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She smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She disconnected before he could try to convince her to go out with him again.
Mike was a great guy. He just wasn’t the great guy for her. Ever since Alex Carter and Liam Zano showed up a few weeks ago to teach the Granger family men to fight in both their human and werewolf form, she couldn’t keep her mind off them. Too bad she wasn’t the type to ask one of them out. She’d been tempted though, especially after Alex stopped by to make sure no one had bothered her after the werewolf showdown at her uncle’s house. There had been a massive fight in which two shifters had died.
She thought Alex had come by to ask her to have a drink, but he didn’t even hint at it. Tawny should probably move on—and would have—except for the way he avoided looking directly at her, she had the sense he liked her. A lot. As strange as it sounded, she’d caught sight of his eyes changing color from whisky brown to an amber-gold. Every werewolf female knew what that meant—the man had found his mate.
Normally, Tawny would have been ecstatic to have possibly found the man she was destined to be with, except for the fact she’d experienced the same stirrings when she was in the presence of his friend Liam Zano. While ménage relationships were commonplace in Wildwood, it wasn’t for her. She’d have to choose. Was Alex the one? Or was it Liam?
When things slowed down at the center, she’d find a way to be around them to help her figure things out. Since they were running their business out of her uncle’s soon-to-be torn down barn, she could casually check them out without appearing too obvious. But which one was her fated mate? That was the question.
Tawny pushed back her chair. If she didn’t check on the rescued animals, she’d never make it out tonight, and she needed the break.
Alan Lipman was cleaning out the last of the cages. “Is everyone behaving?” she asked.
“All’s good. Butler had a little go with Duffy, but Duffy showed him who was the alpha. Other than that quick skirmish, the animals are fine.”
“Thanks. Since you seem to be done, go on home. I’m about to lock up anyway.”
He smiled. “Thanks, ma’am.”
Tawny stood up straighter. She’d told both of the men that she was Tawny, not ma’am. “My mother is ma’am.”
He lowered his gaze. “Sorry.”
There was no use bugging him about it. Someone must have ingrained it in him to call her that.
After she finished her rounds, she went back to her cramped office that was in serious need of some reorganization. It was a miracle she could find anything in there. It was why she’d hired Julia in the first place, but that was no excuse not to buy another file cabinet and install some shelves. Then she’d be able to move the stack of file folders off the floor.
Tawny grabbed her coat and keys and went out front to tell Julia she was ready. Her assistant was at the reception desk, hard at work on the computer. When Julia spotted her, she slipped off her glasses, and smiled.
“Ready?” Tawny asked.
“You bet.” Julia turned off the computer, straightened her desk, and gathered her things. “I’ll follow you since I live on the other side of town.”
“Sounds good.”
Tawny said a silent prayer that her brother would be waiting for her at the bar, and that he’d merely had a problem with his cell phone.
The trip to town took less than ten minutes. Being a weekday, there were plenty of parking places in front of the bar. As Tawny slipped out of the car, she looked up at the dark clouds scudding across the sky. If the weatherman was right—which wasn’t always the case—a snow storm was coming. Some of her rescue animals hated the cold and definitely didn’t like the wet snow. There were others, however, who seemed to live for it.
When Tawny stepped inside to wait for Julia, who’d been held up at a traffic light, Will spotted her, waved, and came out from behind the bar. “Here for your weekly date with Zach?”
“Is he here?”
“No, and he always stops to chat when he comes in.”
“According to Mike, he’s helping rescue some hikers, so I asked my new hire, Julia, to join me.”
“Is she pretty?” Will wiggled his eyebrows.
“I guess you could say that.” The door behind her opened, and Julia rushed in.
“Brr. Looks like we’re in for a bad one,” she said.
“So I’ve heard. Julia, this is my cousin Will.”
She smiled and held out her hand. “Julia Smith. Nice to meet you.”
“You new around here? I haven’t seen you in here before.”
