Page 89 of Not Looking
She studied me for several seconds before nodding, then she turned and started walking again. “Randy likes you.”
“That’s good. I don’t want him to feel pressured if he doesn’t want me.”
She snorted. “If he didn’t want you, you wouldn’t be here.”
I chuckled. “I was warned that he’d probably ignore my flirting.”
“Who told you that?”
“Coworkers at the mill.”
“Hmm,” she replied with a nod. “And you still went after him?”
“How could I not? He’s the most amazing man I’ve ever met.”
“He’s a good man,” she agreed. There was a beat of silence, then, “You’re really serious about him?”
“I am.”
She was silent again, and I followed her deeper into the forest.
“What do you know about my brother’s dating history?” she finally asked.
“Not much,” I admitted. “I know he’s been single for a long time, but he doesn’t seem to want to talk about it. I try not to push, because I can see it hurts him. He’s said things that tell me it’s not happy.”
“Like what?”
I took a breath. “He once told me he’s not the kind of man alphas keep around.”
Another beat of silence. “He probably believes that more than you realize.”
“What do you mean?”
She sighed. “Randy is a deeply loving man. Once he gives his heart to somebody, it’s theirs. But others have taken that gift and trampled on it.”
A stone formed in the pit of my stomach. “How so?”
She paused and looked around, then started walking again. “Randy hasn’t been in a lot of relationships, but each one has scarred him deeply, and all in the same way.”
She pointed to a couple of boulders. “Let’s sit over there.”
I followed her and perched on one of the boulders.
“Randy is three years older than me,” she started. “Which meant that he was a senior in high school when I was a freshman. I was a bit young to care about his dating life, but my locker was in the senior class wing. You know how high schools assign lockers in the most random places. So I got used to seeing him around lunchtime.”
She paused. “One day, I noticed Randy pacing, waiting for the alpha he was dating. Something felt off, so I hung around. A few minutes later, the douchebag comes around the corner with another omega clinging to his arm—fawning over him.
“The other omega was traditionally pretty. Slender, masculine but delicate. I’d never seen him around, so I was pretty sure he was a transfer student.”
She let out a long breath. “I wasn’t close enough to hear what Randy asked, but everybody heard the response. The alpha laughed—actually laughed—then loudly asked ‘You thought we were serious?’”
My fingernails curled into my palms.
“Then the asshole smirked,” she continued, “and said, ‘Thanks for keeping me company though.’”
My blood started to boil.
She leaned back and stared at the sky. “I couldn’t let that slide.” She chuckled. “I was smaller and younger, but it didn’t matter. I walked straight up to that asshole and decked him. I got two good hits in before his brain caught up to the fact that he’d been attacked.”
