Page 18 of That's the Way Rejection Goes

“Are we that bad?” Erick asked, the grin not fading from his face. “Did we really mess up dinner that much the other night?”

“The dinner was fine,” I replied, trying to cover myself. “I just… I’m tired and I didn’t mean to–”

“Didn’t mean to say it out loud?” Calum asked, reading between the lines, his shirt shifting to reveal his abs.

“Y-Yeah…” I swallowed hard, the sensation of having both of them so close sending a jolt straight to my groin. My jeans were tight in an instant and I was deeply grateful for the table hiding my arousal. Although the table did nothing to stop their scents that were slowly overwhelming me. “Sorry.”

“What can we do to make you more comfortable?” Erick asked, leaning close, his muscles shifting under the tight fabric.

“I…”

“You know,” Calum said, leaning closer himself. “Maybe you could come up to our room after this for a drink or something? We’ve been wanting to get to know our host a little better, anyway.”

The suggestion hit me like a freight train. The idea of being alone in a room with them filled me with dread and an immeasurable amount of excitement at the same time. Suddenly I wanted to throw the tournament for totally different reasons. The wolf inside me was running in circles, screeching for me to go with them now and let them have whatever they wanted. And then, when I tried to take a deep breath to calm down, their scents made it even worse.

Just as I was about to open my mouth and accept their invitation without thought, a fourth man took a seat at the table. His presence broke the spell the Alphas had over me and I put on my customer service face immediately, stamping every other feeling back into the bottle inside me.

“How are you doing, Gary?”

He was one of my older residents. Not by much, but he was in his mid-forties. He was still a good-looking man though and, as far as I knew, didn’t plan on leaving the hotel anytime soon. He’d been there for almost three years now and if he wasn’t so good at running the janitorial staff, I might’ve tried to give him a bigger shove to go out on his own. But, as it was, he was an asset to the business, and I didn’t want to let him go.

“I’m fine,” he replied, returning my polite smile. “Another day, another dollar, right?”

Gary was full of blue-collar-isms. I didn’t know much about his life before the hotel, but I always imagined him as a plumber or an HVAC guy.

“I hear you there,” I nodded, watching Erick and Calum lean back into their own seats. “Living the dream, right?”

“Every day.”

“Did Benny ever come out and fix that washing machine?”

“And then some,” Gary replied. “Got here yesterday morning and he stayed almost all day. I had lots of… uh… projects for him.”

I raised my eyebrow at that. “Projects, huh?” I leaned a little closer, my natural matchmaking instincts kicking in. “What kind of projects?”

I’d been under the impression that Gary wasn’t looking for anyone, especially not a man. He’s seemed a little too small town and old-fashioned for that sort of thing. But then again, I’d met plenty of wolves who seemed one way on the outside and turned out to be another. I tried not to judge, but I was still surprised to see Gary’s cheeks blush bright red.

“Oh, you know,” he said quickly. “This and that. Maintenance. Some of those old machines hadn’t been worked on in a long time.”

“And did you get them worked on?” I asked, grinning from ear to ear. “Thatold machineof yours?”

“Y-Yeah. All fixed up now.”

I just kept smiling. “Benny is good with his hands from what I hear.” I leaned back, giving him a wink. “Among other things.”

Gary was at a complete loss for what to say when Vincent’s voice rang out over the room, saving him from having to explain further. Gary gave me a polite nod and turned to listen as Vincent spelled out the rules for the brackets. I, on the other hand, couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. It seemed like I might lose my head janitor after all. And to the repairman no less. It was a blue-collar match made in heaven.

“Huh,” Calum said, leaning into my periphery. “Those books just aren’t enough, are they?”

I glanced over at him, brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“He means,” Erick said, leaning close on my other side. “Not only do you love to read smutty romance, but you like to make sure it happens in real life too.”

I scoffed. “I… don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Your reputation precedes you, matchmaker,” Erick replied. “We’ve already heard about how much you like to…”

“Meddle,” Calum said, filling the gap.

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