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“Boone.” Hedra’s soft voice drew him out of his thoughts, and his tiger purred happily when she squeezed his hand lightly. “Tell me.”
“After Derek died, I was fucked up. Really fucked up,” he said. “But I wouldn’t admit it. I started dating a woman about a year after he died. A leopard shifter named Camilla. We dated for nine months, and I wasn’t a good boyfriend.”
He paused. “Fuck that. I was a goddamn terrible boyfriend, and Camilla didn’t deserve the hell I put her through. She finally left me, and I would have kept right on spiraling if Grayson and Cooper hadn’t dragged my sorry ass to a therapist.”
He stared at her, and whatever emotion was on his face made her squeeze his hand again. He swallowed hard. “They saved my life, Hedra.”
“I’m glad,” she said quietly.
“Anyway, I did a lot of fucking therapy and slowly got better. I realized how badly I fucked up with Camilla, and while I didn’t want to rekindle the relationship, I did want to apologize. I reached out, asking if she would meet with me so I could apologize, but she never replied.”
“It was good that you tried,” Hedra said.
“Camilla is Abena Nkosi’s personal assistant.”
Hedra’s eyes widened, her septum ring gleaming in the kitchen light as she touched the opal absentmindedly. “Shit, that must have been an awkward reunion.”
“So fucking awkward,” he said. “She was still pissed at me, but I apologized and made it clear that I knew it was all my fault and she didn’t deserve any of it.”
“Did she accept your apology?” Hedra asked.
“She did, thank God. We’ve been getting along well the last couple of weeks.” Boone paused. “A little too well, apparently.”
“Uh oh,” Hedra said.
“Yeah. At the party this afternoon, she asked me to have dinner with her. She said she could see how much I had changed and wanted to try again with me.”
The jealousy he could smell on Hedra cheered his tiger up for the first time since he’d seen Jerome sitting too close to her.
“So, you need me to watch your nan while you go on your date?” Hedra asked.
“Christ, no. I’m not interested in her, and even if I was, my tiger…”
“Your tiger, what?” Hedra said.
He wouldn’t admit his tiger was completely obsessed with Hedra, even under the threat of torture. “He’s not into her at all. He was barely into her when we dated previously.”
“Oh,” Hedra said.
“I panicked when she asked me out,” he said. “After the hell I’d put her through, I couldn’t tell her she no longer did it for me, you know? I mean, I could have - but who knows how the fuck that would have turned out, and Abena would absolutely fire my ass if Camilla asked her to. I’m already failing to do the job Cooper expects me to do. I can’t get fired from an easy babysitting assignment.”
“You’re not failing,” Hedra said with a frown.
He just shrugged. “Anyway, I panicked and told her I had a girlfriend. Camilla asked her name, and I said…”
Hedra raised an eyebrow at him, and Boone sighed. “I said her name was Hedra.”
He closed his eyes, waiting for the scent of Hedra’s annoyance to wash over him. Instead, he could smell her amusement, and she burst into giggles as he opened his eyes.
She laughed hard, holding her stomach and shaking in her chair. His tiger purred to her, completely smitten by her laughter.
Her giggles slowly ebbed, and she grinned at him. “So, what? You need me to stage a few happy couple photos with you? Maybe call you at work and ask you to pick up some milk on the way home? Mark myself as in a relationship with Boone Jameson on Facebook?”
“Worse,” he said morosely. “I need you to go to a party at Abena’s with me.”
She laughed again. “Oh, I can’t wait to hear this part of the story.”
“Camilla thinks I’m lying about having a girlfriend,” Boone said.
