Page 76 of The Mating Game
It strikes me how good they look together, but it also makes me more painfully aware of the fact that I’m a third wheel here, since my brothers immediately disappeared into the crowd.
I lean forward on my elbows right as Jarred is waving over a waitress. “So how long have you been dating?”
“Almost…eight years now?” Cat looks over at Jarred slyly. “Took him awhile to notice me.”
“Probably couldn’t see your short ass until then,” Jarred quips just before she elbows him in the side.
“I had the biggest crush on him in high school,” Cat barrels on. “But then again, everyone did. He and Hunter sort of had a monopoly on dates back then.”
“Wait, Hunter?” I have a hard time keeping the shock from my voice. “Hunterhad a monopoly on dates?”
“Right?” Cat laughs easily. “I know it’s hard to imagine now since he’s constantly playing the quiet game with himself, but he used to be sort of a flirt back in the day.” She makes a face at her boyfriend. “Not as much asthisone, mind you.”
Jarred rolls his eyes. “I didn’t datethatmuch.”
“Do you know how many girls I had to watch you and Hunter bring through the movie theater? My poor little teenage heart was just wishing you’d look my way when you bought your popcorn.”
Cat sighs heavily, and Jarred simply shakes his head, smiling. “Did she tell you she was head of the drama club back in school?”
“Whatever.” Cat shrugs. “Anyway, so I’d been working at the store since I graduated when Jarred came back to town from college, and he came in looking for a sweater—he wanted thishorribleargyle number I’d ordered completely by mistake—and I managed to talk him into a different pullover instead.” She looks smug then. “He wastotallystaring at my chest the entire time. Practically begged me for my number.”
Jarred makes a face. “I wasn’t staring at your chest thewholetime.”
“Needless to say,” Cat continues, ignoring him, “teenage Cat was fist-pumping.”
“Okay, but opening a boutique practically right out of high school and keeping it up and running this long is pretty impressive,” I note, changing the subject.
Cat waves me off. “It was my mom’s store before I took over. I can’t take all the credit.”
“Bullshit,” Jarred scoffs. “That place was going under when youtook over.” He gives me a pointed look. “She brought that store out of the red in, like, the first year.”
“That’s amazing,” I say, genuinely impressed.
Cat tries to look modest, biting back a grin as she shrugs. “I like clothes.”
Jarred leans in to press a kiss to her hairline, and even despite their teasing and pseudo bickering, it’s obvious how much they love each other. It’s enough to make anyone a little jealous. I know—because Cat told me—that they’re a human beta couple, and I can’t help but think back to a time when my life was as simple as that. When I wasn’t constantly searching the air for notes of sunshine and rain and going through fits of need that feel like they could consume me from the inside out. Not to mention the days when Ididn’tturn into a wolf at will.
I wait for the moment to pass before asking Jarred the staple conversation starter. “So, what do you do?”
“I manage my dad’s car lot,” he tells me. “It’s not a giant cabin in Wyoming, but it pays the bills.”
“Hopefully it pays the bills to build our own giant cabin,” Cat mumbles.
Jarred laughs, shaking his head at her before he gives me his attention again. “My grandpa built the lot back in the seventies when this place was still dirt roads and wooden buildings. My dad took over when he retired, and I guess I just never thought of doing anything else. Went and got my business degree to try to bring the place into the twenty-first century, you know?”
“I hear that,” I say with a smile. “I actually did the same thing.”
“Really?” Cat asks. “I knew you’d been doing it for a long time, but…”
I nod back at her. “My dad had a stroke the summer before Iwent to college. It was clear pretty quickly he wouldn’t be able to return to work. He was so bummed out about the business. My brothers are great at what they do but never had any interest in running the place—well, maybe Kyle, but he’s never really been the boss type. His words, not mine.”
“That’s so badass though,” Cat says. She swivels her head. “Where are your brothers, anyway?”
“Probably talking to anything with tits and legs, if I had to guess,” I snort. “They’re kind of predictable that way.”
An older woman interrupts us at the table before I can add anything else, taking our drink orders and jotting them down on a little pad before making her way back to the bar.
“So,” Jarred asks after the waitress leaves. “How’s my buddy the hermit? Is he coming out of his cave?”
