Page 12 of Cold Foot Croc

“If you say angel, I will kill you.”

He stopped talking, bless that man, and likely it was from the truth even she could hear in her voice. She hoped that after the baby got here, her moodiness would steady out.

He took her phone from her hand and guided her to the railing, then told her, “Lean your arms on it. Good. Now cross them. Relax your hands. Good.” He held up the camera and took a picture, but then approached and pulled her hair from behind her shoulders. “One with no smile. Great. And one looking at the trees over there. Big smile…okay, but smile with your eyes. Why do you still look mad?”

“I’m not mad! I’m still traumatized by you pissing off my porch. I can see the yellow snow.”

“Do you want to pee on top of it? Are you being territorial?” Cash gasped. “Are we flirting?”

“What? No! Hear the truth in my voice when I say I would rather get into a car wreck than date you.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Okay, you passed the test. We can remain in the friendzone.”

“I’m going inside, give me my phone.”

“I already posted the best one.”

She took the phone from him and looked at the picture he’d posted. Raynah scoffed. “It’s just a picture of my big ass. When did you even take a picture from this angle?”

“You almost said angel.”

Raynah lost her mind and screamed as long and as loud as she could. “Thanks for nothing, you dick-weevil!” And then she stormed into her house and slammed the front door.

“You’re welcome,” Cash called from outside.

Her shoulders pressed against the door, Raynah closed her eyes and took three steadying breaths. She couldn’t wait until she could Change again. Snowy owl probably tasted delicious.

She opened her eyes and scanned her cabin. It felt cold and unfamiliar, just like it always did when she entered the space. She hated this place, except for one small corner upstairs.

Raynah puffed air out of her cheeks as she sat at the kitchen table chair that was always pulled out. She scrolled through the pictures Cash had just taken, picked one that she looked the least-bad in, and posted that one. Unfortunately, she couldn’t figure out how to delete the picture of her backside as she was walking across the porch. Unsavory, but on the other hand, who would even see this account? It wasn’t like she was a big sharer.

There was a magnifying glass icon down at the bottom. She poked it, and then typed Garret’s name into the search bar. She thankfully knew his last name from when Reed and Wreck had talked about him a few weeks ago. The name Hoffman had burrowed into her little brain and refused to leave.

An account popped up called Easy_There_Garret, but the profile picture was a guy snowboarding and completely covered up in cold weather gear, so she couldn’t tell if it was him. When she poked the account, a slew of pictures popped up, including the snowboarding one, which was dated two years ago. It was the last post.

Raynah scrolled down and stopped on a group of guys at a bar, all holding beers. Two were smiling, one was in the middle of talking to the camera-person, and the one on the very right was slightly familiar. The bar was dark, so the lighting of the picture was rough, but the eye shape and hair color looked like Garret’s. He wasn’t smiling at all, and was clean-shaven. He wore a T-shirt, and one of his arms was completely tatted up with a full sleeve of ink. He was tan, as if he’d spent a lot oftime outside. She squinted and tried to put his face and leaner physique with the Garret she’d talked to, but couldn’t quite do it.

She scrolled down, and there were more snowboarding pictures with what looked like a big group of friends. She stopped on a picture of the man with a little bit of facial scruff, sitting in front of a fireplace, his arm thrown over a pretty blonde’s shoulders. That smile. She knew that smile. She’d seen it in Murdoch’s today while he’d been talking to her. This was him, but his eyes were darker, more of a stormy blue than the glowing teal of his animal.

This was him, but the photo was taken when he’d been human. She would bet her boots on it.

Hey.A text came through from an unknown number, and she felt completely busted. Raynah yelped and dropped the phone. “Fuuudgey scrotum,” she muttered under her breath, trying to practice not cussing for when the baby arrived. Good grief, she couldn’t even bend at the waist to retrieve the dang phone from her hardwood floor.

She picked it up after some graceless scrambling, and sat back in the chair once more to open the text thread.

This is Garret.

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! He must’ve seen her scrolling his page, and it linked their phones or something technologically-advanced like that!

I hope you don’t mind me texting. I got your number off the baby shower invitation.

“Ooooh,” she said aloud in a shaky voice. She had listed her number for RSVPs. Maybe he hadn’t figured out she was scrolling his page.

Is this you?he messaged. A picture came through, and her heart leapt into her throat as she scanned the screenshot of her page and the atrocious first ill-angled picture of her round rump that Cash had posted.

Might as well own it. She screenshotted his page and sent it to him.Maybe.Is this you?Send.

Ha. It was, once upon a time. I don’t recognize that dude these days.

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