Page 216 of Bride of Choice

“I haven’t told Mal anything, either.” My chest felt a little lighter. “Toss in Kooky and the newness of that, Odix and his crazy, Gopher and his little problem, Bum-bum and his hot and cold bullshit, I have no fucking clue what I’m doing at this point. Sometimes… I feel like I’m drowning. No matter what I do, holding someone up, dragging someone along with me, I’m still stuck, floundering just below the surface.”

“Have you told anyone else about all of this?” Rosa’s brow furrowed with concern.

“Kooky some, he’s a good listener, and Booger when he’s not too busy.” Just thinking about all of this, I laughed. The noise I made sounded more pained than anything— it was short and self-deprecating. “To tell you the truth, the shit I’ve told you is barely scratching the surface.”

Setting her eating utensil in her bowl, Rosa sat back and dragged her mug of water closer to her. “Well, I’m here now, and I’m listening.”

Resting my chin on my fist, I made a face that told her that was the absolute last thing I really wanted to do right now.

Rosa nodded in understanding. “We could… sit here and have a chat about books? Or you could tell me when you were ever going to confide in me that you had been marked by Krampus and there was some kind of crazy hunt involved?”

Scowling, I pointed my eating utensil at her. “What the fuck, man, who told?!”

Rosa shrugged, her gaze growing thoughtful. Clucking her tongue, she smirked. “I told you, I hear things…”

From the way her hands were trembling slightly, I took that to mean this was very recent news for her. I knew that look. I’d worn it many times. She was still processing. The urge to shake the truth out of her and squish her to comfort her until she demanded I let up warred.

“Hear things, my thick heinie! Someone ran their fat mouth off to you!” My utensil pinged as I tossed it on the table. “I want names!”

Unperturbed by my fit of pique, Rosa snorted and rolled her eyes. “Do you also want pictures of a Spiderman, boss lady?”

“On my desk by Friday, or you’re canned,” I shot back.

“Yeah right. You can’t quit me. Admit it,” Rosa flicked her hair over her shoulder in a poor imitation of me, “you lurve me.”

Tossing my last piece of bread at her, laughing when it bounced off her forehead, I barked with a laugh, “Who sounds like who now?” Sobering, I told her, “I do love you, though, your whole stupid face. Even if you look like you’re not about to blab about jack.”

“I love your stupid face, too,” she quipped. With a sniff, she added, “Snitches get stitches.”

We grinned at each other like idiots at that, shaking our heads and chuckling.

We talked for a bit longer, and before we knew it Tokre stopped in to nab his woman.

Tokre signed a greeting to me that I returned. I didn’t know nearly as many words as Rosa but I was trying. Looking to his mate, he signed something at her that had her turning to me. “He wanted me to let you know that he didn’t know he had the same issue as your Gofur at the time but in the end we worked through it.”

The brief tightening of Rosa’s expression before she quickly smoothed it out made me wonder if there was a lot more to it than that but it was tit for tat— if I didn’t want her nosing around in my shit, I shouldn’t be snooping around in hers. His arm tightened around her and he bent his tall frame to nuzzle the top of her head. That purr was full of nothing but pure affection. Rosa grinned and tipped her head to smile up at him.

Pulling away from her mate, she reached out and playfully poked my shoulder. “Oh, and don’t worry. I didn’t plan on saying anything to Mal, if it crossed your mind that I might.” Nabbing me up, she hugged me once more.

“Thanks,” I mumbled into her shoulder as I hugged her back.

When she hugged me even tighter, it was only fitting to tease, “I was tempted to blow a raspberry on your neck, just to be a dick because I know you’d hate it and I’m a butt like that, but I really don’t want to have to deal with the fallout with your bossy butts for mates getting their dander up because you have Joanie slobber too close to your mating marks.”

Rosa laughed and pulled back.

Tokre’s hand fell to her shoulder and he not so subtly curled her into his side.

“How the hell did you read my mouth?! It was half pressed into her shoulder,” I muttered, slapping my hands to my hips.

Rosa laughed as he signed something about a body at her. “Body language,” she translated.

When my eyebrows quirked, he signed and a sharp bark of laughter left her. “Your body language, not mine,” she cackled out. “He could tell you were up to some shit!”

“Oh.” All the huffy puffies left me. Lifting my shoulder in a half shrug, I had to concede, “Yeah, okay. Alright. I’ll buy that.”

Looking hesitant to leave, Rosa reached out and snatched my hand. “If you need anything, to talk, whatever, you know you can talk to me, right?”

I could, definitely, but it also ran the risk of her crazy hearing mates overhearing and repeating things. I wasn’t about to point this out so I just nodded and hoarsely replied, “One of the many reasons you’re one of my very favorite people.”

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