Page 77 of Prayers for the Prickly

Yup.

Should have known perfect would be fleeting, every good thing was.

Chapter 30

August

“Janie and Brendon are heading to The Fisherman’s Catch, and I’d really like for us to go with them,” I declared the moment my mate stepped out of the locker room after the game.

“Hello to you, too,” he replied as he wrapped an arm around me and brushed a sweet kiss over my lips.

“I said hello to you first thing this morning,” I reminded him as he draped his arm over my shoulder for the walk outside. “Now I’d like an answer to my question.”

“We can absolutely join Brendon and Janie at The Fisherman’s Catch,” he replied. “I just worked up one hell of an appetite. I think we should get some to take home with us, too. Something tells me I’m not going to want to do anything else tonight after I lie down.”

Walking that way should have made waddling harder, but the fact that he kept me tucked close and shortened his strides actually helped.

You didn’t overdo it, did you?

Nope. I feel amazing. Thank you for pushing me to do it. I was going to say encouraging but it took way more than that for you to get me here. I appreciate your persistence, my Persistent Prickly.

I waited to feel the usual rage that hit whenever anyone made a prickly comment in relation to my hedgehog exterior, the nickname Prickles having been ruined for me by an earlier crush, onlyPersistent Pricklydidn’t prompt me to want to take a bite out of his jeans. I’d seen the damned drawings he’d made after that conversation and laughed until I’d had to hurry into the bathroom to pee when one of the whelplets danced on my bladder.

Shit, shit, please don’t bite my ass in front of Brendon, he’d never let me live it down.

Giggling, I turned to look at him when he held the door open for me. “Don’t I know it after the stories Janie told me.”

“Wait, what? Hey, you weren’t supposed to tell him I told you about the great penalty box caper!”

“I didn’t tell him that part!” I replied, giggling more when Janie’s cheeks turned red when he realized he’d just outed himself.

“Oh hell, you had to tell him about that?” Gregor said, as Brendon stood there looking sheepish while shaking his head at his mate.

“Seriously, Janie, you couldn’t wait a few weeks before sharing that one?”

“Oops?” Janie replied, lifting a shoulder in a half-shrug.

“Yeah, right, sure, oops, I’m gonna oops you later.”

“Eep.”

When Brendon made a move to either grab or tickle him, Janie scurried around to the passenger’s side and jumped in.

“I’ll deal with you later,” Brendon grumbled, pointing a finger at the glass.

“We’ll see you over there,” Gregor said as he got comfortable and turned the air conditioner on full blast once he started the engine.

With Soundgarden on the radio, we drove to the boardwalk, which was crowded as hell, which meant parking was going to suck and I might have to do some waddling before I got to the yummy seafood.

“Hey, are you pulling out?” Gregor asked, having rolled down the window to speak to someone in a leather jacket much like his.

“Yeah.”

“Give me a minute to pull around.”

“No problem.”

And just like that, my little walking dilemma was solved. We had a spot two doors down from The Fisherman’s Catch, a distance I had no problem waddling. Not when seafood was involved.

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