I took a deep breath, considering my options before saying, “I’ll spend time with her. Get to know her and then make her fall in love with me.” I finished in a rush, grinning at my brother, expecting him to be overwhelmed with my plan.
He quirked an eyebrow instead. “Is that really thebestplan you could come up with?”
“What the hell else would I do?” I asked, my grin transforming to a scowl in seconds. “I have to learn about her first.”
“I agree with that part,” he explained, his arms crossing over his chest. “But you can’t just make a female fall in love with you. That takestime. Alotof time.”
“It didn’t take that long with everyone else,” I scoffed, crossing my own arms over my chest and leaning back into the sofa.
A small scuffle from the bedroom made its way to my ears, making them twitch slightly, and I leaned to the side, eyeing the bedroom door. Savla moved with me, leaning until I was looking at him instead of the door, the same expression of guilt on his face that he’d had before.
“Sav,” I sighed, tilting my head back against the chair. “Why haven’t you invited me here before?” I asked, sighing up at the ceiling.
“That would be incredibly rude,” he forced a laugh. “I’d nevernot invite you over,” he insisted. “Your apartment is just bigger.”
“They’re all the same size,” I corrected, sighing again before lifting my head to look at him. “Just tell me. Do Iwantto know?”
He shook his head vigorously.
“Do you have it under control?” I asked, my voice filled with the weariness of being the eldest brother of two hellions.
His nod was just as vigorous.
“Good. Then I’m not going to ask about it, but if you need anything from me—”
“I’ll come to you, I promise,” he told me with a cautious nod.
“Okay,” I sighed. “So what do you think I should do about my mate?” I asked, changing the subject. This was a tactic that I used with Savla all the time. No matter how much I twisted his arm, he never told me anything before he was ready.
“I think you should watch her from afar, learn everything you can about her, and slowly,very slowly, integrate yourself into her life. It might take a few years, but—-”
“Years?” I scoffed, shaking my head. “No. It has to be faster than that.”
His scowl told me what he thought about me scoffing at his plan. “Fine. You can make it go faster by integrating yourself into more aspects of her life. But it’ll still take a few months—”
“I can deal withmonths, Sav,” I told him, ignoring the loud thump that came from the bedroom. “But I can’t doyearswithout her. I’ve spent too much time without her already.”
He studied me for a long moment before nodding thoughtfully. “Alright. Then you should start with work. It seems like that’s where she spends most of her time. I’ll get her schedules and you can start there.”
Eagerness filled me to the brim. “Perfect! How would I do that?”
Savla leaned back in his chair, not even flinching when a crash came from the bedroom. “You’ve already started it, which is good. You went to her restaurant,” he said, lifting one finger into the air. “And while the food was terrible, I can find her shifts and make sure you’re seated in her sections for all of them.”
Hope filled my chest as he continued.
“You can get a membership at this exercise place and go to all of her classes. And I’m sure Dristan or Zara can help with getting you a job in Emma’s section of the Bureau. Or at the very least, you can do all the errands for the coven,” he continued, lifting two more fingers.
But then he lowered his hand, tapping it against his seat. “Butthe dog walking…” he trailed off with a sigh, shaking his head. “That’s a solitary thing. Most dogwalkers work alone. I’m not sure how—”
“I can get a dog!” I exclaimed, leaning forward. “Then I could hire her!”
“That’s afantasticidea,” Savla enthused, “and I have theperfectdog for you!”
“You have a dog?” I asked, my brow furrowing immediately, my eyes going to the bedroom before I ran my palm over my face. “Of courseyou have a dog.”
“Well, not a dogper se,” he told me, standing and walking toward the bedroom. “But he’sbasicallya dog.”
I narrowed my eyes on the back of my brother’s head. Savla was the most logical of the three of us. But when it came to animals,logicalwasn’t the word that anyone would use to describe him. He loved themallwith equal amounts of adoration no matter what they looked or even smelled like.
