Page 20 of Mismatched Mates

“Do notcheck your phone.” She snatched it from my hand as I went to put it beside me on the table. “This is a phone-free zone. No messaging, emailing, or ‘just checking the time’, because when you do that you never know what time it is.” She held my phone aloft between her two fingers. “Unless you want to tell me that you and lover boy are furiously texting naughty messages, in which case I need to hear all about it.”

Given the weird ache in my chest at the idea of not having access to my phone, I decided some device-free space was probably a good thing. “Food first.”

“Foodduring.” She pulled up a chair and propped one foot on it, resting her chin on her bent knee. “Please? Elevate my sad and lonely existence.”

“That,” I told her through a mouthful, “is emotional manipulation.”

“But that doesn’t make it any less true… so go on, now you’re just holding back on purpose.”

I paused, toying with what to tell her. Obviously she didn’t know about the wolf/bear thing, but shedidknow about the Elston. Though we hadn’t gone to the same schools—she’d gotten a scholarship to the nearby private school that the Elston attended—we’d both grown up in Pine River.

After high school, Heather had high-tailed it out of Pine River as soon as she could, and Konrad Elston breaking her heart had everything to do with it. Exactly what happened, she’d been uncharacteristically closed-mouth about.

Plus, there was this whole strange arrangement with Grant. "It was... unexpected," I finally managed as I sank into the cushions, my eyes drawn to the half-finished crossword puzzles and dog-eared novels scattered across the table.

“Okay,” I said. “You need to promise me not to freak out.”

She pointed one extremely pink nail at me. “Why do I get the feeling you’re being purposely vague?”

Damn. How did she know me so well?

“So as it happened, I already knew the guy. Or at least, I knewofhim.” I squinted at her, chewing on the side of my nail and trying to figure if fourteen years was enough time for her to have forgiven the Elstons.

Probably not.

Heather was a pixie. Her blonde hair and frosted pink ends, indicated her usually fun-loving and free spirited nature. But as tempting as it was to think of her as some ethereal forest elf, that girl could hold a grudge.

“The suspense is killing me,” she said through a mouthful of taco delight.

“It was Grant Elston,” I said, the words coming out in a whoosh. “And yes, I do mean Elston as in of Elston fame, as in part ofSentinel,as in brother of Konrad Elston.” Wow, I’d used the words ‘as in’ an offensive number of times there. “But as bad as it sounds, he’s actually not… awful. Honestly, when he introduced himself, I thought he was going to be the world’s biggest jerk, but we agreed to essentially fake date and?—”

“Youagreedto that?”

“That’s what I just said.”

“You traitor! He’s Konrad’sbrother, and generally not considered the better alternative of the two. So,” she finished, “he’s probably going to ruin your life and leave you with permanent trust issues.”

Yup, shedefinitelyhadn’t forgiven him. “That,” I said, “is a lot to unpack in therapy.” I shifted uncomfortably under Heather's gaze, my fingers idly tracing the pattern on the couch cushion.

Her green eyes narrowed at me. “He’s not your perfect match, Jane.”

“I’m not saying he is. Lower your taco.Seriously. I’m not about to fall in love with him or anything like that. I’m going tobring him to the wedding to piss Jason off, and he’s going to use me to piss his father off. It's strictly business. The end.”

She stopped waving her taco threateningly. My girl wasn’t the violent type, and she wasn’t one to waste food, but this had shaken her. "Business, huh? With a Elston? That's playing with fire, Jane."

I felt a flutter in my stomach at her words, remembering the intensity of Grant's gaze. "I can handle it," I insisted. "It's just to get back at Jason and help Grant with his family issues. Nothing more. And I’m sorry, Bee, but I was never really expecting to find my perfect match. He’s not… ” At the last minute I decided to steer away from Konrad’s name. “He’s not as bad as I thought he was going to be.”

Slowly, still eyeing me suspiciously, she perched back on her chair and put her food back on her plate, dusting her fingers. Heather looked up, her gaze steady but tinged with hurt. "Elston men... they have this way of getting under your skin," she said, her voice low and measured. "It feels exciting, like something out of reach, but trust me, they don't stay."

“Did you ever meet Grant?”

“Yes,” she admitted after a second. “I mean, I saw him a couple times. He’s a couple years older than Konrad. But I never really got toknowhim.”

I chewed my lip, but aside from the whole shifter thing, Heather and I told each other everything. “There’s something else.”

“Jason declared his undying love and sacrificed that girl he was seeing on a metaphorical pyre?”

“No, she broke up with him. Anyway, when he dropped me off, we, um… kissed.”

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