Page 2 of Cold Foot Croc

He’d been going through it with the headaches and hadn’t wanted to think about that night much, but now, seeing Raynah in the daylight, his curiosity was definitely piqued.

Why wasn’t her man here with her? She was about to pop. He should be shopping for her, or at least be here, making sure she didn’t need help with anything.

Another growl worked its way up his throat as Garret got out of the truck and shut the door behind himself.

She better have a good dude. He wasn’t with her when the Komodo dragon had attacked them, either. It had to be one ofthe big brawlers from the Cold Foot Crew. He’d kind of met them in the chaos, but there was trauma around that night. That night was about trying to save lives, and an emergency Turn of Sasha, who would now be a polar bear shifter. He wondered how she was doing with the new animal inside of her.

Was she as fucked up as he was?

If Garret had a pregnant woman, he would be on her like glue this close to having that baby.

She wouldn’t have to lift a finger.

A wave of anger roiled through him at her man, but this was his new normal. He was pissed off most of the time.

God, he missed his old self.

A truck stopped and waited for him to cross the parking lot. He threw up a hand in a polite wave and jogged across. The asphalt was covered in a layer of snow and ice that hadn’t yet been cleared and salted, probably because of the atrocious early-morning hour. His boots had good traction though, so he only slipped a little.

Just past the sliding entry doors, he scanned the store, but didn’t see Raynah. He cast a glance at the carts, but he just needed a few small things, so he passed them by.

His phone vibrated in his back pocket, but it would just be his brother, Dylan, checking in. He would call him back after he left here.

Garret scanned a few aisles, and then spotted her in the clothing section. He skidded to a stop. She was facing him, but her attention was on the rack of kid’s clothes. She was flipping through little baby Carhartt jackets. She picked up a tan one and studied it. Her bright-green eyes glanced to him, and then instantly back to the jacket.

He felt busted, so he linked his hands behind his head and paced away, then back, picked up a pair of socks from an endcapand pretended to be checking the thickness of the wool. He owned like eight hundred pairs of socks. He wasn’t buying these.

He cast his attention to her with a subtle side-eyed look, but she had moved on to a shelf of shoes. She was looking at tiny boots.

Garret moved down the row of socks to get a better view of her. She didn’t recognize him, clearly. Maybe it was his beanie. Had he been wearing one the night he’d met her? He couldn’t remember.

Gah, reaching for those memories made the headache worse.

He shook his head hard, then put the socks back. When he turned, Raynah was standing three inches away from him.

“Shhhit!” he yelped, backing into the rack of socks.

She narrowed her bright, glowing-green eyes. “Are you following me?”

“No. No, absolutely not. Wait. Maybe? I was here already when I saw you. I think we are just here at the same time. Coincidence.”

“I know you, don’t I?” she asked, backing off by a foot. The suspicion left her eyes, and they softened with recognition. “You’re Sasha’s neighbor. You’re the grizzly.”

He cleared his throat and shoved his hands into his pockets. He deepened his voice and told her, “I was in the truck you waved to outside.”

She scrunched up her face. “Then you also witnessed my middle finger.”

He snorted. “I’d just gotten into it with that lady and her honking, so I appreciated that middle finger very much.”

She giggled. “You smell like fur and cologne.”

Garret pursed his lips and wished everything was different. “Not that long ago, it was just cologne. The fur part…well, I’m still adjusting.”

She nodded, staring at him. He wished he knew what she was thinking. Sometimes he blurted out stuff before he could stop himself, so he asked, “What are you thinking?”

A slight frown knitted her light-brown eyebrows and she parted her lips to respond, but nothing came out. She swallowed hard and then tried again. “Why did you ask that?”

Garret shrugged. “Your face is animated. Your eyes say a lot, but I don’t know you yet. I don’t know how to read them.”

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