Page 6 of Marked by the Pack (Crooked Point #2)

Wednesday

Zoey

I looked out the window as I put a cucumber into my basket.

“Why do you keep glancing outside?” Emma asked. She was examining two zucchinis. Now that she knew my secret, she was much more helpful at the grocery store.

“No reason.” I glanced at my watch.

Emma put the more appropriately shaped zucchini into my basket. She looked from my watch to the window. “Seriously, what are you planning?”

“A meet cute.”

“What?”

“It’s what happens in the movies. When a hero and heroine meet for the first time in a super cute and romantic way. Although, this won’t technically be the first time I’ve met Otto. But it will be the first time I’m speaking to him when he’s not surrounded by his friends.”

“So…you’re about to meet cute Otto?”

“I don’t know if you can use it as a verb, but yes. I’m going to meet cute the crap out of him.” I smiled. “Yeah, I like that. Let’s verb it.”

Emma glanced out the window and then back at me. “What exactly are you planning? ”

“You said you wanted to go on double dates with me and my future boyfriend.”

“Yeah, I did say that. But that isn’t exactly a plan, Zoey.”

I laughed. “Of course it is. I’m going to check out real quick.

” I grabbed a bunch of bananas. “And in exactly five minutes, Otto is going to walk by on his way back from picking up lunch. I’m going to walk out of the shop exactly when he’s walking by.

And he’s going to accidentally bump into me.

I’ll drop all my produce. He’ll immediately be aroused by me manhandling a bunch of bananas back into my bag.

And then I’ll invite him to dinner tonight with you and Callum.

Low key of course so it’s not too forward. Men are easily spooked.”

“He’s not a horse.”

“Yeah, he’s all man.”

“Mhm.” Emma pressed her lips together.

“What?”

“Zoey, Otto is…” she started choking. She coughed into her arm and then sighed. “What I’m trying to say is, I told you to stay away from the guys that work at the bank. This is literally the exact opposite of that.”

I waved my hand through the air as I walked toward the checkout. She had warned me about that. But I was pretty sure she was just trying to reverse psychology me. She couldn’t tell me that everyone that worked at the bank was a bad, dangerous boy and expect me to stay away.

Besides, I couldn’t get King’s warning out of my head. And I was beginning to think that maybe having a man around my house might be a good thing. A necessary thing. There was no better man to protect me than Otto. After all, he was bad and dangerous .

“You’re right, Emma. I think I want to try out the whole sleeping with one guy at once thing.

Rumor has it, it does wonders for your skin.

” I’d actually done some research last night.

Emma had either lied to me about being a vampire and that’s why her skin looked amazing.

Or happiness just made you glow. I was hoping on the latter, because I really didn’t want her to murder me in my sleep.

The checkout guy smiled at me as he waved my perfect produce under the scanner.

“Are you sure you don’t want any meat?” I asked Emma. It almost seemed like she was purposely avoiding the butcher in the back. And I wanted to trust her. I did. But…she really did look different.

“Why do you keep asking me that?”

“I just want to make sure you’re okay when I make a vegetarian meal for you and Callum tonight.”

“Zoey, I really don’t think Callum will want to go on a double date with you and Otto.”

“But you just said you wanted to go on double dates…”

“With anyone but Otto.”

I just stared at her. “First I can’t date the twins. And now you don’t want me to date Otto either? That’s three out of five of the bank hotties.”

“Just date someone else.”

“I’d date Bennett but that would be super weird because you two were just together. And I think Titan hates me. Besides, I really like Otto. He’s so funny. And sexy. He’s the whole package.” And he’ll protect me from your boyfriend.

Emma sighed. “I’m talking about dating someone who’s not an employee at that bank. ”

“We’ll put a pin in it for now. Just please bring Callum to dinner tonight. Maybe Otto and him can work out whatever beef they have.”

“Callum’s not going to say yes to this.”

“Because of the vegetarian meal?” I finished checking out.

It was almost time. “I have some ground beef I can add. Either way, tell Callum to drink some blood before coming over. He’ll want to at least pretend to eat dinner though, or else Otto may get suspicious of his secret.

” I laughed. “Wait, I forgot that Otto already knows that Callum is a vampire. This is perfect. I’m so happy to have someone else to talk to about this. ”

“This is a reaaally bad idea, Zoey.”

“Nope. It’s flawless. Just like your skin.”

“How do you even know when Otto is going to walk by?”

“I’m very observant.” I looked back down at my watch.

“It’s almost go time.” I peered out the windows to see Otto walking this way.

God, there was something about a man in a freshly pressed suit.

And his wavy brown hair was just begging for me to sink my fingers into.

He was looking down at his phone. Perfect.

“Three. Two. One.” I stepped out of the grocery store at exactly the same time as Otto appeared.

I bumped into him. A little harder than I meant to. My bag of produce went flying, but so did his to-go bags.

“Shit,” Otto said. He grabbed one of his bags before it smashed onto the ground, but when he reached out for the other in the air, it tilted forward. Spilling the contents all down the front of my jacket. A bit even splashed onto my neck .

“Fuck that’s hot!” I yelled. The boiling hot soup was everywhere. It started to drip down my neck, slipping beneath my jacket, trailing down the front of my chest. So much for flawless love skin. I was going to have freaking welts. I pulled off my jacket and used it to blot my neck and chest. Ow.

“I’m so, so sorry, Zoey,” he said.

There goes our perfect meet cute.

Otto pulled out some napkins from the bag that hadn’t ended up all over me. I dropped my jacket on the ground and grabbed the napkins from him. I blotted them against my chest, but my shirt was already ruined too. And my boobs were burnt. Fuck me.

“I wasn’t watching where I was going. It was completely my fault.” He grabbed my produce off the ground.

Damn it, I was supposed to be doing that!

He put my phallic veggies back in the bag and then grabbed his phone off the sidewalk. The screen was completely shattered. He cursed under his breath.

The wind blew and I shivered. My hair blew into my face, sticking to the soup on my neck. I was pretty sure some kind of disgusted noise came out of my throat as I pushed my hair out of the mess.

Otto put his phone back in his pocket and looked at me. Like he didn’t actually care about his broken phone. Like maybe he cared if I was okay more.

“And now I’m cold,” I said with a laugh as the wind blew again.

“Which doesn’t even make any sense because I’m soaked.

” As soon as I said the words, I realized how suggestive they were.

I felt his eyes on me. For the first time in my life, I hadn’t been flirting.

I was literally covered in hot soup. But I did like the way he was looking at me.

I picked my jacket up off the ground and went to pull it back on.

“Here, take mine.” He shrugged out of his jacket and put it around my shoulders before I could pull my wet one back on.

It was so hot it almost felt like a heated blanket. I practically melted into it. And it smelled like…warmth. Like a roaring fire on a cold night.

“I really am sorry,” he said. He reached out and wiped a little soup off my cheek. His hand paused a beat too long.

And if we weren’t on a crowded sidewalk, I probably would have put his thumb in my mouth. I swallowed hard. “It’s okay, I wasn’t looking either.” Honestly it was all my fault. I’d purposely bumped into him. I just…didn’t plan it out very well. But he didn’t need to know that.

For a second we both just stared at each other. I’d never been this close to him. And his hazel eyes were so distracting.

“I hate to just run off…but I have a meeting in a few minutes. Give me the bill for your dry cleaning, okay?” He threw the ruined food in the trash.

“What about your jacket?”

“Keep it.”

What? I couldn’t keep his jacket. And for a second, I’d completely forgotten about my whole plan. “How about you stop by after work to pick it up? I’ll make you dinner. To make up for wearing your lunch.”

He smiled. But it started to fade as quickly as it had come. “I really shouldn’t.”

I had no idea what he meant by that. He shouldn’t eat dinner? He should eat it with me? He didn’t really like his jacket or something? “Come on. It’ll be fun. I promise.”

He looked over his shoulder at the bank and then back at me. “Yeah. Okay. Let’s do it.”

“Does 6 work?”

He nodded. “I gotta run.” He started walking backward. “But I’ll see you tonight, Zoey.” He turned and hurried back off to work.

I watched him run up the stairs of the bank and disappear into the front doors. That had honestly worked out really well. Except for the scalding hot soup. I blotted my chest again.

Emma started laughing.

I turned to see her peering out of the grocery store exit.

“That was so smooth,” she said.

“Were you just creeping over there spying on me? Why didn’t you come out and help me?”

“I didn’t want to mess with that perfect plan.”

I laughed. “How was I supposed to know he’d be carrying such hot food?”

“You knew he was picking up lunch.”

I shook my head. “Yeah. But I thought it was sandwiches or something.” In the weirdest way I was kind of craving soup now. I looked down the front of me. Probably because it smelled so good.

I looked back over at Emma. She was still holding back her laughter. “It’s not funny. That shit hurt.”

“It’s a little funny. But are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” It didn’t actually hurt anymore.

I just hoped that it hadn’t left any marks on my skin.

Sexy bunnies didn’t have welts. And I honestly didn’t know what my clients would think of my skin being marked.

Although, if I ever met King in real life, I wouldn’t be surprised if he liked a little pain with his pleasure. I shook away the thought.

Today I was just going to focus on Otto. I was going to give this a real go. Because for just a second when Otto and I were standing there, I felt something. I think he felt it too. When he touched the side of my face...

“You forgot one important thing,” Emma said.

“What did I forget?” I thought the whole plan had been executed pretty perfectly, even if some of it had been a little spur of the moment.

“You forgot to mention that Callum and I would be there tonight. So…does that mean we’re off the hook?”

“No, you’re both coming. I didn’t mention that on purpose. This way Otto thinks it may be a date. But when he gets there he won’t be sure. He’ll be so off his game.”

“What happened to not spooking the horse?”

“Did he seem spooked to you?” I looked over my shoulder at the bank.

Actually, he had seemed a little spooked.

The decorations from the Fall Festival were still all over Crooked Point.

Maybe he’d been spooked by the jack-o’-lanterns.

Or maybe it was something else. When I’d first asked him to dinner, he said he really shouldn’t.

And then he’d stared at the bank. What did that mean?

“No, he seemed into you. The whole thing was actually really cute to watch.”

“See. Meet cute.”

“Are you going to tell him that you ran into him on purpose?”

I laughed. “Never. ”

“Well…if I’m coming to dinner, I may accidentally let it slip. Callum and I probably just shouldn’t come.”

I stared at her. “You’re acting like Callum doesn’t like me or something. You’re my best friend. As an extension, he has to like me too.”

“It’s not you that he doesn’t like.”

“So you’re talking about Otto?” I laughed. “No one can hate Otto. He’s funny and charming. And they barely even know each other. I feel like Callum just doesn’t like Bennett. You know…because you dated them at the same time.”

“Otto and all his friends rob banks. How many times do we have to go over this?”

“Yeah, according to Callum. But how much do we really know about Callum?”

“I know him. And I know he’s not a thief.”

I liked Callum. I did. But Emma couldn’t really stand there and say she knew everything there was to know about Callum. He’d been alive for centuries. There were a lot of missing pieces there. “Look, all I’m saying is that I feel like their beef is a complete misunderstanding.”

“Maybe. Or…maybe you should just stay away from Otto like I’ve been asking you to.”

She was being so weird about this. I needed to change the topic. “Speaking of beef…I don’t have to serve raw beef tonight, do I?”