Page 32 of Silver
“Charlie Brown, you absolutely have to introduce me.”
My adorable mate sighed. “Mia, this is Silver,” Charlie said, then looked up at me. “Silver, this is Mia. She works with me.”
“Hi,” Mia said.
“Hello. It’s nice to meet one of Charlie’s coworkers.”
Mia stared at us, seeming to wait for something. I wasn’t sure what, but I really wanted to spend lunch with my mate and not her.
“If you’ll excuse us,” I said. “I really want to spend lunch with my mate. That’s still new for us, so I’m sure you understand.” I tried to pull Charlie around Mia, but she wasn’t budging.
“Mates? Really?”
Charlie groaned. “Not now, Mia. Really. Just let us have lunch together already.”
Mia made a face, then turned and all but stomped off. I looked down at Charlie, wondering what was going on. He sighed and shook his head.
“Mia is nice enough, but she’s a gossip. I’ve only told my supervisor that I’m mated now. She’s human, as you probably could scent, so she didn’t pick up on the fact that I’m mated. Now, everyone in the zoo will know by the end of lunch that I’ve been claimed.”
I winced. “Sorry about that. I didn’t realize.”
“No, don’t be. I’m not upset about them knowing. I just didn’t know how to announce it. The zoo usually gives newly mated or married employees extra time off. Like, if I have a week of vacation, they will double it and give me two.”
“That’s generous.” I started walking again. “Speaking of vacation. We need to talk about you taking some time off. There’s a lot of places we need to go to file paperwork, but the offices close by the time you’re off of work.”
Charlie nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking about that.” He led me to a covered picnic table that was outside the Under the Sea restaurant, which seemed to be quite busy. It smelled wonderful, and I had to question why Charlie had me bring food instead of just getting it here at the lunch window.
I sat and started emptying out the bags. One had six burgers in it; the other had two large fries and two large onion rings. I didn’t know if it was enough food, but I figured if not, Charlie could always get something else here at the zoo since they had a restaurant, and I knew there were several other food carts here and there throughout the zoo.
“How much food did you get?”
“Umm…enough for us. Maybe? Did you need more? I got us each three burgers, a fry, and onion rings. You can have one of my burgers if you want.” I was leaving before him and could certainly grab something else before I headed home.
“No,” Charlie said, laughing. “Silver, I can’t eat all of this. I’m a shifter, but I’m not nearly as big as you are.”
I shrugged. “No big deal. Whatever you don’t eat, I will.” I passed Charlie a pair of burgers, keeping four to myself, and then pulled out the fries. I handed him his onion rings next, then dumped mine together in the bag before tearing the top of it off so I could just eat them out of there.
I caught Charlie staring at me, and I winked.
“Hey, Charlie,” someone called out as they walked by. Charlie looked up, waved, but quickly refocused on his food.
“How long do you have for your break?”
“Hi, Charlie,” someone else said as they walked by. I looked over and saw her smiling at us, and then she rushed off toward the other girl who had said hello.
“Umm…”
“Yeah. So Mia has already spread the word. I knew it wouldn’t take long.” Charlie sighed. “I have an hour for lunch,and if I wasn’t starving because I didn’t get breakfast, I’d say let’s go to the office so I can get you registered for a pass and then beg my supervisor to go home early. But I really am hungry.”
I reached over and touched Charlie on the shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. He looked at me and offered a lopsided smile. “Ignore them. Eat your food, and then we’ll go to the office together. I can growl at them if I need to.”
Charlie snorted just as someone else called out to him. He rolled his eyes but did as I’d suggested: he ignored them and picked up a fry and started eating. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be nearly the enjoyable lunch that I’d envisioned.
Chapter Fourteen
Charlie
I absolutely wasn’t nervous about having dinner with Silver’s brothers. I’d met all of them already, and they had all been so nice to me. No, I was nervous about meeting his parents. Specifically, his mom. I couldn’t even tell you why exactly. Silver had talked about his mom on more than one occasion, and even his brothers had all told me she was nice. She loved all of her boys and wanted them all to be happy. Well, I was hopefully doing that for Silver, so I should be okay, right? So why was I terrified to meet her?
