“Never mind,” I mumble, pushing my hair out of my eyes with my wrist.
Before either of them can start teasing me, a guy with short, dirty blond hair who looks about our age turns away from the register with a small, pink bag in his hand, and blurts, “Campbell?”
Nolan looks over, his eyes widen fractionally, and then in a low, smooth voice, replies, “James.”
As this James person walks over, Nolan’s body language changes to the persona he uses a lot at school. The sexy flirt that knows every girl wants him and every guy wants to be him. It’s jarring to watch the transformation, and I’m curious who this guy is and why he puts Nolan on the defensive.
Felix also looks confused, which means he has no idea who he is either. Or at least why he knows Nolan.
“What are you doing here?” James asks in an awkward, high-pitched voice, as if he’s embarrassed to be found in a woman’s lingerie store. Except he was the one to call out to us.
“Christmas shopping with my girlfriend,” Nolan answers unaffectedly, and holds up the shopping bags as proof.
My heart skips a beat until I remember the school thinks we’re dating, and it has helped some with the hordes that paw at Nolan on a regular basis. It hasn’t necessarily stopped it, but it turns out there are at least some girls who respect the ‘don’t hit on another girl’s boyfriend’ code.
James nods, clears his throat, and holds up his own little bag. “Me too. A couple weeks ago, Bree pointed out that she liked this pink head warmer with the jeweled snowflakes on it. They had matching mittens, so I picked those up too.”
“I’m sure she’ll like them,” I comment, not knowing what to do in this unusually tense moment.
“Sorry,” Nolan apologizes, his smile tight. “Callie, this is James. We had a couple classes together last year. James, my girlfriend, Callie.”
“Nice to meet you,” I say, rearranging my bags so I can shake his hand.
James is extremely attractive. Average height, broad shouldered, and remarkably fit if the bulging muscles through his Letterman jacket are any clue. He has strong features, a square jaw, and the most brilliant green eyes I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t be surprised to find him plastered on one of the Abercrombie & Fitch bags I have in my hand.Jesus, stop checking him out. I have more than enough guys on my plate as is.
It’s like Mei can freaking read my thoughts, bouncing over with her arms filled with bras and panties, and gasps theatrically. “Collecting another one? Jeez, Callie. Leave some for the rest of the horny girls out there.”
Shoot me now.
“Mei!” I yelp, taking my hand back. “This is James. He’s here picking up a Christmas present for hisgirlfriend, Bree.”
“Oh, well, that’s nice,” she replies, her gaze doing a slow, critical sweep of James. “Just so you know, dude, if you change your mind and decide to go after my girl, Callie, you’re hot enough, I’ll give you that, but you have some steep competition for her time. A pretty face and abs for days won’t be enough. You need to have apersonality. Know how to talk to her. Oh, and she doesn’t seem big on sports.”
Felix starts holding his stomach and hooting with laughter. Even Nolan’s cool guy persona cracks, as he starts to quietly shake with contained mirth. James has this dumbfounded expression that I’ve recently termed being Hurricane Mei’d. A look that is truly unique to experiencing Mei’s particular form of unfiltered, over the top, mile-a-minute communication.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” James croaks after a full minute of blinking.
“Good,” she chirps, then motions her head toward the front counter. “Come on, the store closes in like ten minutes, and all these bras and panties won’t pay for themselves.”
“It was, uh, nice meeting you,” I stammer, plastering an extremely awkward smile across my face, and then hook my arm through Nolan’s, leading us both after Mei. Felix moves off to the side to limit the chance of someone walking through him.
Nolan and James do that dude nod thing that translates as goodbye, and James walks out of the store like his hair is on fire. Or like he’ll be chased down by Mei at any moment.
“You okay? James seemed to put you on edge,” I whisper, looking up at Nolan’s profile, our arms still linked together.
He meets my gaze with a tired smile. “I’m fine, and there’s nothing wrong with James. Jocks in general tend to put me on guard. I’ve had enough bad experiences that it’s become instinctual.”
Something seems off by his statement, but I let it go. It’s not like I haven’t seen one of these bad altercations in person. What happened at the Whitaker party will live with me forever, and not just because I freaked out and destroyed their dining room table before going catatonic.
Now that I’m the proud owner of six more bras with matching panties, we dub our shopping trip a success and head out to the mall’s giant parking structure. There’s a small queue of people standing around the elevators. When the first elevator becomes available, those waiting rush in and there isn’t room to fit all of us and all of our shopping bags. Since Mei drove separately, I encourage her to go on ahead of us with a quick hug goodbye.
“I think I’ll bail here too,” Felix states, rubbing the back of his neck. “I have Alpha watch tonight, and I’m not really willing to risk the chance of learning what it’s like to fall down an elevator shaft.”
“I get that,” Nolan agrees with an understanding nod of his head.
“How are your nights with Connor? Anything happen?” I ask, fidgeting with my shopping bags.
The mate bond doesn’t reach between pack grounds and my house, which for a few obvious reasons is good, but it does leave me in the dark when it comes his life with the pack. Connor isn’t really big on sharing either. Whenever I ask, his answer is a general ‘fine.’
