Page 109 of Pack Scratch Fever
Alvin yowls and rushes toward me, while Chet gives me a grim smile.
“Good to see you, Piper,” he says, while Blair shoots me a worried look. “I was just on the phone with Blair.” He pulls a piece of paper from the manila folder and hands it to me. “The building has been sold. The new owner has requested a rent increase.”
I stare at the number on the paper in disbelief.
Blair looks like she’s about to cry, and Alvin flops around at my feet, oblivious to what is happening.
“I’m sorry.” Chet says. “I did what I could with them. I tried to negotiate.”
I believe him. Chet is a cat person himself, and he’s always been supportive of our cause. But at the end of the day, he’s still a property manager with a job to do.
That’s when I catch the signature at the bottom of the document.
The signature of the lawyer responsible for the sale.
Poe Carlsen.
21
POE
I stareat my text message that I sent two hours ago.
What time should we arrive?
Piper hasn’t responded, and I’m tempted to drive to the rescue to make sure everything’s alright.
“She’sbusy, Poe,” Maddox says, finishing buttoning up his black dress shirt. “Stop being weird about this and staring at your phone. You’re allowed to have fun,idiot.”
“Quit trying to find something to worry about,” Avery adds gently from the kitchen. “We’re going to have a good time, and she can see that you’re capable of having fun.”
“Yeah, she needs to know that you’re not married to your work,” Maddox adds, checking himself out in the mirror.
Maddox decided that he was going to help me get ready, because he knows I have no business in a trendy bar. We settled on a deep grey button-up shirt and dark jeans for me.
I’m almost forty years old. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, but if Piper wants to go out, then we’re going out.
Besides, Avery and Maddox have a point.
I’ve connected with Piper in more ways than one, but most of it was during her Heat.
I need her to see that I’m not some workaholic who won’t make time for my scent match.
I’m fascinated by her, and it kills me that she doesn’t see herself clearly.
She thinks she’s not valuable unless she’s throwing herself into what she does, and I feel the same.
But around her, the voice in my head that insists that I could be better goes quiet.
I’ve been fuckingdyingto see her.
I wish she had taken up my offer to stay with us, but I knew she would say no.
She’s still guarded, but I’m willing to chip away at her defenses until she realizes exactly what we are.
Mates.
I intend to make her see that starting tonight.
