Boarlander Boss Bear (Boarlander Bears #1)(18)

“Oh.” Well that was different from what she’d thought.

“Listen to my voice. You’ll be able to tell if someone is being dishonest if you really hear them. They’ll sound off, false, if they are lying. Shifter lesson for the day,” he said with a wink.

Huh. She’d suspected she could kind of tell, but hadn’t been one hundred percent sure. She would have to practice lie detection. Audrey straightened the hem of her black cotton cover-up, which today, doubled as a dress that rested halfway up her thighs. “Four.” She gave him a half smile because that’s all she could muster when talking about women he’d been with. She wanted to claw every one of their faces off. “I’m number four.”

“Wrong, kitty. You aren’t a number, and I don’t ever want you sayin’ it like that again.” He squeezed her hand. “You’re different.”

The fast food Thai place was hopping, but considering the small size of the town, this very well might’ve been the event of the season. Audrey thought Harrison might be more withdrawn out in public because of his reputation with the town and his crew and all, but after parking, he stood in line with her and didn’t withhold an ounce of affection. He brushed her back and rubbed little circles between her shoulder blades. He held her hand, and twice he leaned over and kissed her on the temple.

“You’re a teddy bear,” she accused.

“Ha!” Harrison laughed as he held the glass door open and let her pass under his arm. “No one has ever accused me of that before. Distant, quiet, moody, sure.” The smile dipped from his lips as he stared thoughtfully at her. “I don’t know what it is, but you’re easy to be around. You make me…” Harrison lifted his shoulder in a shrug. “You know.”

Her cheeks were flushing with heat again, but not from embarrassment this time. “Say it,” she said, poking him in the ribs.

Harrison lifted her hand and bit her wrist gently, then shook his head and looked up at the giant menu behind the counter.

“Distant, quiet, moody,” she repeated.

“Stop. It’s just different with you. Easier. I don’t have to hide, or be gentle, and you’ve gone through something hard. So did I. It feels nice not to feel like the only one.” He cast her a quick glance and then muttered too low for any of the surrounding humans to hear, “You make me happy.”

“I knew it.” She clapped once and tried and failed to contain her gloating smile. “I knew it!”

“Okay, all right, what do you want to eat?” he muttered.

“Red Curry, and I want it spicy. Like, level three spicy. And crab rolls. And soup,” she mumbled scouring the menu. “I’m hungry.”

When she looked up at Harrison, he was grinning at her like she was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. Audrey bumped his shoulder and bathed in how happy she was when his warmth seeped through the sleeve of her cover-up. Her black glittery flip-flops clacked as they approached the counter, and after Harrison ordered their food, they made their way to one of the tables on the back patio. It was warm and pretty outside, and the umbrella over the table blocked the direct sunlight. Harrison sat across from her and squeezed his ankles around hers as he dug in.

“I needed today,” he said between bites. “I’ve been going so long where I didn’t have a good day, and this feels like a recharge.”

“Is it hard being an alpha?”

He inhaled deeply and took a long drink of his ice water. “It shouldn’t be this hard. I used to be good at this, but lately it feels like I let my entire crew down. I’m not hitting the numbers Damon wants, and because of that, we’re slowing down the new jobsites. Half of my crew left, and the ones I have left are at each other’s throats. And you were right when you said our trailer park looks like a shithole.”

“But you’re strong. You’ll fix your crew.”

He smiled but his eyes still stayed hollow. “I don’t care how strong you are. If you go through the suck long enough, it’ll take its toll. It’s been nice spending a day away from the drama at the park.”

Audrey gulped a spoonful of soup. “What does Missionary Impossible mean?”

Harrison dropped his head and chuckled. “Bash wrote that on the sign when I turned down his request to let women in the park for the tenth time. Missionary position? He was pissed at me and Clinton, so he spray-painted the sign out of revenge. I’m gonna make his ass climb back up there and scrub it off.”

“You should. And you should lift the ‘no girls allowed’ rule because I want to visit your park again.” She grinned brightly and shoveled another bite of soup into her maw.

“Oh yeah?” His eyes narrowed. He rested his elbows on the table and clasped his hands in front of his mouth. “What else do you think I should do?”

“Call Clinton out on his shit, fix up your park however you want to, move those new shifters in, and start hitting those numbers like the badass Boss Bear you are. I mean, look at you. You’re built like a freaking freight train, are covered in scars that somehow didn’t kill you, and plus, on the internet, I saw a picture of you fighting Kong at some backwoods brawl house. I saw you go to battle with Clinton the other day. It was thirty seconds of beast mode, and then he was limp on the ground. And his bear is huge. You could fix anything.”