bit of beef with lactose. I really only put that in there as a throwaway comment.”
“I guess it stuck with me,” I said in what I hoped was a nonchalant tone. I was definitely not going to mention that I’d read through his bio and every questionnaire answer so many times I could practically recite them.
“I hope this isn’t too forward of me,” he said, turning slightly away from me and sort of pointing his elbow toward me. “But would you like to take my arm?” The corners of his eyes crinkled justso. “You know, to ward off any confectionary dangers or other delicious ways to perish.”
“We wouldn’t want that now, would we?” I said, though not as smoothly. With our height difference, I’d thought it would be a bit awkward for me to loop my arm through his like that, but it was at the perfect level for me to cling to like we were in a romance movie. Finally, after so many years doing without or begging for scraps, I was having a normal dating experience.
Minus the whole lying about being human thing. But what was a wolf or lack of a wolf between friends?
Not that Rowan and I were friends yet. After all, we had just met. But with several hours of texting back and forth and abouttwo minutes of conversing, I was definitely beginning to get a good feeling about the guy.
“I’m so glad you were willing to come out with me tonight,” Rowan said. I liked that he was so forthwith. It was like a breath of fresh air. I only wished that I could be the same way with him, unfortunately, the entire premise of us getting to know each other was wrapped around both of us being the same species. “I’m well aware that it’s a much different situation for you to meet a stranger in the park than it might be for me. I appreciate you trusting me, even though I had no right to ask that of you.”
Huh, I hadn’t been expecting that. Although I didn’t hang with a ton of human males outside of work, I was online enough to know that a lot of them had no idea of the risks, dangers, and potential pitfalls the females of their species faced. Admittedly, I was in a weird middle ground. I was much stronger than the average human, I could heal far faster than any of them if injured, and I had both enhanced hearing and reflexes. But because I couldn’t shift, I could get ganged up on, beaten to a pulp, overpowered, even shot, and that was not something I would walk away from like any other shifter would.
“I don’t mind,” I said quickly. “It’s been blazing hot this summer, and this place is pretty public, but I appreciate you thinking about my safety.”
“Of course!” he said as we began to stroll along. For our first two steps, his strides were so long that I was practically doing double time to keep up. But I didn’t have to say anything before the length of his steps significantly shortened.
Dude, there was no way he wasthatmuch of a gentleman, was he? Or was my personal bar for what made someone a good date or not all the way in hell?
