“Awww, that’s so cool. I can’t wait until our squirt calls me that.”
“I can’t wait till Daniel meets your pup.”
“Me neither, Jackie. Hey, Slate just walked in and I want to show him the bio-tracker. Get to Mystia and Maximus and I’ll touch base with you later.” After ending the call, Logan turned to Slate and said, “Just the person I wanted to see.”
Chapter 14
A few hours into their hike, Zane spread out a blanket on some flat ground next to two large boulders and, beckoning to his mate, said, “After you, babe. Welcome to your first picnic.”
Sitting down with his legs crossed, David exclaimed, “This has been the best day of my life! Did you see the deer look at us when we came up over that last hill? I thought maybe I could pet one, but they ran away. At least I think they were deer because I’ve only read about them and never saw a real one.”
Sitting next to his mate, Zane said, “Where I live in California, there are deer roaming on our pack lands but they’re a different species from those we saw today.” Passing the canteen to his mate, Zane dug out the food and spread it out, before saying, “Help yourself, babe.”
Picking up some beef jerky, David bit off a piece and began to chew it, still preoccupied with the scenery. “I never knew Scotland was this amazing. Do you know who Brian is?”
“I know he’s a shifter but couldn’t figure out what kind. Shit, that didn’t bother me…I was more worried about pissing him off because we landed on his boat in the middle of the night.”
Giggling, David said, “Sorry about that. It was the only place I could think of. After I arrived in Scotland, I met Brian at the Wolf Pack Pub. I had just started and was deathly afraid of screwing up, so I was very nervous waiting on him. But he was so sweet to me, helping by telling me what I should do next…basically he taught me how to be a waiter that night.”
“You hadn’t ever done that before?”
“No. By the end of the night, I was so grateful for his help, I paid for his dessert. I would have paid for his whole dinner but didn’t have a lot of money saved…so all I could afford was his dish of ice cream.”
“That’s how you became friends?”
“Uh-huh. He gave me his card and told me to call him for a free boat ride. I wasn’t sure if I should, but later Morgan praised me for doing a good job that night and I told him how Brian helped me. He said that Brian was a good person. I finally worked up my nerve to call him about four months later, just before my day off, hoping he’d remember he made the offer and didn’t think I was trying to trick him to get something for nothing.”
“And did he?”
David nodded, grinning. “He did…came and picked me up. We spent the day out on Loch Ness and it was so much fun…swimming and fishing…stuff I never did before. I caught a big fish but threw it back because it was panicking when it couldn’t breathe.”
“How big?”
“Like this,” David said, spreading his hands about two feet apart.
“Wow! That was the first fish you ever caught?”
“It was.”
“Wait till Theo and Norman hear about this. They’re going to want to go fishing with you.”
“I’m not going fishing anymore.”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t like seeing the fear in the fish’s eyes when I was holding it.”
Zane searched David’s face and saw sadness had crept back into his eyes. Mentally thumping himself for causing it, he seized upon the other thing his mate had done that day. “Did you enjoy your first time swimming?”
“Oh yes. Brian taught me how. I loved it! At first, I was sure I would sink to the bottom but he showed me how to float on my back, then on my stomach with my face in the water…he called it the dead man’s float, funny name…then he had me kicking my legs and soon I was swimming.”
“Maybe we can do that sometime.”
“Fantastic! Maybe we can go with Brian again.”
“Sounds good to me. Do you want anything more to eat?”
“No, I’m stuffed.”
