Page 14 of Tiger Bitten

“He did the kind thing and cut me loose. He was open with not being ready to settle down.”

“How long had you dated?”

“A year and a half.”

“Mmm.” He didn’t like any of this. “He’s still close with some of your family?” he guessed.

“He’s dating one of my Uncle Ronnie’s god daughters.”

“Complicated,” he murmured.

“Yep,” Ren said, popping the P at the end. “My mom wanted him to be the one. She’s still mourning the death of that relationship I think.”

Mars scrunched up his face and asked, “How long ago did you break up?”

“A year ago. You know, he never told me I was fun.”

“I’m your first?” Mars asked, teasing.

“You’re the first to tell me that. Yeah.”

He snorted. “I don’t believe it. You dated a year and a half. You had to do fun stuff in that time.”

“Not really, looking back. He didn’t really like to be around my friends, especially if they were drinking, and at first, he would go with me and ask to leave early. He even asked to leave a concert once, so we didn’t go to them anymore. Then he would drive separately, then make excuses not to go out.”

“But you said he was wanting to be wild.”

“With his friends. We had two separate groups of friends. I tried to hang out with them too, but it was very no-girls-allowed, and a bunch of inside jokes that always made me feel like I was missing something. I don’t know, we just didn’t mesh. My fun side was annoying to him, and his wild side that I would’ve appreciated was something he kept separate from me. It’s not really a recipe for a good long-term relationship. What about you?”

“What about me?” he asked.

“What was your last girlfriend like?”

“Ummm, short-lived. Annoying. Boring.”

He cracked a joking grin, and she threw a grain of rice at him. “I’m asking a serious question.”

He chewed thoughtfully, thinking about Alese. “I dated a woman for six months. She had a little kid. A son.”

“Oh, geez,” she murmured, her delicate dark brows arching. “Did you meet him?”

“She wanted me to. I never got there.”

“Why not?”

“Because I knew she was temporary. Meeting a kid would have complicated things and made me stay longer than I should’ve. Besides, us Cats aren’t exactly the shining example a kid should be looking up to.”

“I don’t know. You seem pretty normal,” she pointed out.

“I’m a mess,” he uttered. “And I know you can hear the truth in my voice when I just said that.”

“I totally could,” she said with a soft giggle. He liked the sound of her laugh. Everything about Ren was pretty. He hated that she was his Rabbit.

“Pretty sure I’m not father material. It was kind of a deal breaker when Alese told me about him. She kept him a secret for the first four months. When she told me she had a kid, I started distancing.”

“Where did you meet her?” Ren asked.

“Work. She came in needing her car detailed. I still owned my company at the time, and she came in every week for a month. Told me later that she was waiting for me to ask for her number.”