Alina wanted to ask if that disappointing fact included Kathy’s boyfriend, Armen, but decided not to go there. Kathy very well might tell them more than they really wanted to know.
Silence descended over the crowded kitchen, and for a moment, Alina was worried Kathy might open her unfiltered mouth and say something else completely inappropriate. Fortunately, Molly chose that moment to point out that no one had bothered to introduce her to the new man in the room, so she walked up and wedged herself firmly in between Alina and Trevor, looking at him with her head tilted sideways in obvious confusion.
“This is Molly,” Alina said. “She’s my fur baby, though she spends most of her time with Kathy.”
As Trevor squatted down to ruffle her dog’s ears, Alina wondered if Molly had somehow picked up on the fact that there was something different about him…that he was a shifter. It definitely seemed like it. Molly sniffed Trevor’s hands like crazy in between regarding him with a clearly baffled expression, as if her nose and eyes were telling her two different things.
Regardless of Molly’s confusion, it was safe to say she was captivated by Trevor. Even after he stopped petting her and stood up to slip back into his suit jacket, Molly sat there in front of him, her tongue hanging out in joy and her tail wagging a hundred miles an hour.
I feel you, Molly. There’s definitely something about him that really gets to you, isn’t there?
Alina caught movement out of the corner of her eye and saw Kathy wander over to take a look at the first aid kit still on the kitchen table. Fortunately, the last towel she’d tossed in the trash had been relatively blood-free and covered up the worst of the mess in there. Kathy would lose her mind if she saw all that blood.
“I’ve heard rumors about the federal government running on a tight budget these days, but don’t tell me they expect you two to provide your own medical care?” Kathy asked.
Trevor chuckled. “No. I could have gone to the hospital, but the paperwork would have been horrendous. I didn’t want to deal with it, since it was a little scratch. I was going to ignore it, but Alina wanted to bandage it up.”
Kathy laughed. “Well, at least she’s getting some use out of the kitchen. It’s not like she cooks in here.”
“That’s not true!” Alina protested. “I cook.”
“I’m not talking about the kind of cooking I just walked in on,” Kathy said. “I meant the kind with food, pots, and pans. And before you say it, poking the buttons on the microwave doesn’t count.”
Alina’s mouth fell open, not sure if she was more offended by Kathy’s sly sexual innuendo or the fact that her best friend had just outed her complete lack of cooking skills. She was about to blast Kathy with a snappy comeback—as soon as she came up with one—only to be interrupted by her partner.
“So, Kathy, you take care of Alina’s dog every day, even when she isn’t traveling? How do you pull that off and work too?”
Kathy smiled. “I work from home, so it’s not a big deal.”
When Trevor returned her smile with one of those roguish grins of his, Alina thought her friend might melt right there on the spot.
“Do you telecommute or own your own business?” he asked.
“Kathy owns her own business,” Alina answered quickly. Her friend didn’t like to talk about how she made a living. “She sells socks on the Internet.”
Trevor looked back and forth from her to Kathy and back again, as if he expected one of them to start laughing and say, just kidding. When neither of them did, he turned to Kathy.
“Socks…seriously?”
“Yes. I sell socks on the Internet,” Kathy admitted, slightly indignant, before turning to shoot Alina a vindictive glare. “And I’ll have you know that I sell a lot of them, thank you very much.”
Trevor glanced at Alina, who shrugged. “I have to admit, she’s right about that. As crazy as it sounds, she makes a buttload of money selling socks.”
“So how exactly does one get into the sock business?” he asked Kathy, his face completely serious. Which was a good thing, since Kathy could get rather irate if she thought people were ragging on her chosen line of work.
“Purely by accident,” Kathy explained. “A couple of years ago, I went to this outlet center down near Potomac Mills specifically to buy these thick, warm socks that I loved. They were cozy to wear around the house or in bed but were also perfect with the shoes I wear. I’d go through a dozen pairs a year, I wore them so much.”
Trevor frowned in confusion. “Okay, not seeing the start of a thriving new business yet.”
Kathy held up a finger. “I’m getting there.”
He leaned back against the kitchen counter, a move that only served to tighten his abs and make him look more delicious than ever. And yeah, Kathy noticed. She almost lost her place in the story as her gaze was drawn to that rippling display of muscles just above Trevor’s belt.
What was it about tight abs that did it for almost every woman on the planet?
“So,” Kathy continued, “I go to this outlet store I’d been going to three or four times a year only to find out they no longer sold my favorite socks. I completely freaked! And I wasn’t the only one. There were three other women there who were as upset as I was. But the manager of the store said the company discontinued the entire line and told me there was nothing she could do about it.”
“That must have been traumatic,” Trevor said, still somehow managing to keep a straight face.
