Page 66 of Where There's Smoke
“It wasn’t terrible,” I said playfully, scrunching my nose up as I kept my arms wrapped firmly around him. “Your new washing machine is now installed.”
“Perfect. That means I didn't have to do anything. Sometimes being in a pack is really useful.”
Next to him, Samson snorted. “Dude, even if youarearound, we don't let you install heavy machinery after the debacle with the dishwasher.”
“Wha—” I started to say, but from behind me, Elliot started pushing me toward the restaurant.
“We can tell her all about your antics inside after she's ordered food. I can smell how hungry she is.”
“Ooo, yes! Feed me!” I said, grabbing Samson’s hand and dragging him toward the entrance.
It was an impulsive decision to grab his hand, and when I realized halfway to the door, I went to let go, but he tightened his grip, smiling down at me.
An emotion I could only describe as giddy glee filled me at the prospect of holding hands with the alpha. We were actually coming together in a way we hadn’t quite achieved yet. All three of us finding each other in casual fun. It was…really damn nice.
Ideally, I would have liked to hold hands with all my alphas at the same time, but there were more alphas than I had hands, so…
The server was a young alpha, probably no older than twenty. When we walked in, he stared at us, open-mouthed for a moment, probably surprised to see so many large alphas in the small restaurant. I swore they practically reached the ceiling.
“Hello, welcome. Table for four?”
The young man’s voice squeaked for a moment, his stare set on me for a hair longer than usual before he snapped it back to the pack lead, who was rumbling a low growl. Elliot’s scent was tinged with that “off” quality, and when I placed it, I realized that all the guys were that way.
Did I miss something? What was going on?
“Yes, please.” While Elliot’s words were polite enough, his tone was all dark and grumpy again. His mood seemed to have flicked like a light switch, and even Fitz was kind of scowling at the host as he grabbed four menus and gestured toward the main restaurant.
We were led back quickly, the young alpha’s eyes primarily focused on the floor. I shuffled into the booth when Elliot gestured, and he followed in after me, Sam and Fitz sitting onthe other side. Then, as soon as the guy was gone, it was like nothing had happened, and I was surrounded by smiles again.
What the hell? Why were they all so?—
“What do you want to eat?” Elliot asked, and I looked down to glance over the menu.
“I don’t know,” I said, looking over the options and deciding to just ignore the previous weirdness. “It all looks so good.”
“The burgers here are the best,” Fitz said as he grabbed a menu and pulled it over to his side of the booth.
I nodded. “In that case, I’ll have the barbecue burger and fries,” I said, nodding as I spoke. “And a coke!”
“Cherry Coke?” Fitz asked, a twinkle in his eyes.
“Naturally.” I giggled. Was I really that obvious? Or were all these alphas paying such close attention to me that they knew my favorite soda?
Once we had all ordered our food, from a different server for some reason, I turned to the guys. As much as I wanted to just eat and enjoy our dinner together, that had been too weird, and there was no way I was dropping it now.
“Okay, someone's got to tell me what happened with the dishwasher—and the server.”
Elliot shook his head. “To make a long story short, I came home one day to find the entire place flooded, Fitz wearing a giant bunny-themed onesie, half-drowning as he tried to fix the situation, only to make it a million times worse.”
“In my defense, no one warned me that I had to turn off the water mains before hooking up a dishwasher. I knew I had to do it if I was working on the washing machine, but I didn't think the dishwasher needed it!” he said, incredibly earnestly.
I bit back a laugh, covering my mouth with my hand and picturing Fitz in a onesie.
“We explained to him that if it has the wordwashin the appliance name, then it’s probably attached to water mains. Butother than that, we have banned him from doing any sort of work with appliances unless one of us is there to supervise,” Samson said with a grin.
“Okay, giggle all you want”—I definitely was now—“but I was making an effort. You forget I was raised in a house where I never had to lift a finger for myself. So it's the thought that counts. Also, I was only wearing that onesie because I wanted to take Easter photos!”
“We had to replace all of the kitchen flooring,” Elliot pointed out as I laughed.
