Page 3 of Cold Foot Croc

Raynah backed off a few more steps and studied him.

Garret gestured to the little jacket in her hands. “Boy or girl?”

She looked confused for a moment before she looked down at the little jacket. “Oh, um, I’m not buying this. I’m just shopping around.”

“It’s cute. You should get it. A little baby in a grown-up jacket would be fuckin’ adorable.”

“Oh, it’s…” She lifted it up and said as she walked back to the rack to put it back, “I already have one for him.”

But it was a lie. He could tell from her tone.

“Listen, I’m sorry for cussing,” he said, following her. “I’m used to being around sailor-mouthed dudes.”

“For your job?”

“Yeah.”

“Your job as a serial killer?” she quipped.

Confused, he stopped walking. “Huh?”

“You know,” she said, putting the jacket back on the rack. “The serial killer with all the chainsaws.”

She was talking about a joke she and Sasha had made the night he’d met her, when she’d seen him working on his chainsaws in his driveway. “Oh. Ha. I don’t…” Garret winced at the pain behind his eyes. “I don’t think about that night much.”

“I’m guessing because of the headaches?”

“Yeah,” he said somberly. “How do you know about that?”

“You aren’t the first person Wreck has saved. Everyone is destroyed for a while after they get all ate up by his green flames,” she said, making her way out of the kid’s section. “Some say it’s worse than his red ones.”

“Oh,” he murmured as he watched her leave. He didn’t want to feel Wreck’s red flames either. Not ever. Maybe he should talk to Dylan about moving away from Darby.

“You can follow me now,” she said, turning with a soft smile on her full lips.

“Okay.” He had been a lot smoother with people when he was a human. Now he was out of practice.

Garret followed her into the women’s clothing section and watched her glance at items and touch fabrics.

He really wanted to ask her where her man was, but before he could blurt it out, she said, “I’m having a boy.”

“Yeah? There was a pecker on the ultrasound?”

She let off a tinkling laugh that filled his chest, and he froze behind a rack, watching the curve of her lips as she made the pretty sound.

“No ultrasound yet. My friend works at the hospital and offered to help me get one, but I just haven’t really wanted it. I already know what I’m having. His dad…well, I heard they only make boys.”

He had to swallow down a growl that made no damn sense in the world. She was being nice and having a normal conversation with him. Why was his bear riled up?

“Are you excited?” he asked. A sad, answering smile took her lips, and he didn’t understand, so he asked, “Why did your smile change when I asked you that?”

Locking those pretty green eyes on him, she said, “You’re strange. You just say whatever you want, don’t you?”

It wasn’t the first time someone had noticed. He nodded as heat crept up his neck. “I think this one would look nice onyou,” he said fast, lifting up a fitted sweater dress with a chevron pattern on it. “It’ll hug your belly good.”

She laughed and looked down at her swell. “I’m at the looking-like-a-potato-sack stage.”

“Only if you dress like a potato sack, which you don’t. I saw your curves from the parking lot. You have good curves.” This wasn’t appropriate. The child had a father. Raynah had a man. He didn’t need to be talking to her like this. Complimenting her like this was disrespectful. “I’ve got to go.”

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