Page 10 of Wrong Number, Right Lion

“I don’t know about that.” I’d had crappy building work done by professional companies, so taking a chance on Kalen didn’t seem to be a big risk.

“I guess you’ll have to learn what happens when you hire someone off the street with no references.”

I was certain Kalen had plenty of those, though they might not be from house owners. Again tiny slivers of jealousy threaded and burned through my veins. I clenched my mug of tea, the warmth seeping into my hands as I closed my eyes until the green-headed monster slithered away.

After Stephen left, I concentrated on work, my fingers flying over the keyboard as I pushed Kalen out of my head. After downing mugs of tea and more tea, I traipsed back and forth to the bathroom, determined not to look at what Kalen was doing.

He didn’t have to come inside to pee because there was a toilet in the shed, as it had once been a sort of in-law apartment. It was too ramshackle to house a guest, but the bathroom was in working order. And Kalen disappeared during his lunch hour.

Was he visiting a significant other and enjoying a quickie?

Maybe it would be better if I took my computer and worked at a coffee shop, because Kalen, like a virus—a very nice one with amber eyes and a sexy body—had invaded my mind.

This obsession with Kalen had to stop!

6

KALEN

I walked around the house one last time to make sure that everything looked even in the roof work I just finished. It came together remarkably quickly, and I feared that somewhere along the way I let the shingles go crooked or wavy. It was the same task over and over and over again, which meant that success should be easy, but also that I could space out and mess up horribly.

Thankfully, it was not the second. I had to admit, it looked pretty good. That summer spent with my dad redoing pride roofs had really paid off. I hadn’t realized exactly how much I’d picked up because I had just been the one who did what my dad said, as he said it—never anything past it. Hammer this nail, carry this shingle, etc., etc.

I needed to call him and thank him for the skill. I also needed to tell him about finding my mate, but not until I figured out things with Arlo. Right now we were in a holding pattern, and it was my fault. I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable… ever, but for sure not when I still had a lot to finish up. That would put him ina bad spot, and he already had enough stressors with the storm damage.

“Looking good.” The roof was officially done. I would run the hose over it to make sure I didn’t have anything askew, but I felt confident in my work.

Most of the clean-up was done. The leftover shingles were in the shed, and the old ones were already in the dumpster I rented, as was the old plywood I replaced. All that was left was making sure the nails were gone.

I went to my trunk to grab the pole magnet I borrowed from a neighbor, and went into the backyard to sweep for nails or other bits of metal that might be there. The last thing my mate needed was to walk outside barefoot and end up with a nail in his foot. And as careful as I planned to be, there were going to be some nails even after I swept. They were tricky like that.

I broke the yard into imaginary sections and methodically swept each one multiple times. Just with that, I’d collected far more than I wished had existed. I tossed them in the dumpster, and then went back and started again. Until I could do all of the areas and not get a single nail, I was going to keep going.

My lion wanted to go and run, not do this—until I reminded him that this was for our mate’s safety. And suddenly, he was all in. I had to admit, he was being pretty patient with my snail’s pace. At this point, I wasn’t sure if it was me who was going slow or if my mate wasn’t feeling it.

I’d planned to tell him multiple times, but when the time finally arrived, I second-guessed myself. Every. Single. Time.

Tomorrow, I was going to move on to working inside the house, and I’d have more opportunities. Or so I kept telling myself. Heworked from home, so I’d probably see him just as much as I did with the roof repair, which was nowhere near enough.

It was time to make a plan and follow through, no matter what. We’d never move forward if I never started the conversation. It wasn’t like a human would say, “Hey, I’m sensing a lion here… are we mates or something?” That would be nice, though.

A car pulled into the driveway, parking across the sidewalk because the dumpster was in the way. I didn’t recognize him. It wasn’t any of the tree crew, that was for sure. But when they saw me, their face morphed.

They were pissed, and I wasn’t sure at what.

Did they think my pull magnet was a weapon? It didn’t look like one to me, but I was also the one holding it.

“Hey, man, be careful. I’m grabbing the nails. Don’t want one of them coming through your shoe,” I called out preemptively so he had no reason to be scared.

Scared? He wasn’t.

Angry? Very much so.

He marched straight up to me, finger pointing at me, nearly hitting my chest. “How dare you.”

What was he so mad about? All I was doing was fixing a roof… unless…

“Excuse me?” Maybe it was a mistaken identity. I didn’t know who he might think I was, but—yikes, if that were the case.

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