Page 141 of Bride of Choice

“My god, you won’t break her,” I taunted.

Daisy laughed, while Righty grew a lil frowny.

Deciding that was as good an intro as any, I told them. “Well, we need to get going, get Booger’s eyeball fixed up or find enough folks to hold him down so we can dig it out.” Turning, I tossed Booger a wink that got me a glower. “Looks like it might rain or snow and, you know, Doogie was just showing me some of his drawings. Don’t want them to get wet. He’s very talented.”

Doogie stared at me like I’d just grown three heads.

“Oh! You draw?!” Daisy leaned towards him with interest. “Maybe you could show us some of your drawings some time?”

“Of course he’d love to! But not right now, we’ve gotta go. Some other time! It’s a date, then!” Grabbing up Booger and Doogie’s arms, I dragged them off towards Dorothy’s. “Toodles! Don’t do anything I wouldn't, you two!”

Doogie allowed me to drag him along with us, stumbling next to me, in a daze.

It wasn’t until we were right at Dorothy’s front door that he finally snapped out of it.

“Date?” A garbled noise left him.

Slapping him on the back, I let out a loud, boisterous laugh. “Yep! Guess you better start working on your A game, huh?”

Doogie shot forward at my back slap and would have face planted if Booger hadn’t reached out to steady him, he was that loopy from his first meeting with his dream girl.

“Hey, Doro, you home, girl?” I called out, stepping inside.

“In the kitchen! Be right there!” Dorothy called back.

Dorothy’s screen door creaked opened as Doogie finally came around and got ahold of himself enough to follow us inside.

The glazed look to Doogie’s eyes had me elbowing Booger to have a look-see, and soon we were both snickering.

“What brings you here at this hour? Douglas wasn’t giving you any grief, was he?” she asked as she walked into the living room area.

“Got a case for ya, doc,” I joked, gesturing towards Booger’s not-infected infected eye.

“Oh my. That is something,” she said simply, but didn’t that say it all.

“Jo?” Doogie gulped, looking like he was so excited about his upcoming date he might be sick.

“No need to thank me-” I’d tried to say, but Doogie charged at me, scooping me up in a bear hug I was too breathless from to tell him to let me up for air.

Dorothy had to, laughing when he eased up enough to assure her I was fine.

Like my life was just universally shit, Odix came in, deep in conversation with Lukar and Griever.

The male I’d started to look at as a big, sensitive, cuddly bear, lost his shit walking in on Doogie grinning and hugging me.

“NO!” I bellowed, squirming free of Doogie’s thank you hug to throw myself backwards over him. “Don’t you dare lay a finger on him! It wasn’t like that! I swear!”

Odix snarled and crouched, looking unconvinced. Realizing what Odix must have thought, Doogie started barking at him in their native tongue as he tried to get me off of him.

Like that was the key to getting through to him, Odix’s snarl fell.

Lukar and Griever looked ready to grab hold of Odix and drag him outside before they’d let him brawl Doogie, let alone inside their home.

Booger walked over and started snapping at Odix. Tucking me into his side to slowly nudge me behind him, it sounded like he was reading Odix the riot act.

Fighting to keep my composure, I felt the cool, unbothered look on my face slipping as my gaze darted from Dorothy to her mate, then Doogie, before briefly skimming Odix’s snarl-frozen mug.

“I’m thirsty,” Dorothy announced. “Joanie, honey, do you think you could grab the pitcher and some water?”

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