Page 33 of Knot That Serious

Beckett grimaced. “Sorry,” he said again, clearing his throat.

“Anyways,” Jack interjected, panicked that this was falling apart so quickly.

“Well, I don’t want to strain it, so you’ll hardly know I was here,” Beckett offered with a friendly smile.

“Like I hardly knew you were there this morning?” Eli asked.

Jack lifted his gaze from the table to Beckett, whose cheeks flushed pink.

“Enjoying the coffee?” Jack asked Eli, hiding his grin in the lip of his water glass.

“It’s not the worst interruption to my day,” Eli said, arching a brow.

“What a high honor,” Beckett drawled.

Eli passed him the rice, and Jack shrugged as he spooned his portion out. “I’m surprised you’re actually sticking to it,” Jack said. “Kind of thought you might be bluffing, to be honest.”

Jack felt Eli’s gaze bouncing from alpha to alpha, and was oddly tense under her attention.

“Well, he wasn’t,” she told him. “He even saved me from this awful customer the other day.”

Beckett nodded. “She was terrible. I’m so sorry.”

“Not your fault,” Eli said, fingers wiggling in indecision as she hovered over the three curries. “You won’t believe it, Jack–she wanted me to hop in the kitchen and whip up something sugar-free, like, right then.”

Jack cringed, mouth dropping open in disbelief. “Didn’t you have other customers?”

“Yes!” she cried, finally making a decision. Jack reached for one of the two she didn’t choose and served himself while Beckett did the same. “Apparently she works with Beckett, and so when he showed up…”

Beckett took the opening and said, “All I had to do was start talking about the cotton blend of my suit, and she decided she didn’t need sugar-free after all.”

Eli snorted and muttered, “She was not interested in your pretty suit.”

Beckett tilted his head, sat up a little straighter, and leaned his elbows on the table, hands crossing under his chin. “You think it’s pretty, though?”

Jack paused. Were they flirting?

Instead of jealousy at the realization, it only felt right. He was strangely pleased to see them getting along so well.

His stomach dropped.

What did that mean?

“Sorry about earlier,” Beckett said softly.

Jack stilled, frozen with his shirt halfway over his head. It joined the pile on the floor and Jack twisted to see Beckett better, seated on the edge of his bed.

“About the heat thing. I just assumed…”

Jack swallowed, Eli’s wide-eyed expression flashing through his mind.

“It’s okay. We’re close, but we’ve never—”

“Seriously? Never?” Beckett asked, so enthusiastically Jack was a little embarrassed.

“Nope,” he confirmed, scratching a hand through his hair.

“So you’re really not going to help her with her heat?” Beckett asked.

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