Page 23 of Trick Knot Treat

Because that is incredibly attractive, not.

“What do you think?” I manage to ask.

“Delicious.”

He says delicious, but I’m not sure he’s actually talking about the food. He could be talking about me. Oh, please be talking about me. I squirm in the seat.

“So, tell me about yourself, Khione. Why Sunshine Cove?”

“Well, to be honest with you, I threw a dart at a map and chose this place.”

He raises an eyebrow.

“Okay, fine. It took me twenty attempts of the dart, I’m really not a middle of the country type of girl. I needed the coastline. And I wasn’t going to live in the north. All the deadly creatures were a little too much.”

“Not a fan of seeing crocs on the beach?”

“Uh, no. That would…uh…I am far too small and cute to be wrestling crocodiles!” I say loudly.

Too loudly.

People at the tables close by turn and hide smiles at my embarrassment.

Clint laughs, and it’s enchanting, so enchanting that I find myself forgetting about everyone else and just staring at him.

“You are so pretty when you laugh.”

He shakes his head and leans back, throwing his arm over the back of the chair beside him. The matching table and chairs are solid enough that they don’t even move. I look away from the way his T-shirt is stretching across his chest, the gorgeous photos on the wall are some of Felix’s work. I would recognise it anywhere.

The black and white scenes of Sunshine Cove are poignant reminders of the omega and the depth he has to him. When I look at these photos, I think that he’s as lonely as Zaire. The alpha doesn’t sleep; he walks. Day and night, he barely talks to anyone but Spectre, he just wanders Sunshine Cove.

I suspect those two know this town better than anyone else who lives here.

Now, Clint and Jace, I don’t know as much about. I know that there is something between them, the desperate longing looks between them speaks of something secret, forbidden. I wonder that no one else in this town has noticed the way they feel about each other.

“So, you’re a jack of all trades, aren’t you?” I ask Clint, watching him carefully.

“I am. Plumber, electrician, carpenter, farmhand, tour guide, fisherman, shelf-filler, volunteer firefighter. I can do it all.”

“You didn’t feel a pull towards one job over anything else?”

“No. Why eat one flavour when I can have them all?” he says with a wink.

“Stop flirting with me,” I mutter. “Save it for your matches, you’re going to need it.”

“Oh, I am aware. They are not happy about being together, are they?” Clint laughs.

“Jace seems happy.”

If I know little about Clint, there’s not much I can say about Jace. I honestly haven’t heard people talk about him, I have rarely seen him. He stays to his end of town, which seldom crosses with mine, but what I do know is that he joined the local tiny police force about six months ago. They have a massive stretch of territory between the three of them, including Angler’s Beach, Sunshine Cove, and Second Chance.

But when I see Jace in his uniform, I have this impulse to drop my eyes and tilt my head to the side, letting him see me submit to him.

He’s gorgeous with his dark hair with those unique silver streaks and his sun scorched tan. He’s got these incredible blue eyes and this smile that melts my brain. Jace is the kind of alpha that easily charms everyone, but in a different way from Clint.

Everyone loves Clint because he’s a larrikin, everyone respects Jace because he’s just a good bloke.

“Jace is happy, just not with the match. It’s a strange thing being matched with your stepbrother. All sorts of weirdness,” Clint says with a half laugh that doesn’t sound right.