Page 16 of Brazen

SAM

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“David Marsh. Dude, the guy’s a limp noodle. And way older than her. Seriously, why would she accept a date with that cheese ball over me?” I sent a hay bale soaring through the air to the barn loft, knocking Johnny backward when he caught it.

“You trying to take me out up here?” Johnny stacked the bale and returned to the edge, glaring down at me. “Because I can throw them back down, you know. It would be so easy to knock you down like a bowling pin.”

I frowned and wiped the sweat from my brow. “Shut up and catch.” I lobbed another one.

He caught it, rotated, and stacked it in a smooth motion. “I imagine she accepted the date with the limp noodle because he’s also a single parent. I would think a single mom would be looking for someone who gets kids. A guy who wouldn’t be threatened by her kid and–”

“Threatened by her kid?” I sputtered, sending a bale up so hard it hit the stack behind Johnny and rebounded back at me. “Fuck.” I caught it, and hurled it up again.

“You need to chill out.”

I paused, set my hands on my hips. “My mate… my unmarked mate is going out with your fucking dentist. Imagine if it was Emma.”

His eyes went dark, and his jaw clenched. “Right. That is a problem.”

I grunted.

“All I’m saying is that Dave the Dentist is no competition for you.”

“She thinks I’m too young.”

“So?”

“So, I can’t age.”

“You can change her mind.”

“But she’s going out with–”

“She’s going on a date. It doesn’t mean she stays on the date.”

My mouth hung open, then I snapped it shut. “What am I supposed to do until tonight when this date is gonna happen? I might go moon mad before then,” I grumbled. My wolf was not happy, and my balls were going to fall off from being so blue.

When Ernie’d all but manhandled me into the office yesterday, telling me to leave the lovebirds alone, I almost lost it.

Lovebirds? Anyone with working eyeballs could see that the guy who looked into people’s mouths for a living wasn’t the one for Clio. I’d wanted to storm back in there and kick Dave the Dork to the curb, but no.

No. I’d had to listen to every word they said–because a pane of glass couldn’t keep me from overhearing–and do nothing but smile. Fucking smile.

“Come up with a Plan B,” Johnny called.

I took off my hat and ran my hand through my sweaty hair. “Plan B? There is no Plan B for shifters.”

“You could pull a Cody and kidnap her.”

I imagined tossing Clio over my shoulder and carrying her off mid-date. I smiled.

Now that was a good idea.

“Who are you going to kidnap?” Charlie, Levi’s human mate and the ranch’s vet, asked as she came in with Wes. She went to check on Spirit, and Wes joined me in throwing the bales up to the loft.

“His mate,” Wes called, so she could hear. “He’s been grumpy ever since he met her on Wednesday and couldn’t get a date.”

“That says a lot coming from you,” Charlie said, looking at Wes over Spirit’s low back.