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“Can’t afford it. It shouldn’t be too hard,” she says as she almost walks off the sidewalk in front of a car.
Jesus.
I open my mouth to forbid her from doing anything dangerous when she gasps.
“The bookstore! Thanks for walking with me. I’ll see you around!”
And just like that, she’s disappearing inside and I’m left gaping after her.
My wolf paws at me, wanting to go after her, but I grit my teeth and continue on to City Hall. I’m sure that Griffon is waiting for me.
We’re supposed to be meeting with the heads of a few departments later this week to go over plans for a new budget and we need to be ready for it. We’ve had the books for months now, but trying to sift through all of the paperwork and ledgers from the previous Alpha of Twisted Oak Pack has proven to be close to impossible.
I head inside and straight for the coffee pot. Griffin is already at the table, glaring down at the papers in front of him.
“I can’t do this. I’ve been staring at the same pages, the same goddamn numbers, for months,” he snarls and I nod.
“I know. We need to find a fresh pair of eyes, I think.”
He nods and I sit down across from him.
“Phoenix’s friend moved to town,” he tells me and I nod.
“I know. I met her this morning.”
I don’t tell him that she’s my mate. Griffin doesn’t believe in the curse and I know what his advice to me would be.
“Really?” he asks and I nod.
“She moved in next door to me.”
“Ah. Well, Phoenix says that she’s a whiz with numbers and puzzles. I bet she could take a look at things and point us in the right direction.”
I have my doubts. My mate doesn’t exactly seem like the accountant type.
Shit. I have to stop thinking of her as that. It's only going to make things harder for my wolf and me.
“Maybe.”
“What do we have to lose?” Griffin asks. I narrow my eyes at him, wondering why he’s being so insistent. He drops his shoulders, looking slightly sheepish as he looks up at me. “I may have promised Phoenix that her friend could have a job going over the books. I didn’t think you’d care. It seemed like a win-win.”
I roll my eyes at my friend, but he’s right. It’s a good idea, and normally, I wouldn’t care. It’s not the idea of someone going over the books that’s throwing me for a loop, it’swho.
“You can ask her later,” Griffin says, startling me out of my thoughts.
“Me? Why me?"
"Because you're her neighbor and you've already met her. I haven't," he explains.
It’s his turn to eye me up. Griffin is staring at me like I’ve grown a second head and I try to get it together.
“Oh, right. Sure.”
He gives me a weird look and I grab some of the papers, gathering the ledgers together to bring home with me.
“What are we working on first?” I ask him.
We spend the next two hours preparing for our budget meetings later this week. By the time we leave for lunch, I'm actually kind of looking forward to seeing Eden again, if for no other reason than to get rid of these damn books for a bit.
