Page 14 of Alpha Bear Accountant

After the short drive to his childhood home, I checked myself in my mirror one more time before walking up to his front door with a little gift bag in my hand. But before I could knock, the door swung open and an older version of Niam was smiling at me

“You must be the superhero!” The older man chuckled and stepped to the side.

That was an unexpected welcome. “I wouldn’t say I’m a superhero, but I am the numbers guy.”

“Same difference. Come on in.” He held out his hand and introduced himself. “I’m Jacob, Niam’s dad. Nice to meet you. ”

“It’s great to meet you too, sir.” I cleaned my throat and took a breath to gauge where Niam was. He wasn’t within earshot. “You’ve raised a wonderful young man. I care for him a lot.”

He gave me a knowing look as I stepped inside. “My son’s getting changed. Again.” Mischief sparkled in his eyes. “Guessing that means you’re a keeper.”

If Niam had been standing there, he’d be the color of a beet. But I appreciated the words. It meant that Niam was feeling that same connection that I was. “I’d say the same about him, sir.”

Niam came out a couple minutes later, looking every bit as amazing as he always did. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Don’t be sorry.” I handed him the gift bag. “It was nice to get to meet your father.” The father who had discreetly left the room as Niam came in.

My mate reached inside the bag and pulled out a box of drawing pencils. The clerk at the art store told me they were the most versatile after grilling me about the type of paper he used andwhat other mediums he might mix with it. I knew none of those answers, so we went with generic quality instead of specialized.

Really, I wasn’t even sure if his doodles were more than a nervous habit.

His jaw opened as he looked at them. “These are… Wow. Thank you.” Guess it wasn’t a nervous habit, if the way his face lit up was any indication.

“I figured they were better than flowers.”

He nodded and went to hug me, then looked around to make sure his father wasn’t there before doing so. Niam was so adorable.

I wrapped my arms around him and held him close for a few seconds before stepping back. While hugging was fine, I wasn’t ready for his father to see my hard-on, and I was definitely sporting one of those.

After a quick goodbye to his dad, we walked out to my car and headed to dinner.

I took him to a small farm-to-table restaurant not too far out of town. The food was great, and the company was even better. But the entire time we were there, I was distracted by the man. I couldn’t figure out how to tell him how much he meant to me without scaring him away.

Humans were just so different from shifters. They required wooing. And I could be patient. I’d woo until the cows came home if that’s what he needed.

Now that I’d accepted that Niam was mine and I was his, I was more than ready to move past the first date and into our forever.

If only it worked that way.

12

NIAM

Dinner was amazing. I’d heard of the place but had never been there. It always felt too fancy for a meal with my dad, and I never really dated when I was living in Oak Grove. I got through high school unscathed and then left for college without ever looking back.

I already knew Todd was sweet and observant, but when I pulled out those pencils that could only be purchased at specialty art stores, I nearly cried. They were perfect. What I did could be classified more as doodling than art, but drawing was something I loved.

The fact that Todd noticed that meant more to me than he could possibly know. Had my father not been in the house, I would have led him straight into my bedroom and begged him to take me right there. But Dad was home, so we had no choice but to continue on to dinner.

After we ate, it still felt too early for the date to be over. “That was delicious. Thank you.”

As if he could read my mind, Todd said what I needed to hear. ”I’m not ready to take you home. Maybe we could go back to my place.”

I reached for his hand when we got up to leave. ”Maybe?”

He chuckled. ”That was a bad choice of words.”

By the time we reached the car, I decided to take mercy on the man. “I want to go to your place, Todd, and I don’t want to leave until morning.” I watched his face carefully, hoping I didn’t cross a line or make the wrong assumption.

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