Chapter Five
Outside of Copper’s, the ice still existed, and Destiny was still just as clumsy. She yanked her heels off and went barefoot as she made her way past the window. She had the tights on but the chill of the cold ground pierced right through them.
A knock sounded on the window, but she ignored it. Tonight had been a huge mistake. Clearly, she wasn’t ready to date yet. Or dating wasn’t ready for her.
She made it halfway to her car before a voice sounded behind her. “Can I carry you?”
“Piss off.”
“I can’t!”
“I assure you, you can.” Her feet were burning now as she picked her way over the curb and unlocked her car door.
“Can you walk faster then?” he asked.
“Why do you care?” she yelled.
“I don’t know!” he yelled back.
“You’re free from caring,” she said, her voice thick, and damn the tears that spilled over. “I’m not ready for any of this. I don’t like it. It’s not fun like I thought it would be.”
Destiny opened her door and climbed inside. Geez, it was cold. She turned on her car and turned the heat all the way up. The bottoms of her feet were numb.
A knock sounded at the window.
“Leave me alone,” she told Dodger. He would hear it just fine through the window.
Dodger linked his hands behind his head and paced away, ran his hand down his short beard and turned to her. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dangled it for her to see.
She didn’t understand.
Dodger connected a call and her phone vibrated. Frustrated, she answered and glared right at him as she said, “Lose my number.”
“I have never done this before.” There was a pleading in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before.
“Done what?”
He inhaled deeply and made his way to a bench on the other side of the sidewalk, and sat down on it, eyes on her through her car window.
“I do have two brothers, both were older, both used me as a punching bag. I have three younger sisters that I was very protective of. My dad did die when I was ten, and my mom, who had been amazing up until then, broke down and couldn’t function well anymore.
That dead bond poisoned her. My mom didn’t pair up again officially, so there was never a strong male presence.
There were drugs, and a revolving door of boyfriends that she used to fill some hole inside of her that had been opened when my dad died.
I didn’t do well in school, I didn’t graduate, I don’t recall good memories from when I was a kid, and the Pack I was born into was shitty. ”
“Why did you lie to me?” she demanded.
“Because that’s the story I’ve told everyone.
If you paint a perfect picture, no one asks questions.
There is nothing to dig into. And then you come along, asking questions and being too damn interesting for either of our own good, and I know we can’t do this, and so I did what I always do when someone gets too close. ”
“Hurt me?” she guessed.
He dropped his gaze to the icy concrete. “I’m sorry. And you should know that’s the first time I’ve ever said that to anyone.”
“Why do you care about forgiveness from me? I’m just a fragile human.”
He made a click sound behind his teeth and looked back in the direction of Copper’s.
“Because you just threw a drink in the face of a werewolf and told me off, and you made my wolf go silent like you were his damn Alpha giving him an order. Nothing has ever done that for me but a fight. You are human, but I don’t think you are fragile. ”
“No, I’m not.”
“Truth.” He sat up straight and shook his head, and she could see his empty smile from here. “You’re going to wreck me, aren’t you?”
“If you’re lucky.”
He ghosted a look up at her, but she was allowing the ghost of a smile now.
“You’re teasing me?”
“I’m going to go home now and overthink this emotional roller coaster you just put us both through. I have to decide if this dating stuff is for me or not.”
“You still call it a date?”
“It’s a date to a human. We ate together.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Do you want to do a date like I know how?”
“I’m not fucking you in the woods after you were just rude to me.”
“Oh my God,” he muttered, hanging his head as he chuckled. “Woman I don’t expect that. I’ve never had a drink thrown in my face before.”
“I’ve never had a man be an asshole to me before.”
“I told you I would start fights for fun.”
“And did you have fun, Mr. Red Flags?” she asked.
He held her gaze here, his eyes reflecting like an animal’s in the outer halo of her headlights’ illumination. “No,” he said low. “I didn’t find that fun.”
“Good. Don’t call me fragile anymore or question why I’m spending time with you. I don’t like it.”
“Deal.”
She inhaled deeply. “I don’t like the hot and cold stuff either. Say it plain, Dodger. Don’t tease me and then push me away. You like me or you don’t like me. I like to know exactly where I stand with people. If we are friends, say it like that and I will behave like a friend.”
A smile flashed across his lips before he dropped his head again. “Okay. We are friends.”
“Just friends?”
“It’s all I can offer for now.”
She nodded. That was fair. They barely knew each other. She respected this.
“My wolf is still quiet,” he rumbled. “My head is silent.”
“Yeah, well anytime you need a drink thrown in your face, it would be my pleasure,” she joked. “You were really fuckin’ annoying.”
He chuckled, and her entire body relaxed into the sound. “I know you don’t get cold, but do you want to come sit in my car?”
“I want to kiss you.”
His admission shocked her into silence.
He inhaled deeply. “That being said, I don’t think being in the car with you is a good idea.”
“Are you one of those guys who gets off on girls being mean to them?” she asked. “Is that some kind of kink to you? I throw a drink in your face, and you get a boner? Is that your thing? Because it’s super-not my thing.”
“No, I do not enjoy mean females. I apparently do enjoy being fairly called out though. I don’t give very many fucks, Destiny, but apparently I give a few if you’re upset. If I kissed you, I could make you forget why you were mad in the first place.”
“That’s some mighty big confidence you have there, Mr. Red Flags.”
He chuckled again and stood. “Want to take a walk with me instead?”
She adjusted the phone to her other ear. “To where?”
“To that outdoor store across the street that is probably closing in fifteen minutes so hurry up.” He was being a little bossy, but his smile was back.
“For what?” she asked.
“For warmer clothes so we can take a walk without my animal having a heart attack thinking you’re dying of hypothermia. Stop asking a billion questions and just get out of the car.”
“Fine, but I’m doing it because I want to, not because you’re telling me to. No one is the boss of me.”
He gave a dark laugh as she hung up, and the fire was back in his blue eyes. He did like when she was spicy. She could tell. It was nice being her exact self with someone.
She got out and began fastening her heels back onto her feet, but he came around the driver’s side and pulled her out of her car and tossed her over his shoulder easily. “Leave them off. You won’t need them.”
“My butt!” she yelped, trying to pull her skirt lower, but he was already handling it. He’d bent over and grabbed her jacket and put it over her like a blanket.
“Do you have your keys?” he checked.
“Yep!” Her purse was hanging down his back.
Dodger locked her car and stood to his full height smoothly.
“Holy cow,” she said as he strode across the street toward the outdoor store. “Is this what it looks like for you? Do we all just look like little ants below you? How tall are you?”
He belted out a laugh and hopped up on the curb between two cars and then pushed the door to the store open. A pretty chime sounded and a lady came from a desk in the back, chewing on food. She greeted them.
“What time does this place close?” Dodger asked as he set Destiny down gingerly.
“Ten o’clock. You’ve got an hour.”
“Perfect. Dressing rooms are this way?” he asked, pointing to the back.
“Yep! I’m just finishing my dinner. Let me know if you need any other sizes,” she called, returning to her spot behind a desk in the back.
Dodger didn’t wait for Destiny to shop around, he looked around the women’s section and pulled items. Thermal underwear with pine tree patterns, a navy-blue sweater, and then an entire set of ski bibs.
“These are for snowy mountains,” she pointed out as he handed it to her. “We are just walking the streets of Coueu d’Alene.
“This is for the werewolf date we go on tomorrow. Tonight, you’re just breaking them in.”
“Oh.” She frowned at the thick material while he pulled wool socks in cute patterns from an endcap.
“What size shoes are you?”
“Seven,” she uttered as she headed toward the dressing room to see how accurate his sizes were.
Destiny made her way into the farthest dressing room and closed the fabric panel. This was kind of fun. She’d never had a man shop for her before. It was interesting to see what he thought would look okay on her, even if they were winter clothes.
He pushed the fabric curtain to the side, and she yelped, and covered herself with the navy sweater.
Unapologetically, Dodger glanced up and down her body, and then he handed her the socks and a pair of wool-lined snow boots.
“I have snow boots at home.”
“Snow boots like these?” he asked.
“Well…not this nice.”
“I’m buying them for you. Try them on.”
She checked the price tag. “Dodger, these are two hundred dollars!”
He came into the dressing room and eased her back, back, back. He reached over her and pulled the thermals off the bar she’d hung them on. “Don’t forget these.”
Clutching the sweater to her chest, she inhaled the scent of his cologne and dared a look up at him. His eyes were blue fire as he looked down at her, just inches from her face.