Page 29 of Taming the Beasts (Crooked Point #3)

Saturday

Zoey

I invited everyone we ran into to the wedding. And when we took a break for coffee, I even sucked it up to invite the sassy barista.

“The wedding is next Saturday,” I said. “If you’d like to come?”

She turned to Emma. “You’re inviting me to your wedding?”

“Um...yes?” Emma said.

The barista shrugged. “I guess I can make it?”

“Great,” I said. “See you then.” I hooked my arm through Emma’s and pulled her to a table for us to wait for our drinks.

“I feel like I shouldn’t be inviting all these random people,” Emma said. “I don’t know them.”

“But we already rented 200 chairs for the town square. We need to fill them.”

“And I tried to make you not rent so many chairs. I really need to talk to Callum about how big this is getting.”

“I can help pitch in if it’s a money issue.”

Emma just laughed.

“What?”

“Wait, did I not tell you?”

I just stared at her .

Emma leaned forward. “Callum is a billionaire,” she whispered.

“Really?”

“Yeah apparently he’s made some really good investments over the centuries.”

“That makes sense. It would have been a little silly if he hadn’t learned how to handle his finances over such a long period.” I laughed. “And that’s great that money isn’t an issue. Maybe we should rent some more chairs...”

“I’m more concerned about the fact that we didn’t talk about how big we wanted the wedding to be. Callum was probably hoping it would be more intimate.”

“You said he wanted you to have the whole shebang, though, right? I’m going to throw you an epic reception.”

Emma smiled. “He did say that. Not in those words though.”

“Then I think we are all on the same page.”

“Speaking of the same page...how are you going to tell your boyfriends that you actually have another boyfriend already?”

“Grudge is not my boyfriend.”

“He kind of acts like he is.”

I rolled my eyes. “He’s my boy that’s a friend.”

“Mhm.”

“He has a crush on Kebe. We’re just friends.”

“Then it won’t be hard for you to come clean about that fact that you’re still talking to him.”

“Right,” I said as our coffee was delivered. I blew on my cup.

“Do you think you’ll do it tonight?” Emma asked.

“Do what tonight? ”

“Tell the guys about Grudge. It’s the last thing you haven’t told them.”

“Yeah. I guess I probably should. Speaking of the guys...” I pulled out my phone. My eyes grew round when I saw the time. “I had no idea how late it was. Why haven’t they called me about what their contact told them?” It was almost 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

Emma glanced at the time. “Maybe they got really busy at the bank?”

“All five of them?” I shook my head. “I mean four.”

“It’s really bothering you that Titan is still being...Titan, isn’t it?”

“I have him exactly where I want. I bought all the guys but Titan breakfast and coffee this morning. And I made their lunches.”

“So your plan is to be extra rude to him?”

“More ignore him and act like I don’t care.”

“Hm.” She took a sip of her coffee.

“What? He likes what he can’t have.”

“Okay...but you’re kind of acting like you just don’t like him. And being a jerk about it.”

“ I’m not the jerk. He’s the jerk.”

“Hm,” she said again.

“Whose side are you on here?” I asked.

“Yours. Of course. But have you thought about just telling him how you feel?”

“I did tell him how I feel. By shoving potpie in his face last night.”

Emma’s eyes grew round. “You didn’t.”

“He was being a complete asshole. I spent all afternoon cleaning and cooking for them and he had the audacity to ignore all of it and open a can of soup for dinner. ”

Emma giggled.

“It’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny. But I get what you’re doing now. You’re just planning on pushing all his buttons until he snaps. In the good way. Not the werecat way.”

Her having to clarify actually gave me pause for a minute.

That was kind of the plan. But if he accidentally got so annoyed that he shifted.

.. I tried to shake away the thought. I was already knee deep in this plan.

It was too late to pivot and just be sweet.

Besides, I think Titan secretly loved the game we were playing.

I nodded. “I have a feeling that when he finally snaps it will be explosive. In the best way possible.”

“I can’t wait to hear all about it.”

Depending on what Bennett’s contact had said though, I might be running out of time for Titan to be on board with this arrangement. He might be able to just walk away soon. The thought made me sadder than I realized it would.

“Are you okay?” Emma asked.

“I’m fine.”

“I think I know you well enough to know that’s not true. What’s going on? Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts about your bridesmaid dress? I think the shop closes soon and...”

“It’s not that. I love the dress. I just..

.” my voice trailed off. “Kebe really got in my head about the cure. About the guys taking it and maybe not wanting to share me anymore. Ace and Huxley seem like they’d want this arrangement either way.

But I can’t get a read on the other guys.

I tried to talk to Otto about it and he was giving me very mixed signals.

And I tried to bring it up to Bennett this morning but we got interrupted.

I’m scared this is all going to end before it even truly begins. ”

“I think you should just talk to them all about it.”

“Even if they do all say they’d still want me, I’m not sure it will make me stop worrying. It’s one thing to think about how you’ll behave if you have a cure. Another thing entirely if you actually take the cure.”

“Now you’re freaking me out,” Emma said.

“I promise you have nothing to worry about. You and Callum have ten years of history. I have five minutes of history with my guys.” Although I’d had crushes on all of them ever since they moved to town.

Bennett said the feeling had been mutual.

That did add more time to our story. Would that make it harder for them to walk away?

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about either,” Emma said. “But it’s always better to get stuff off your chest.”

Unless you were scared of the answer. “Yeah. I’ll try to bring it up to Bennett again.”

“You’ve got this. And speaking of getting things...I should probably head out. I want to make a quick stop at that decoration store.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“No, I’ve got this. We barely need anything because the town square is already completely decked out for fall. I just wanted to start thinking about place settings. We’ll talk about it tomorrow after I speak with Callum about how many guests we actually want.”

“I really can come with you.”

“No, go talk to Bennett. Get it all off your chest.” Emma grabbed all her shopping bags and stood up .

I sighed. “That sounds less fun.” But I stood up anyway. She was right. Letting it fester in my head any longer wasn’t helping anything.

“You’ve got this. And text me when you find out what his contact said about the coin.”

“I will.”

We walked out of the coffee shop. She turned left. And I turned right to head to the bank. All I wanted to do was go home and cook my boyfriends something delicious. But this chat felt long overdue. At least in my head.

I walked up the steps to the bank and opened the front door.

Otto was at the counter. He lifted his head and immediately smiled. “Hey, baby.”

“Hey.” I walked up to him. “Where is everyone else?” It would be easier to just voice my fears to all of them at once. And come clean about Grudge.

“Ace left early. He said he needed time to put the finishing touches on your surprise.”

“Do you know what it is?”

Otto smiled. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Traitor.”

He laughed. “And Huxley went with him. I guess it’s kind of a surprise from both of them.”

Interesting. “What about Titan and Bennett?”

“Titan’s been holed up in his office ever since this morning. I think you really pissed him off.”

Eek. Maybe Emma was right. Maybe I’d taken things too far earlier. “He’ll be fine. He’s a big boy. And Bennett?”

“Warning, he seemed like he was in kind of a bad mood too. He went to the roof about an hour ago. ”

“Maybe I should go check on him.”

Otto shrugged. “I usually just stay away from him when he’s like this.”

It was probably good advice. But I wanted to help if something was wrong. “I’ll just check on him real quick. I’ll be right back.” I leaned over the counter and gave Otto a quick kiss before heading up to the roof.

I looked around at the empty chairs and table. It took me a second to find Bennett leaning on the ledge, looking out over Main Street below. He was completely lost in thought.

Had he heard back from his contact?

Was he debating whether to take the cure?

Was he at all worried about what that would mean for us?

I walked up next to him. “It seems like something is heavy on your mind.”

He turned and just stared at me. “You could say that.”

My heart started beating funny. “I know the feeling.” I looked out at the view. In a week, Emma and Callum would be standing under the gazebo at the end of the street. Looking forward to their future together. And I was worried I was standing here on borrowed time.

“What’s heavy on your mind?” Bennett asked.

I pulled my gaze away from the gazebo. “Honestly?”

“I always want you to be honest with me.”

I’d wanted to have this conversation with all the guys. But maybe one at a time was the better way. “I’m worried that you’re all going to take the cure and quickly realize you no longer need to share. ”

Bennett raised his eyebrow at me. “Share what?”

“Well...me.”

He didn’t say anything, so I immediately filled the silence.