Page 30 of Loan Wolf (Green Valley Shifters: Generations #1)

30

CLARA

C lara told herself that she wasn’t at Gabe’s shop to test Trevor’s assertion that Gabe didn’t love her.

“I know you’re closed, but I just wanted to see if you’d had a chance to fix Daisy up,” she said, when Gabe had parked and come around to the door.

“Something wrong with Soleil?” he asked, unlocking the door.

“No, but I really liked Daisy. She was…familiar, you know? I wanted her to be okay.” Clara sounded inane to her own ears as she pushed the bike in with her. Gabe didn’t hold the door for her, and she had to struggle to get Soleil in without letting it close on her.

“She’s fine,” Gabe said, not even glancing at her as they walked in and he turned on the lights. “Replaced the tires, got her chain back on. You can swap out. I’ll update the contract.”

Clara put Soleil back where she’d been on the display floor and went to look at Daisy. The paint was still scratched. “Poor girl,” she said, but she realized that she meant herself and she was annoyed at her own self-pity.

“My performance is on Saturday,” she said conversationally, as if Gabe could possibly not know.

He shrugged and put the revised contract in front of her. “Initial here for the exchange.”

Clara obediently did. “Are you doing anything tonight?”

“Dusting porcelain angels in a frilly apron,” Gabe said shortly, filing the contract behind the counter.

“Want to get together?” Clara blurted.

Gabe stood with the counter between them and regarded her without answering for a moment. “Don’t you have other things to do?” he asked bluntly. “With other people?”

Was he tired of her? Was he trying to get rid of her? “Have you been talking with Trevor and Aaron?” she guessed.

Gabe chuckled. “Your boy bodyguards came to try to chase me off their turf,” he admitted.

Why did he look so amused by that? Clara wondered, feeling outraged and embarrassed. Did Aaron and Trevor really want her for themselves? If she was one of their mates, wouldn’t they have said something by now? Were they just trying to recapture their childhood innocence? She caught herself grinding her teeth the way Twiller was always scolding her for. “They don’t know anything ,” she scoffed.

“A common failing of that age,” Gabe said.

Clara, being the exact same age, was stung. “You’re not speaking from a place of that much superiority,” she told him.

“Never said I was.”

He was infuriating. “You know what, never mind. I do have better things to do tonight. Thanks for fixing up Daisy.” She’d come here trying to figure out if Gabe loved her... and only realized that she was the one who loved him , like an idiot.

“My pleasure,” Gabe said offhandedly. “Break a leg on Saturday.”

That wasn’t what Clara wanted to break.