Chapter Nineteen
Hazel
The shop was closed for the night. I did my last-minute check before heading upstairs to get ready for my date.
The worst part of the night was saying goodbye to my three-legged friend.
She’d been hanging out with me all day, as if she understood that I needed her companionship.
I had. So much was going on in my head and the grounding of having her by my side made a huge difference.
I was wearing one of the outfits the guys gave me, surprised by how perfectly it fit.
I tried to think back to the last time someone, aside from my besties, had done anything nice like this.
Not once had I complained about having to wear Lindon’s shirt, but they recognized that the shift left me with one less outfit, and then they fixed it without me asking.
My beast was all into that. She was prancing around, acting like she owned the world because three hot, sexy wolves were into her. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling the same.
I was only going on a date with them. That was all I promised, all they asked for. And really, they hadn’t even called it a date. They hadn’t pressured me, giving me permission to deny their request without any explanation.
“No” was a complete sentence. I could’ve used that one simple word, just like they offered. I didn’t need to say, “Oh, I’m tired,” or “Maybe another time”—none of the excuses I might give someone I wasn’t interested in. That pressure was off.
The thing was, I wanted to go. My wolf insisted I just invite them in. They can move right here. No problem. I ignored her.
When I got upstairs, the girls were there waiting for me.
They were as excited about the night as I was, and there was a set of clothes on the bed for me to put on.
They were all pieces the guys picked out for me, which was good because I wasn’t going to change into anything not from them, no matter how much Augustine wanted me to.
Augustine love to play dress-up, but I’d have drawn the line there.
“If you’re lucky”—Goldie winked in an exaggerated way—“they won’t be on you long.”
“Nothing is happening that will require me to get naked.” Probably.
“Okay.” Goldie gave me a thumbs-up. “I believe you.”
Clover came over. “Remember, you don’t have to go. Do you feel safe?”
She wasn’t judging the guys. She was helping me look at things in a way I needed to.
“Yeah. I’m nervous, but I’m not afraid.” Maybe I should’ve been. Three alphas, not from around here, who wanted to spend time with me was kind of intense.
“Just remember what we said. Buying you clothes and buying you dinner are not equivalent to buying your affection. You owe them nothing.” Clover was the best.
They all were.
“I know this, and they know this. They were very up front with that.”
The more I thought about the invite, the more I realized it told me a whole lot about them.
The second I opened the door for my mates, their scents slammed into me. My wolf was thrilled.
Mates.
Mates.
Mates.
They were our mates, but that didn’t mean we were going to mate them. That was a very big distinction. At least in my book.
Shiloh was beaming. Anyone looking at him would know he was thrilled to be here.
True was busy looking at me, and I could clock the second he pieced together that everything on my body was something they provided.
And Lindon? Lindon was trying to act like this was no big deal and failing miserably.
All three of them were adorable.
“You look wonderful.” Shiloh reached out as if to hug me and pulled his arm back.
I nearly threw myself around him, but that wouldn’t lead anywhere good.
“Your hair looks nice like that.” He pointed to the comb I borrowed from Goldie to keep it out of my eyes. It wasn’t something I thought anyone would notice, but he did.
“Did you want your friends to interrogate us first?” Lindon was only half joking, and I considered it.
“No, I’m good.”
We were going to a local restaurant within walking distance. Shiloh offered his hand, and I hesitated for a few seconds. I wanted to hold it. I wanted to feel his warmth. Only he wasn’t my only mate here, and part of me feared that the others would take it as me picking him over them.
I should’ve known better, because when finally I took his hand, they were smiling just as widely as he was.
And then Lindon changed. He was walking alongside us, but his focus wasn’t with us. It was on our surroundings. He was looking for danger. And goddess help me if I didn’t find that sexy.
They had a reservation, and the server brought us to a table in a room, which was pretty private, tucked away in a corner with no one sitting around us. Whoever took the reservation paid attention to the details.
“We heard everything’s good. What were you thinking of getting?” True asked.
He wasn’t telling me what I was eating. He wasn’t ordering for me. If anything, he was seeking my advice.
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll ask the server what they recommend.”
People would do that to me when I served. I always made sure to give them the best meals. I ended up with the special, a chicken dinner. It was just as delicious as she promised. True had the same. Shiloh had pot roast and Lindon a steak.
Dinner was nice. We talked, but not about anything serious. I told them about the shop, our collective favorite cat, how we adored Alice, our food. Normal date talk. It was nice just having a conversation like that.
When dinner was done, I was full. But our server offered us dessert, and dessert meant we would stay longer, so I accepted.
By the time we were done eating, I knew their favorite foods, their favorite seasons, who liked to be up in the morning, and who preferred to stay up late at night. And they knew about my shop and what I loved about this town.
Only one of their questions caught me off guard, and I wasn’t even sure how to answer. Shiloh asked if money was no issue, and everything I wanted to do was 100 percent safe, what would I do?
I’d never considered a world where that was a possibility. I’d been surviving. Nothing more.
The only time the conversation approached uncomfortable was when they started asking about my friends. I didn’t wanna lie to them, but I also didn’t wanna give them lots of information. So I was very generic in my responses.
I told them Augustine liked to bake and dress me up like a Barbie doll. True, but barely scratched the surface of who she was.
I said Goldie could be very inappropriate. Also true, but also not going any deeper.
And I told them how Clover liked to read and learn. Nothing more.
Hometowns, families, money, why they were here with me—all of that was off-limits.
The guys never pushed. They’d been making conversation, not interrogating me.
It was harder for me to get information on them than it was for them to find out about me and my favorites because there were three of them.
I did my best to keep track of which person had which favorite.
I suspected I was going to have to have conversations like this with them often before I learned it all.
But one thing I was starting to believe by the time we walked out of there was that their goal was for me to be happy and safe, not to do things for them, not to be a possession. Nothing like that. Happy. That was it, and I wasn’t sure what to do with that.
I slowed my steps as we got close to home. I wasn’t ready for this to be over. My wolf definitely wasn’t. And when we reached the door, I wasn’t sure what to do next. How did I end a date with three mates?
Shiloh stared at my lips, like he longed for a taste. True actively tried not to look at my mouth, which had him looking at it more. And Lindon? He slipped on this professional face that I couldn’t read through.
I wasn’t ready for a kiss. So instead, I reached up and brushed each of their cheeks gently.
“I’d like to do this again.”
And before I could change my mind, I waved at them all, shut the door, and ran upstairs. I watched out the window as they walked away.
My wolf wanted them back.
I wanted them back.
It was better this way. This was just dinner. One date. A stupidly perfect date, but nothing more. We couldn’t go too fast. I wasn’t ready for that.
So why was I already missing them?