Page 83 of Stripped

I'd also been doing yoga from Zane's videos. I was calling it market research. How could I really know what would increase the popularity of the videos, unless I tried them myself? If I got unduly excited when I noticed he'd applied one of my ideas, I reminded myself Julie had passed it on to him like it was her idea. I wondered what he'd thought of my idea to talk to the viewers about being a werewolf and what it meant to him as a practitioner of yoga? I wondered if he'd balked or if he'd loved the idea. I couldn't tell from the way he spoke on the videos.

I was still living with Gage, and he didn't seem to be in any hurry for me to move out. With our opposite schedules we rarely saw each other anyway and I hadn't put much effort into finding my own place. I'd been spending all my free time working on ways to improve the pack's income and digging up dirt on council members. Julie had given me the number for an elderly man with council connections and he'd been a goldmine of knowledge. I hadn't passed anything on to Julie, yet. I wanted to organize the information and get as much as I could before I let her in on the plan.

“Working on your day off?” Gage asked.

He walked into the apartment and kicked off his shoes. It was after seven in the morning on a Saturday and he was just getting home. “It's not for my job here,” I said. “It's just something for a friend.”

He grinned. “You've been spending a lot of time on that project. Must be a pretty special friend.”

“I enjoy the work.” A statement which may have been an understatement. I liked this work better than what I was actually getting paid to do in my day job. It was more interesting and much more challenging.

“Uh-huh,” he said. “I've barely seen you. Want to go to Brenna's for breakfast? My treat?”

“Only if it's my treat. You don't charge me enough rent.”

He rolled his eyes. “You don't even have a room. I wouldn't be charging you rent at all if you hadn't insisted on it.”

I ignored him. “I'll be ready to go in five minutes. I just want to finish this up.”

“Sure,” he said. “I could probably use a shower.”

He headed back to the bathroom and I finished up the report I was working on for Julie and emailed it to her. I'd tried a couple more times to get information from her about Zane, but she'd refused to tell me anything. It was supposed to be getting easier, but the day before, I'd picked up my phone on each of my breaks at work and opened Zane's contact information, my finger hovering over his number, before I'd stopped myself. I couldn't call him, this needed to be a clean break.

Besides, it's not like he'd called me. Beyond a few texts making sure I'd gotten to Denver okay and that I had a place to stay, I'd heard nothing from him. He hadn't even called to tell me off for disappearing on him when he was injured. I wished he'd called me out on that. I could have used that closure.

But maybe he wasn't pissed, maybe he'd been relieved to wake up and find me gone. Maybe he'd come to see that I was right about us being too different.

I picked up my phone and dialed his number on autopilot. I should have hung up, but I listened to the phone ring and then I listened to his voice speak one word, his name, before I was instructed to leave a voice mail.

I hung up. I shouldn't have called. I needed closure, but maybe he was already past it. He could very well be dating someone else.

“Ready to go?” Gage asked. He emerged from his room, dressed in his uniform of jeans, a t-shirt, and motorcycle boots.

“Sure.”

Together we walked two blocks to a hole-in-the-wall diner that had the best omelets I'd ever tasted. Definitely something I wouldn't get in Mule Creek.

Luckily, we were early enough to beat the breakfast rush and managed to get our favorite booth near a window with a view of the street and plenty of people-watching opportunities.

“You're not happy,” Gage said as soon as we'd placed our orders.

“I'm fine. It's an adjustment, of course. A big change from Aspens Whiten, but I'm fine.”

He shook his head. “You and I were just alike once, both of us feeling trapped in a small town and dreaming of something better. When I got to Denver, it was like I could breathe freely for the first time in my life. You showed up looking like you'd arrived at a funeral.”

I sighed. “I broke up with someone when I left town. I was missing him a bit, that's all. I'm over it.”

He narrowed his eyes and studied me. “I think it's more than that, Abs. I've been harassing you for years to come here. I offered you a spot on my couch, told you I'd help you find work. There was no reason to stay in Aspens Whiten, but you did. You had a different excuse for every day of the week.”

“I owned the club. I had responsibilities. I needed to make sure everyone would be okay if the place shut down.”

He pointed a finger at me and beamed. “That's it exactly. That's why we're so different.”

The waitress brought our food and set it on the table. “Can I get you anything else?” she asked, eyes on Gage.

“No thanks,” he said, without even glancing her way. Gage was devastatingly good-looking but he was cynical when it came to women. So cynical that he'd been accused of being gay more than once. He was the opposite of the stereotype of the strip club owner sleeping with his staff. He was more a father figure than a potential boyfriend and that's the way he liked it. He satisfied his physical needs when necessary with women who didn't work for him, but he never ventured anywhere near a relationship. Not even of the friendship variety.

“Why are we so different?” I asked.

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