Page 27

The bell above the door dings, and without looking up, I already know it’s Warrick. His sage, sea salt, and amber scentare becoming part of my daily life and fusing itself into the bookstore’s scent. I have to say I quite like the combination of his scent with my books.

“Good morning, Aspen,” he says as he brings over my coffee to the desk.

“Good morning, Warrick. Shouldn’t you be working or doing pack stuff today? I can’t imagine that Silas is okay with you hanging out here every single day.” Curiosity is pouring out of me.

He shrugs his shoulders. “He is so busy with his new mate and preparing for the arrival of the twins that he hasn’t been paying attention to what I’m doing. Anyway, I check in throughout the day with the pack and everything is doing good. We have the artisans back into working their crafts with the supplies they need. The businesses are slowly getting their feet back under them. As far as I can tell, there really isn’t much to worry about, so I come here to be with you and to read these books.” He holds up the Crown of Midnight.

“Speaking of,” he continues on, “I have some theories I wanted to go over with you about this series before I move on to the next book. Do you think you have time? I can always talk while you work, so I don’t keep you from the things that you need to do.” I can hear the vulnerability in his voice.

Grabbing my coffee, I say, “Actually, I have some time. I’ll sit with you while I drink my coffee this morning. You can tell me all about your theories. I have to warn you, though, I’m not going to tell you anything. So, even if your theory is right, I won’t tell you if it is.” My finger taps on his chest with each word while I narrow my eyes.

He holds both his hands up in surrender. “I swear I only want to talk about them. Not trying to pry any information from you.”

We spend the next hour going over all of his theories, and I have to say that I enjoyed watching the excitement play across his face. He really is invested in this series and I can't say I blame him, since they're amazing and so worth it. It's just not what I would have expected from him. He moves his hands animatedly while explaining his thoughts on the books with a sparkle in his eyes. This might be the most that I have ever heard him talk about in all the years I’ve known him. Granted, we didn’t really have much in common before now, so what really was there to talk about?

In high school, our conversations were usually me chatting away for hours about the latest book I read, while he only gave grunts and yeahs in acknowledgement. The few times that I did get him to talk would always revolve around football and what the coach told him that day. He rarely would talk about anything he liked, movies he saw, or music he listened to. It was frustrating to feel like we were dating, but also not dating because I never really knew anything about him.

Now, though, I feel like I’m finally seeing the real Warrick. The one he must have kept locked away all those years ago. Maybe he thought people would make fun of him for it, but I am falling in love with him through these moments. I’ve learned more about him in just these few days than I did in the months we dated before. I always believe in “it’s what people don’t say that says more about them”.

You can feel the pure joy pouring out of him as he continues with his theories. It’s not hard to tell that he really is enjoying the book based on his theories. Some of them are so spot on that I’m having a hard time not telling him.

The laughter is pouring out of me when I say, “Wow, when I recommended this series to you, I didn’t picture you getting this into it. You are onto something with some of your theories. Not going to tell you which ones, because I want you to see for yourself which ones are true. But I will say I’m glad that you are enjoying the series as much as you are. It’s one of my favorites still to this day.”

He taps a hand on the cover of Queen of Shadows. “Yeah, I can’t say that I ever thought that I would read books, let alone want to read books, but it’s actually quite nice. I like the fantasy genre more than I like the contemporary genre. It’s far more fun to think about dragons, hidden princesses, and evil kings.”

My eyebrows raise in shock. “Excuse me, but did you just use bookish terms like genres?”

He shrugs his shoulders again. “Yeah, I might have done a little more research into it. Figured if I would read books, then I should know what I like and don’t like.”

“Huh, well, I like it. Maybe one day you will be the one to introduce a series to me, instead of me introducing them to you.”

He taps his book again before taking a sip of his coffee. “Well, I’ll let you get back to work. I want to dive into this one. The tension is really building in the series.”

“Have fun! I can’t wait to hear what you think,” I say while I stand up to head back to do inventory and stocking.

Immediately after getting to the back stock area, I pull out my phone and open the group chat for the girls.

I didn’t know that Warrick wasn’t entertaining any women anymore. Each night, I assumed things were normal: him with a different woman, me alone in my cabin. I didn’t know that he was now alone each night, too.

Shaking my head, I try to clear my mind so I can focus on the tasks at hand. What Warrick does or doesn’t do in his time isn’t my business. It shouldn’t delight me to know that he spends nights alone. I shouldn’t feel a surge of excitement at knowing that he is finally putting me first and that I’m the center of his attention. It also shouldn’t make me want to be the one in his bed tonight.

If someone would have told me a few months ago that Warrick, the biggest player in our community, would finally focus on me, his mate, I would have absolutely laughed in your face. Never did I imagine this would happen. Sure, I dreamed of him accepting our mating, becoming the mate he was meant to be, and us starting our lives together. Did I believe it would happen? Nope. But, watching him show up day after day, showing interest in something so important to me, and learning things about me, really makes me think he is actually serious about this.

I can’t lie and say that I’m so convinced that if he asked me to exchange mate marks tonight, that I would agree. But, I can say that I’m getting there. I’m invested in seeing where this goes, which is hopefully to us finally settling down together.

Sighing, I run my hand down my face.Get it together. Just because he isn’t sleeping around anymore changes nothing.Grabbing my barcode scanner, I get to work on the latest shipment of books that came in. I ordered some special editions a couple of months ago, and I can’t wait to display them on the front table.

Hours later, after scanning all the boxes of books and getting them ready to be put out tomorrow, it’s finally time to head home. No matter what I did today, I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that I wanted to be the one in his bed tonight.

Shutting off lights as I head to the front, I find him exactly where I left him. Only now, he is already halfway through the book. I watch as his eyes flick back and forth with his face displaying each emotion as he reads. I can’t say that I’ve ever been able to watch as someone explores a world. It’s my new favorite thing. Tapping my finger to my chin, I think about whatseries I should introduce him to next, since he said that he loved fantasy more.I’ll have to think about that.

“Warrick, it’s time to go.”

His eyes snap up to mine. “Is it really? Can’t we wait just a little longer? I don’t think I can stop right here and just go home.” His eyes are pleading with me to agree. It’s almost like a child being told that their time at the arcade is over.

“I’m sorry. I just have a really long day tomorrow with putting out the order that came in yesterday. I was hoping to get some rest before having to do that.”

“Do you need me to help you like I did last time? I don’t mind if you do,” he says while putting on his jacket.