Like last week, he bought her a booklet of bingo cards, then took her to the bake sale table and got her six of the thumbprint cookies she got last week. This time, he wouldn’t let her pay.
God, she was so glad she had come here tonight. Her face already felt like it was glowing from her smiles.
The caller was announcing numbers into the microphone, and by the time Vic led Lyric to the front table, Tabian and Bridger were deep in concentration marking off their bingo cards. Vic introduced them, but Tabian just said a bland, “Hello,” and Bridger barely did a nod of greeting.
Vic was, by far, the friendliest of the three.
“They’re mad that I dragged them out of their caves,” Vic explained as he took the lid from his bingo dauber.
“I’ve worked fourteen days in a row, and I’m tired,” Tabian said. “This asshole wouldn’t let me relax so here I am, matching pink shirts with two grown men I barely even like and babysitting a hamster while one of them makes out with one of our enemies in the bathroom.”
“She’s not our enemy, and we didn’t make out,” Vic said low. “She showed me her boobs, kind of, instead.”
Tabian stared at her. “What is wrong with you, lady? This man has a hamster. Ahamster. He knitted him a neon pink sweater so they could match. You know how people talk about men with red flags? Vic is a walking red flag.”
The Vic in question didn’t even seem offended. He was eating a brownie out of the cannister he’d clearly secured from Denise before Lyric got here.
Bridger frowned and looked up at her. “What did you say your name was again?”
“Lyric.”
“I’m telling Destiny.” He lowered his attention back to his bingo card and marked off B4.
Great.
In the little clear cage in front of them, a sleepy brown hamster poked his head out from under a miniature orange plastic house and looked around blearily. He was indeed wearing a little pink sweater.
“Where did you learn how to knit?” she asked Vic.
“You can find anything on the internet.”
She snorted and took the lid off her dauber as the caller announced a new game. Vic was funny, and full of good energy, and was self-deprecating. He didn’t take himself too seriously, but the scars on his back said he could brawl. And he had a cute hamster. She saw no red flags other than he was a part of a rival Pack. And while that was a total deal breaker, she wasn’t going to think about that tonight.
Tonight, she was getting some time off from all the Pack drama, and Eden’s attitude, and the two new members they got this week that would not leave her alone, and she was going to disappear into the moment here and enjoy herself.
And when Vic reached under the table to squeeze her hand, she allowed it. She even squeezed it back right before he intertwined his fingers with hers and held her hand.
The butterflies he conjured in her middle were overwhelming. Oh, she liked his touch.
Big, strong, dominant, funny werewolf who had no shame in introducing her to his Pack?
“Can you send me that picture of us?” she whispered.
“I can’t. I don’t have your number.”
She cleared her throat and leaned closer. “Do you want my number?”
Vic turned the most handsome smile she’d ever seen right onto her. He handed over his phone with a new contact open and ready for her to fill in the information. She typed her name and her number into it and then handed it back.
He opened up a text and typed something out, and her phone vibrated in her purse.
She pulled it out and checked the message. It was a hamster emoji.
She giggled and typed out,Hello Mr. Red Flag.Send.
He put a heart response on it immediately.
She saved his name as ‘Vicious’ in the contact and put her phone away just in time for the caller to start announcing the bingo numbers again.
