“Sure, man. What hours do you need?”
“I just need to be outta here by five p.m., and I can be back by five a.m.” It would be tricky because all the shifts were nine to nine, plus it would throw off his own sleeping schedule. Not that he planned on doing a lot of sleeping if things with Temperance went right. “Or I can get Rogers to split—”
“Pshaw.” Anders waved a hand. “Piece of cake.” The tiger shifter always said he preferred the nine o’clock overnight shifts because it was a good excuse to hightail it out of a girl’s bed once he was done banging her.
“Really? You can get Rogers to—”
“Like I said, piece of cake,” Anders reiterated. “I’ll take care of it. Now you can go polish the gold bars in your vault or whatever it is you trust fund babies need to do.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. However, this transaction had seemed entirely, suspiciously too easy. “All right, Anders, what do you want in return?”
“Damon’s bachelor party.”
Gabriel scrubbed a hand down his face. “Damon’s already decided not to have one.”
The other man crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, I guess that means you’re going to make him un-decide.”
“So that’s what you want in return? You just want to make sure Damon has a bachelor party?”
“I want to plan the whole shebang.” There was a gleam in his eyes that made Gabriel nervous. “And you’ll pony up the cash to pay for it. And I want the works, Russel. Vegas. Presidential Suite. Private jet.”
Gabriel grit his teeth. The money wasn’t the problem, but it was getting Damon to agree. He did say to “do what you need to do” to win Temperance over. “All right, I’ll work on it.” He’d worry about getting Damon to agree and stop Anna Victoria from stringing him up by his balls later.
“Awesome.” Anders turned back to his locker and sprayed himself with deodorant. “I’ll run some ideas by you later. You won’t regret this.”
Somehow, Gabriel doubted it. But at least he got what he wanted. As he strode out of the locker room, he took his phone out and typed a message to Temperance.
Was the lock fixed?
The locksmith he called had already told him it was all done, but he wanted an excuse to start the conversation.
He knew not to expect a reply right away, but his stomach flip-flopped when he saw the dots pulsing on the screen indicating that she was typing back a message.
Yes. Thanks for getting that done.
Well I did break it. Sheepish emoji. Sorry. Dinner to make it up to you? Smiley face. Pick you up at six?
Tonight? That’s a little soon.
He frowned. If only she knew how excruciating slow the whole dating thing seemed to him, especially when he wanted her to be his yesterday.
Why not? Do you like Indian or French? If she had come up with all those pie flavors, that would mean she was a foodie, so he hoped he scored points by offering up exotic options.
There’s a French restaurant here in Blackstone?!?
Yeah, he typed back. A braserie opened in South Blackstone a couple days ago.
*brasserie, she corrected. Sorry.
He laughed aloud. Baby, you can correct me all you want. So, yes?
When dots didn’t appear right away, Gabriel felt his lungs constrict. However, when the reply popped up, he found he could breathe again.
Yes.
“Hallelujah!” He raised a fist in the air and jumped for joy. His inner lion, too, roared in triumph.
“Whoa, Russel,” Anders commented as he exited the locker room. “Let me guess, your sister said you could buy another Porsche this year?”
Normally he would have told Anders to fuck off, but instead, he laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll see you at five, Stevens,” he said. “Oh, and by the way, I’m supposed to be on trash duty this week. Good luck with that.”
Anders’s face turned from smug to irate. “What the fuck? Trash duty? You didn’t say anything about trash duty!”
Gabriel merely whistled as he walked away so he could start his shift.
“I want strippers at this party, Russel,” Anders screamed at him. “The good kind.”
But he ignored his friend’s tirade, as he was walking on cloud nine in anticipation of his date with his mate.
The hours seemed to stretch into days as Gabriel went through his shift, despite the fact that he didn’t even have to finish the entire twelve hours. By four thirty he was changing into his street clothes and driving down the mountain. He avoided both Damon and Anders, but he figured he’d sort out the whole bachelor party thing later; after all, he was about to embark on the most important date of his life.
After swinging by the florist where he picked up another bouquet, he drove straight to Temperance’s house. It was just about six when he walked up and knocked on the door.
A bead of sweat formed on his forehead, and doubt crept into his mind. What if she’s changed her mind? Or she didn’t want—
The door opened. “Hey.” As Temperance looked up at him, a shy smile on her face, all that doubt quickly dispelled.
“Hi,” he greeted back. “These are for you.”
“Oh.” Temperance took the flowers from his hands. “Thank you.”
God, she looked so beautiful. She wore a simple navy blouse and white skirt, while her long dark curls hung down one shoulder. Her hazel eyes seemed to glow, but when he caught her gaze, she quickly turned her right side away from him.
A flicker of annoyance pecked at him at the gesture. He longed to make her see that those scars didn’t matter to him, but he didn’t know how to do that exactly. But for now, maybe it was better to just not mention them at all.
“They’re mums, I think,” he said. “The flowers, I mean.”
“They’re gorgeous. Can I bring them along, or should I put them inside?”
“Just bring them, they’ll be okay for a few hours.” Truth was,
