Page 27 of Analysing Her Assets

Tamar didn’t gasp, or open her mouth in slack disapproval, or smirk in contempt.

The beautiful dark brown eyes met his directly.

“What’s the big deal? If it’s not her real name, it’s not going to cause embarrassment to your family or to Berdiplast. What’s a shifter?”

“Shifters are humans who turn into animals,” he answered, hugely relieved and gratified by her mild response. “Here they’re turning into wolves. My mother explained the premise to me. The leader, the Alpha male, is an Israeli high-tech billionaire.”

He crossed his legs and rested his elbow on the back of the bench, behind her back, so he could look at her comfortably. She made it okay to confide in her.

“Wolves? In Israel?” Her dark hair was pulled tightly into a neat bun. He itched to let it loose.

“The story takes place in North America. A fortune teller told this billionaire that he was destined to restart the Jewish wolf clans, in Alaska of all places. He assembles four more Jewish would-be clan founders like him, and they all go to find his mate, who’s supposed to be a redheaded woman from New York. That’s how it starts.”

Her cherry lips parted a little. He licked his own, remembering yesterday’s kiss.

“Crazy. Except for the part where the billionaire goes to a fortune teller, that actually happens all the time, the rest of it sounds...lunatic.” There was a smile, a soft curve to her full mouth, and Gideon wasn’t offended. He rather agreed with her.

“Yeah...I keep trying to read it, but I can’t get into it.” He was despondent, dreading to tell his mother that he couldn’t do it. That after seventeen years he couldn’t be her first reader anymore.

“It’s funny you look so depressed. She’ll find another, what did you call it? First reader? She’ll get over it.”

“She’s my mother. I don’t want to disappoint her.”

It was bad enough he was his father’s secret keeper. His sins were mounting.

“Oh! That I get.” She hugged her knees to her. “My mother is dead and I’m still scared I’m disappointing her.”

“I’m sorry.” He squeezed her shoulder lightly and, after slight hesitation, left his palm there. Funny. He had a sex arrangement with Tamar, yet he was as hesitant as a high school kid on his first date.

“It’s okay, it happened many years ago. Ovarian cancer.”

“And your father....?”

“My father is alive. And my two sisters. I brought Giddy yesterday to our Friday dinner, and my nine-year-old nephew fell in love with him.”

“Oh.” Gideon thought of the adult, delicious dinner he’d had yesterday where the nearest person to his age was his aunt Mira, twenty-five years his senior.

“You look sad,” Tamar said. “Don’t be, I like dinners there, and I like coming home afterwards. I appreciate the silence better.”

“What do they all do?”

“Tally always wanted to be a fashion designer. She’s very artistic. She used to practice, all our lives, by preparing clothes for me. Einat is also quite talented, she was accepted to study industrial design at H.I.T.”

She sounded like a proud parent.

“I’m the only one with no artistic flair, thank God, right? Someone has to put bread on the table. Sorry, no disrespect to your mother.”

“Actually, my mother earns a good salary being a professor in TAU.”

Then he had an inspiration—what he wanted to do on their first ‘date’. And it could happen as early as tonight. He was nervous about this agreement with Tamar, and this could be a way to have their first ‘encounter’, without the pressure of sex.

“I know what I want to do for my turn. It’s stuff that doesn’t require checkups, but it might take more time. Can you come to my place at eight? Tonight?”

He set his face to neutral and prayed. She regarded him from her curled position.

“Can you come to my apartment? Since you’re pushing this forward.”

Gideon was going to ask her for a big favor. It was a good idea—coming to her apartment—she would feel more comfortable there.

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