Sophia’s eyes narrowed.“You know what?Whatever.I’m getting Owen.He’s doing inventory in the back with your dad.”
Dom sighed.“No need.I think I can manage to fit Marcus with some shoes.”
Sophia snorted.“Not getting your brother forthat.”And off she went.
I leaned closer to Dom.“What was that?”
Dom shrugged.“She never got the whole poly thing, never quite got how I dated girls sometimes but then ended up with three guys.”
I wrinkled my nose.“Two guys.”
Dom whistled.“Getting mouthy there, Little Red?”
I shrugged.“You’re forcing me into buying hiking shoes, so…”
He chuckled and led me to the shoes.
“What are you, a ten?Ten and a half?”He looked at my feet.
“What areyou?Brudos, or just burdened with the regular kind of foot fetish?”
He blinked at me.“Sorry.Don’t get it.”
I sighed.“True crime reference.Jerome Brudos was a serial killer with a shoe fetish.Ten and a half.”
Dom sighed.“I swear, you and Linc and all the criminal shit.My two high-maintenance guys.Sit there.”
He pointed at a bench right next to the hiking shoes test zone, which was a sizable part of the floor that had been converted into a bed of gravel about three feet long, followed by three feet of rough and uneven wooden planks, followed by unevenly textured concrete.
I sat, mostly because I was tired.“I will have you know, I’m not high maintenance.”
Dom flashed me a grin.“High maintenance, you?”He chuckled.“Who’d ever think such a thing?”
I snorted and took a swig of my tea.“Werewolves.”
“That we are.”
I finished my chai latte and watched as Dom looked around the rows of shoes and picked out three pairs.He brought them back to me and put the shoeboxes on the ground, where he squatted in front of me.
I raised my brows.“For real?”
“Yup.This is how it’s done around here, Little Red.This’s my dad’s store, and I’ve been selling hiking shoes and everything else for the great outdoors since I was a teenager.I still help out when they need an extra pair of hands.”He lifted my right foot by the ankle, undid my laces, and pulled off the shoe.I blushed.Apparently, a guy fitting me with hiking shoes did it for me.Fucking hotpants, I was broken.
“That does not explain the flannel,” I grumbled, my throat dry despite the chai.
“Mmh.Flannel’s hot, Little Red.”He looked up at me from tying the laces of the right hiking shoe.“Or it is when I wear it.Don’t you think so?”He looked up at me with his green eyes, his rose gold eyebrows wiggling playfully.
I was saved from having to come up with something smart to say back by a guy my age, or maybe one or two years younger walking toward us.
“Hey, Dom.”The family resemblance was there; Owen’s hair was a shade lighter, making him more of a strawberry blond.He had deep brown eyes instead of Dom’s bright green ones and lacked the width in the shoulders, the sinewy strength that looked so natural and effortless in Dom.“Phia said you brought in a new boyfriend or something.”He looked right at me.
“I brought in Marcus.”Dom nodded at me.“He needs hiking shoes and a jacket, because I doubt I can make him wear Linc’s for the rest of time.He’s our mate, not a boyfriend.”
Owen got agitated, put a finger to his lips, and shushed his brother.“You know Phia doesn’t know about wolves.”
Dom groaned and rolled his eyes.“Your wife is not eavesdropping, Owen.I’d know.You know she doesn’t want to get too close to all the gay weirdness.”
Dom didn’t say it as if he were even offended, simply annoyed, like he was complaining his sister-in-law didn’t like olives.I thought that was very…forgiving.
