About to text back, my house phone began to ring.
Sighing, I walked over to the phone and picked it up from its base. “Hello?”
“How did it go?” Ben sounded like he wanted to be doing anything but calling me to ask how my disastrous date went.
“Horribly,” I muttered, closing my eyes as visions of all that had gone wrong flitted through my mind. “I smelled my mate on her, though,” I added, as silence continued on the other end of the line.
“You smelled your mate…onher?” Ben repeated slowly, like he wasn’t sure he was hearing this quite right.
“Yeah. On her, like she was carrying the scent with her on top of it, or she was near my mate, you know?” I explained.
“And you’re sure it isn’t Aster?” he pressed.
“It’s not Aster,” I replied flatly.
“She’s really nice,” he started to say, which surprised me. But then I remembered the landscaping guys.
“Don’t worry, Ben, she won’t be shunning you or sending your guys with bad plants or something. She’s too nice for that. Besides, I highly doubt her boss would allow that kind of thing even if she tried it.” My chuckle was one-sided.
“She’s a nice girl. She’s shy…I’ve known her a long time. Never, have I ever seen her react to someone the way she did you, plant boy.”
Crap. Thinking of my texts, I cringed. “I could smell my mate, Ben. Even if she was the nicest person in the world, she’s not it for me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ben said quietly, like he truly was.
“Well, uh, thanks for trying?” I mumbled uncertainly. Shoving my cell into my pocket, I scratched at my chin with my newly freed hand.
There was the sound of movement, like Ben was putting his hand over the mouth piece, and then muffled voices followed. Ben came back on with, “No- I- Baby, would you- Penelope Ochulles!”
“Just ask him!” his sweet little wife hissed. Pregnancy hormones had that one up and down.
Sighing noisily, Ben grumbled, “Pen wants to try. I told her I’d tell you what she sai- Ow! What was that for? Pinch me, little wife, and I’ll paddle your sweet little ass!”
Pen said something I couldn’t make out, causing Ben to let out a growling sound that made me want to hang up on them. “Ew,” I muttered under my breath. Sucking in a lungful to blow it out noisily, I caught it then. “Holy…” Following my nose, I traced that scent to the sunroom.
A tiny bud of a blossom, a few petals showing, was giving off that mouthwatering aroma. Disappointment filled me. A flower had me feeling like that?
“Damn,” I muttered, slumping inwardly.
“Do I want to know?” Ben asked.
“It’s a flower. I got all excited over the smell of a damn flower.” My disappointment was palpable.
“You’re sure you’re not mistaken?” Ben muttered finally.
“It’s sitting right here in my sunroom.” Mortification filled me. I’d jerked off to the scent of a flower. How much of a loser was I?
“I’m not good with shit like this,” Ben muttered after several minutes passed in silence. “I honestly don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll let me have a go at this?!” Penny squeaked out expectantly, making me laugh despite the sudden fit of melancholy that filled me.
“I don’t-” I started to protest.
“Oh, please-please-please-pleeeeeease, Gren?! Pretty please with no angry Manclops involved this time on top? I’ve been begging Will to let me fix him up but the stubborn male won’t budge!”
A chuckle left me at how affronted she sounded. “Yeah, sure,” I conceded. “Why not.” What did I really have to lose?
“Eeeeeee!” Pen’s happy squee had me wincing and pulling my phone away.
