He pursed his lips. “And you think all this means … what?”
“I think the universe is trying to tell me something, but I can’t figure out what. It clearly has something to do with motels, though.”
He clamped his mouth shut, clearly fighting a smile. He looked at Aspen, as if expecting her to share his amusement. The bearcat only stared back at him.
“Wait, you both believe the universe is reaching out to you?” he asked.
“Not to me,” said Aspen. “I believe it’s reaching out to Havana. It often does. We just can’t always work out what it’s trying to communicate.”
His gaze bounced from her to Havana. “Right. Well, whatever.”
Havana huffed. “Fine. Don’t believe us. Now, I have to finish my shopping.” She gave him a breezy smile. “Later.”
He didn’t return the “later.” He also didn’t stalk off. He followed her to the refrigerator, whistling a merry tune.
Walking around the store with him was just … odd. During their fling, they never went places together. They certainly hadn’t done anything as mundane as shop for groceries together.
Reaching the fridge, Havana grabbed the bulky jug of milk, plonked it in her cart, and then headed to a checkout stand with Aspen. Havana cast him confused, sideways looks while he helped pile the groceries onto the conveyor belt.
Her devil, not liking his insistence on sticking close, urged Havana to smack him over the head with her prickly pineapple. The animal wasn’t pleased that Havana resisted.
Havana paid no attention to his nosy pride mates, who were watching them curiously, seeming under the false impression that she and Tate had come shopping together. It would appear that he hadn’t yet made it clear that he and Havana were over—especially since Valentina had been completely unaware of it.
He helped Havana bag the groceries and, by the time she’d paid and was ready to leave, he’d returned the cart. “I’ll help,” he said. Not an offer, a statement of intent. He grabbed a bunch of her bags before she could protest.
Outside, Luke and Farrell each took a bag from her, and then all three men stuck close as she and Aspen walked to their apartment building.
When they reached the main door, Havana tried to take the groceries from the guys. “I can carry them upstairs myself.”
Tate smiled. “Can you? Clever girl.” He held tight to them and, whistling that damn tune again, keyed in the entry code to unlock the door. He and his bodyguards then followed both her and Aspen into the building and up to Havana’s apartment.
Although he agreed it likely wasn’t necessary, Tate had Luke and Farrell do a walk-through of it to ensure there were no intruders. The three men then wordlessly helped her put away the groceries so that Aspen could return to her apartment to get ready for her dinner with Camden.
Once the task was complete, Tate politely dismissed his brother and Head Enforcer. The moment Havana heard the front door close behind them, the sexual hum in her blood went up a notch with the simple awareness that she and Tate were alone. A sudden tension thickened the air like sultry summer heat, so she knew that same awareness was having a similar effect on him.
“Where’s Bailey?” he asked.
“She’s working an extra shift at the rec center. Purely because the new guy’s cute and she wants to get to know him.” Havana opened the warm box to reveal her pizza.
Tate came closer. “Smells good. You can spare a slice, right? Come on, there’s no way you’ll eat all that. You were gonna put at least half of it in the fridge to have for lunch tomorrow.”
That had been her intention. The trouble was that she often forgot there was cold pizza in the fridge and then ate something else for lunch, so it went to waste. “Fine. You can have a slice.”
Of course, he grabbed the biggest one as soon as they settled at the dining table. And because she was a total sucker who was still feeling sorry for him after what his bitch of an ex put him through, she let him eat a few more slices. Before she knew it, the pizza had been demolished between the two of them.
Figuring it was now time to herd him out, she cleared her throat and gave him an easy smile. “Well, thanks for the assist. I didn’t need it, but thanks anyway.”
Tate almost smiled. It was a dismissal, pure and simple. He thought it rather cute that she believed he’d be so easily handled.
He lounged back in his chair, making it clear that he wasn’t going anywhere just yet. His cat rumbled an irritable sound. The feline wanted to be closer to her. Wanted to win her still-distant devil’s attention. “Tell me about Dieter.” If it turned out that this guy from her past was sniffing around her, Tate would not be pleased at the fuck all.
“There’s not much to tell. We occasionally hooked up before he began dating his current girlfriend.” She tilted her head. “It must be hard for you to have your ex in the pride again.”
“It isn’t. She’s of no interest to me now.”
“Oookay.”
He squinted. “You don’t believe me?”
“I never said that. I’m just not so sure you’re being honest with yourself about it.”
“I strike you as a man who bullshits himself, baby?”
“Don’t call me baby. And no, you don’t. But not many shifters buy apartment buildings to house loners and then place them under his protection. I just can’t help wondering if you did that for those strangers because you couldn’t do it for Ashlynn. She left the pride, right? She was alone. Vulnerable. It couldn’t have been easy for you to know that, even if she did hurt you.”
“I can see why your thoughts have taken you down that route, but Ashlynn’s nothing to do with why I bought this complex.”
“Then why’d you do it?”
“I know through Madisyn just how hard it can be for lone shifters to find suitable and affordable accommodation. Especially when they have to worry about being too close to the territories of flocks and packs etc. Many beg her to let them live at the shelter because they’re too afraid to go out into the world. It gave me the idea of providing a place purely for loners to live—call it my good deed for the decade. Almost every tenant in this building was sent to me by Madisyn.”
“I see.”
Tate watched her as she began to clear the table. “Do you? Or do you still doubt me?”
She lifted her shoulders. “I just can’t see how you could have no interest in someone you once tried to imprint on—that’s no small thing.”
Tate pushed away from the table and crossed to her, liking how her pupils dilated and her heartbeat kicked up. His cat purred, straining to be closer to her. “Did I seem interested in her when you saw me talking to her earlier? Or did I seem more interested in you?”
“I didn’t really take much notice. I only glanced your way for a second or two.”
“But that highly perceptive brain of yours will have absorbed everything there was to see.”
“In any case, we don’t need to talk about her. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“In your position, I’d be wondering if you still had feelings for your ex, so I’m going to make sure you get that that’s not the case here. She and I were together three years ago. The relationship didn’t work out, and I don’t wish that it had. Neither does my cat.”