“Nope noodle. Snek,” Rick said, smirking.
An alpha was in there giving pet names to his mate! Er… Friend. A friend he had no business interfering with. Tripp tensed and took a deep breath. “Is it because of the packages?”
“Too much, that’s what he did. And no, I’ll take care of him.” Dray grumbled, and the buzz of a gun continued.
Rick gestured behind the counter and smirked, piles of boxes stacked neatly in a row. “They arrived this morning bright and early.”
“Good.” Tripp nodded before taking a seat with a huff. He’d been up half the night a few days ago reading articles about things new babies would need and had maybe gone a bit overboard.
“Gonna take up half our living room. How did you know what he wanted?” Rick wiggled on his stool. “He hasn’t even told us what he wanted.”
“I… I was curious, and I searched his email on the baby registry thing…” Tripp coughed lightly. “I bought a chunk of it and added some things that the articles said were a good idea for our kind.”
Snakes had scent sensitivities related to taste, and it made sense that Dray might want a scent blocking diaper pail and a stock of the good kind of diapers. He’d had a friend that had a kid, and they’d loaded him up with so many diapers at first that he’d had to make two trips home with his wife and even then, that only lasted them four months.
“Never gotten so wet in my life,” Kay said, humming as he nibbled on one of those pseudo-healthy snack waffle things with a bee on the package.
The alpha nearby, a grizzled older male with steely eyes and a domineering build, nodded once with a grunt before giving Tripp a thumbs-up.
“Oh, by the by, this little rainbow of sunshine here is Kirk. He owns the joint.” Rick spun on his stool and gave the alpha an air kiss that he swatted away midair.
“My mates catch you doing that, and the misters will come after you with a fly swatter again, Rick.” The grumble thatemanated from the male held a note of playfulness. A toned chest with sparse salt-and-pepper chest hair had been covered with a fishnet tank top, his pants worn leather so soft it probably felt like butter. Or snakeskin. The appraising look that Kirk gave him said it all.
“Sooooo, Tripp.” Rick nearly purred as he leaned over the counter. “Show Kirk your tattoo, the one you drew out of the HEA machine.”
Tripp had no idea what the HEA machine was, but guessed it was the gachapon. So, with no hesitation, Tripp opened his shirt to show off his omega’s work. Something lit up in Kirk’s eyes and through his forever-o’clock shadow, he grinned and showed off white, sharp teeth, two bedecked in gold.
“Looks done to me, why you coming back in?” Kirk raised a brow.
“It’s not done! There’re touchups…” Dray grumbled over the curtain. Tripp, for his part, closed his shirt and did his best not to make eye contact. Something about the male came off as invasive.
“Well, if it’s done, does that mean I can take you out for dinner?” Tripp waggled an eyebrow at Kay and got a snicker in response.
“I haven’t decided if I’m going to say yes, yet.” Dray went back to buzzing away at whatever the male in there needed done. He grumbled, and a loud swat interrupted his work. “I swear to Snake Jesus, Dave, if you pop a boner, I will tattoo the MINI Cooper logo on it.”
“He means it,” Rick called out.
“And I’ll hold you down while he does it.” Kirk’s echoed sentiment kept Tripp from barging back there, hissing, and maybe even shifting to bite someone. “And this alpha out here wanting his attention is a rattler.”
“No need to hold me down! Put a brick on the thing to keep it from popping up. Sucker hasn’t listened to me since I was in grade school.” The rough laugh of the customer put Tripp at ease.
“Iguana,” Kay mouthed toward Tripp, and the voice almost seemed familiar, the scent, too.
After a few minutes, Tripp’s question was answered. The wide-set face of an iguana he’d seen the ass of not six months ago popped out, and they stared at one another.
“You seem familiar, bro.” He squinted.
Anger flared in Tripp’s chest and the urge to do violence peaked and then fell flat. Emotions cycled through him. Tripp took a cleansing breath, sat down, and rested his hands over his knees. “I should. I walked in on you plowing my fiancée back in summer.”
A few hisses of displeasure rang around the room. Rick clucked his tongue. “Damn, dude.”
“Oh, shit, man. You’re Shelby’s ex. My bad, man. She said you two were like, arranged kinda deal and it was an open thing.” He held his hands up. “She’s kinda a bitch, you know?”
Tripp shrugged. “I’ve moved on. Sorry to hear you two didn’t work out.”
“Oh, no, we’re still together. I needed some hot ass on my channel for views, and it works. We kinda vibe. But hey, she said you owned ViperCro data. I was hoping my social media manager could, like, get in on that with you. I hear good things.” The iguana had no shame.
Tripp blinked. “You fucked my fiancée and want me to handle your data?”
