“I’m current on all my shots.”
This time he didn’t hide his smile, and it was every bit as devastating as I imagined it would be.
“You have a nice smile. You should use it more often.”
“If I told a woman that, she would kick my family jewels so hard a crown would pop out on top of my head.”
The resulting spurt of laughter would have sprayed him had he been six inches nearer.
“I have to go.” I wiped my mouth. “I’ve embarrassed myself enough for one night.”
Before I made an even bigger fool of myself, I shut the door and contemplated a shower. I was going to be late to the meeting. There was no getting around that. I might as well be late and clean, right?
Bonnie padded after me while I gathered clothes, and I would have felt her judgment from a mile away, let alone from across six hundred square feet.
“What?”
She barked while she tossed her head toward the door.
“Don’t sass me.” I grabbed a towel. “It’s called interdepartmental cooperation.”
Her angular head reminded me of a fox, especially when she pivoted her oversized ears forward.
“Wipe that look off your face.” I scowled at her snort. “I wasn’t flirting with him.”
Clearly the girl rule of new haircut, new woman applied here. Or maybe new fur, new woman.
Bonnie the gwyllgi and Bonnie the corgi were both far more assertive than Bonnie the woman, and none of them knew what they were talking about when it came to me and a certain blond beta.
Midas couldn’t have hands off written more clearly across his face than if he tattooed it on his forehead.
I shut Snowball out of the bathroom while I indulged in a shower that tested my water heater’s stamina, then dressed for patrol in jeans gone splotchy from previous bleachings, a tee with a dancing chocolate bar on the front that said Bite Me, and sneakers.
Presentation was everything in my past life. Not so much anymore. I got to schlub it, and I liked it. There was no point in wearing trousers or blouses or cute boots when goddess only knows what you would step in before the night was through. Jeans, tees, and sneakers? Those could get tossed in the washer along with a capful of bleach, and they would be ready to go again.
The only time I made a slight effort with my appearance was when I manned my kiosk, which wouldn’t happen tonight.
“I need to hire an assistant.” I eyed Bonnie thoughtfully. “Do you think Midas would loan you out?”
An employee who could run the business when a tough case required all of my focus would be amazing. Dare I dream, I might even start turning a decent profit that way too. Anyone I hired had to be trustworthy, trustworthy, and trustworthy. They also had to have big ears to catch all the latest supernatural gossip and have no qualms about passing it on.
Hmm.
Bonnie mentioned the alpha expecting her to pull her own weight, so maybe not. Still, it was an idea.
I would ask her about it tomorrow night, assuming she got herself unstuck by then. Otherwise, I would have to ask her to glamour up a service dog vest.
Shoving all the maybes, and it might be nices out of my head, I checked my foggy reflection.
The big reason I cut my hair to jaw length was so I could shower and go without the hassle of drying my thick hair. All I had to do was dump goop on my hands, rake my fingers through it, and I was styled and ready to hit the streets.
When I exited the bathroom, Bonnie was waiting on me with the handle of her leash in her mouth.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather shift?” I looped it over my wrist. “This doesn’t embarrass you?”
Tugging on my arm, she led me to the door and scratched at the bottom corner. Since she hadn’t, to my knowledge, gone to the bathroom since we got home this morning, I didn’t hesitate to let her out into the hall, where any puddles would be a pack problem, if you asked me.
We hit the elevator, and I saw myself scowling in the silver panels at the scent trail I was establishing throughout the building.
Down in the lobby, Ford was chatting up two women who resembled one another enough to pass for sisters. One noted my arrival and wrote on a business card she pulled from her purse, then handed it to him while maintaining eye contact with me. The other scowled at her sister, who must have called dibs on him.
The pair walked off before I reached him, who looked at the card, then at me, and tore it to pieces.
“Don’t snub her on my account,” I teased. “We both know you’ll end up taping the jigsaw puzzle back together when you get desperate enough.”
“Nah.” He dusted the bits into the nearest trash can. “I would have done the same with or without you.”
“Off the market?”
The question came out too interested, and I immediately regretted how easy it was to talk to him. I was starting to worry he wasn’t handling me, that he was genuinely a nice guy and it was my expectation everyone had their own agenda that jaded me into seeing what I expected and not what was there.
The problem with lying about who and what you are is you expect others to do the same.
Sadly, most people don’t disappoint. Vanity, ego, insecurity all drive lies out of mouths. I might be hiding for nobler reasons, but I was still a liar. Hard to feel entitled to expect truth from someone when you can’t offer it in return.
“Not exactly.” He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I am waiting for the right kind of woman to come along.”
Flirting.
He was flirting with me.
Again.
There must be something seriously wrong with him if he thought this hot mess was just plain hot.
“Good luck with that.” I did what I did best and blew him off before the spark fanned into a flame that burned my new identity to the ground. “The right person always seems to come along at the wrong time. Or maybe I got that backwards, and it’s the wrong person who always seems to come along at the right time.”
“Either works, as near as I can tell.” A beat later, he addressed the dog at my feet. “Corgi?”
“Midas says she’s a Pembroke? Pemberley? No, that’s Jane Austen. Definitely Pembroke.”
“Midas.” He slid the leash between his fingers, his skin throwing off warmth but not touching mine, and rubbed the nylon between his fingers like he couldn’t quite decide if it was real. The leash or his attraction, I wasn’t sure which piqued his curiosity more. “That explains your new pet.”
“This was our compromise. I have to work, and she has to blend.”
“Have you checked DORA? The cleaners have uploaded their preliminary findings.”
The best thing about the cleaners had to be their expansive database. Thanks to their in with all factions, they collated historical data on every crime involving supernaturals within city limits. Bishop nicknamed her DORA, and it caught on, but I had no idea what it meant, and no one would tell me.
A year later, I was still enduring my hazing with good humor. Mostly.
“Not yet.” I slanted Bonnie a pointed glance. “I’m heading for a meeting now. Bishop will brief me then.” Ford made no move to let me pass, so I tacked on, “I would invite you to tag along, but it’s OPA only.”
“OPA?”
“Office of the Potentate of Atlanta. Bishop likes OPA because he likes having an excuse to yell ‘Opa!’”