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“You guessed right, thanks.”
“No thanks needed.” Aspen disappeared.
Havana walked down several aisles, tossing various foods into the cart such as apples, oranges, bagels, cupcakes, potatoes, and meat trays. She liked shopping here. Unlike with human-owned stores, the fluorescent lighting wasn’t quite so bright, and the background music wasn’t loud, so the place was kinder to a shifter’s enhanced senses. There was no lessening the strength of the food smells, but she didn’t mind that; she liked inhaling the scents of cinnamon buns, fresh-baked bread, and citrus fruit.
Hearing her phone chime, she dug it out of her purse. Dieter. She blinked, surprised. Like Tate, he only contacted her when interested in hooking up. Huh. She answered, “Hello.”
“Fuck, Havana, I only just heard about what happened,” he burst out. “Why the hell didn’t you call me?”
Havana’s brows lifted. “Well, hello to you, too. Yes, it has been months since we last spoke. I’m doing great, thanks for asking.”
He snorted. “Like I’m going to bother my ass with small talk when you were almost kidnapped. Jesus, I got the shock of my life when I heard about it.”
“Yeah, the whole thing was quite a surprise for me, too.”
“You’re all right?”
“I’m fine. Really. What about you?”
“I was fine until I received that fucked-up news about you. I can’t believe you didn’t call me. We’ve been friends a while, Havana. You had to know I’d want to hear about this.”
She wouldn’t say they’d ever been actual friends. Just two people who were friendly and occasionally hooked up. He’d never been a shoulder for her to cry on. Never shared his dreams or goals with her. Never been at her side through tough times. Well, whatever. “How’re things with you and Tabitha?”
“They’re fine, but don’t think I’m letting you change the subject. If you have any more problems, if anything else happens, you pick up the phone and call me.”
She almost snapped her teeth. It was pretty freaking irritating that both he and Tate—two guys who didn’t want to make her a part of their lives—thought it reasonable to demand that she look to them for help. It was slightly different with Tate, considering she was officially under his protection, but still irritating.
“Dieter, you know better than to use that tone with me—it gets you nowhere.”
He growled. “I’m just asking that you call me if more shit goes down.”
“You’re not asking, you’re demanding. And I’m trying not to laugh because, yeah, you seem to think I’ll bow to your whim.”
“I just worry about you.”
“You can worry without laying down laws I’ll never follow.” She carefully lowered a crate of eggs into the cart, balancing it on a box of cereal. “Now I have to go. Take care.” Hands landed on the end of her cart. Her head snapped up. And she froze. Because right there was Tate, looking all delicious and sexy and self-possessed. He was also staring down at her, his eyes slightly narrowed.
“We’re not done,” Dieter insisted.
Oh, they were. “I’ll talk to you again soon.” Ignoring his protests, Havana rang off and returned her phone to her purse.
Her devil glared at Tate, her mood fouler than usual after seeing him with his ex. Havana might have been equally irritated if Valentina hadn’t relayed the whole story. Ashlynn really had screwed him over. It was impossible not to feel bad for him.
“Who is Dieter?” he asked, his tone even.
She curled her hands around the cart handle. “An … acquaintance of sorts, I guess you could say.”
“An acquaintance who knows you in the biblical sense?”
She thought about pointing out how that was absolutely not his business, but she’d just learned a fair bit of personal info about his past. She figured turnabout was fair play. “Yes.”
A muscle in Tate’s cheek ticked. “What did he want?”
“To know if I’m okay. What did your ex want?’”
Tate frowned. “Who told you about her?”
“A few of your pride mates mentioned her over the past few months. Valentina pointed her out just now. She was under the impression that you and I still had a ‘thing’ going on, so she explained about your ex, not wanting me to worry that the girl was competition. And you didn’t answer my question.”
“You haven’t really been answering mine properly lately, but I’ll tell you anyway. She wanted to apologize for how things went down three years ago and then asked if we could have dinner. I said no.”
“Have dinner?” Hmm, maybe Skank of the Century really was back for him.
“Yeah. She wants to talk. I don’t.”
Havana wasn’t entirely convinced he was as disinterested in Ashlynn as he sounded. They had serious history, after all. He had to be at least a little curious to know what she had to say. “Okay. Now could you move, because I need to grab a few more things. Thank you,” she said when he released the cart. But he didn’t leave. He fell into step beside her as she pushed the cart round to the next aisle.
