I stare at Silas, who is pleading with me with his eyes. I want to join their dream escape where we court an omega, but I can’t put logic aside on this one.
“Havoc, come on,” he says, pulling on my arm. I sigh.
But one thing I’ve learned to do is trust my Pack mates. So that’s what I’ll do.
“Let me get a clean shirt,” I say, reaching back, grabbing the neck, pulling my clay-ridden shirt off, and reaching for the clean stack I keep by the door. I rinse my hands in a bucket, then wash them in the regular sink and redo my ponytail.
“You’re hot as fuck, Hav, let’s roll,” Silas whistles, turning around and running out of my shed. I laugh, trying to dampen the little flame of hope in my stomach. I wipe my hands off on a towel when I hear Silas curse.
I run out, and he’s frozen in the middle of the yard.
“What’s wrong?” He slowly turns toward me, his face devoid of any emotion as his eyes go past me and land on Otis.
“I just stepped in dog shit.”
Fuck. I look down at Otis, who stares at me with big brown eyes. I was supposed to pick that up.
“Change your shoes.”
“I have to wash them; these are the nicest shoes I have.” I roll my eyes. Cause what shoes he has on will make or break this meeting, apparently.
“Well, I need a shower. I can’t meet the omega like this anyway,” I say, storming past him, making sure Otis is following me. He doesn’t need to hear his dad cursing at him as he cleans his poop off his shoes. I’m covered in sweat and clay; it isn’t the sexiest look, I can admit.
If I am meeting the omega, I’ll do it right. Clean and somewhat more approachable. I have to impress her for the sake of my Pack.
“And put your hair up in that sexy-as-hell bun you do,” Silas yells after me, and I chuckle. That sexy-ass bun is done in ten seconds, and he absolutely loves it. I wonder if the omega will like it too?
Maybe I might have a real chance with the omega.
CHAPTER FIVE
NOA
Iwaited for him. I can’t believe how long I waited. Am I that desperate? Thirty minutes would have sufficed, but an hour… yeah, I need a swift kick in the ass.
After finishing with my client, who took all of ten minutes, I escorted them out and found the front of my store empty.
The attractive, probably taken, man with the rich coffee scent was gone. So I waited, hoping he’d come back. I stood at my register and watched the time tick by like a desperate omega.
“So when you said you couldn’t do lunch and that you’d explain later…” Ollie, my neighbor-turned-best-and-only friend, says as she rises from the bench on my porch. It’s evening now, and I’ve had about six hours of licking my wounds before I headed home. The workshop in the back of my storefront is filled with both fabric and my tears. A guy I just met, like literallyjust metfor all of three seconds, should not have impacted me like this, but here we are.
Her short dark hair peaks under a crocheted hat I made her last month; she’s already in her sweats and ready to lounge. Ollie runs a nutrition business with her twin brother, Luke. So, having lunch with me on a random Thursday is pretty ordinary since we both run our own businesses. But I canceled lunch with my friend to meet a boy… who ended up standing me up.
Now I feel like an even shittier person. How great.
“It’s a long story,” I say. Sighing, I open my door, sling my keys in my bowl by the door with my purse, and set down my workbag with my laptop in it. I bend down to grab it out of the bag, but Ollie’s shoe slides in my face, blocking the bag with her foot.
I give her a look, but she shakes her head.
“Nu uh. No work tonight. You’ve already done an extra three. Unless…” She waggles her brows. “You weren’t working at all?”
“No, I was working,” I grumble. Wandering into the kitchen, I grab us my cheap but cute plastic wine glasses and our favorite drinks. Ollie’s trying her hardest to get me to switch to glass. She swears the “taste profile” is different, but the glasses don’t come in ballerina pink, now do they?
I mix her a peach Cosmo and pour myself a cup oforange soda. Dropping a tiny little umbrella in both our drinks and taking it to my couch. My house is the smallest on the block, but I love it. It’s just enough room for me and me alone. One bedroom, a nest, a living room that was turned into a workstation and recently back into a living room, and a beautiful kitchen for all the cooking I never do.
Ollie sets the snack tray she brought down, this time filled with many candies assorted in a rainbow, and it is perfect for the mood I’m in. She always brings the snacks, and I always have the drinks.
“You’re not drinking tonight?” She asks as I set her drink down in front of her.
