Page 41 of The Human’s Heart

She let out a small laugh. “Sounds good. Maybe we can go hunting tomorrow.”

They nodded, looking ridiculously serious. “Definitely.”

Quinn loudly cleared his throat. “Excuse me, but you don’t need to look any farther. We’re all right here, friends for the taking.”

Everyone chuckled at that, and Zay shot Beatrix a big smile, which seemed to help ease her obvious nerves.

The rest of dinner went really well. We ended up going to a bar for a bit, just to hang out, before everyone turned in for the night.

As Zay and I walked up to our door, I asked, “Sooooo? Do you think we should ask your granddads to vet them?”

He looked at me with a small smile. “Yeah, I think we should. Don’t you?”

“Definitely.”

He grabbed my hand, and I happily followed him inside our home.

With so much going on with the construction crew and everything, it would probably be a bit before Ailin and Sebastian could get to it, but I was happy that we’d be able to have them over sometime soon.

“We should do a cookout. Once they’re vetted, I mean.”

“I love that idea.” Zay led me toward the bedroom. “But for now, can we forget everyone else and just… concentrate on us?” He waggled his eyebrows, and I laughed, threw my arms around him, captured his mouth, and easily pushed him backward into our bedroom. I was definitely okay with spending the rest of the night in there with him.

Chapter 12

Hugo

“Here ya go. I hope you like it.” I shot the young woman a wink as she took the drink from my hand.

“Oh, I have no doubt that I will.” She winked back at me and turned, heading to her table.

I turned to the next customer standing at the bar, asking, “What can I get for you?”

The man, huge and hairy—although I couldn’t tell if he was a normal human hairy or possibly some kind of were or shifter—shot me a toothy grin, somehow making his scraggly face look cute. “Can I have three glasses of whatever’s on tap?”

“Do you have a tab open already?”

“Yep. Under Romulus.”

“Got it, my friend. Your beers are comin’ right up.” I grabbed three beer glasses and used the tap to make the man’s drinks. It only took a couple of minutes, and I was back, handing him what he’d asked for.

“Thank you.”

He left a generous tip on the bar for me, so I slid it into one of my pockets. Jett and I would throw all our tips in at the end of the night and divvy them up evenly between us and the servers, but for now, I was keeping it in my pocket. We were way too busy for me to be going to the lock box behind the bar every time I got a tip.

Surprisingly, I trusted all of my coworkers to be honest with the tip money they collected too.

It was kind of a startling revelation, but the thought made me smile. I was lucky to be surrounded by such great people.

The bar was super crowded tonight, so I barely had any time to think, let alone gossip with Jett.

Finally, when the bar was fifteen minutes away from closing, Jett and I were able to begin cleaning up, and I had a second to speak to him.

“Guess what Zay did.”

Without missing a beat, Jett said, “He bribed a circus ringleader into doing a show for your birthday.”

I paused and stared at my friend for a few beats. “What the actual fuck was that?”