Hare Today, Bear Tomorrow (Mating Call Dating Agency #1)(14)
She remembered the phone in her pocket and plucked it out as the protesting crowd began to surge at the other end of the alley and hyenas in police uniforms surrounded them.
“Hey, just seeing if we were still on for dinner,” the text read. Garnet’s heart sunk into her boots. “Really looking forward to it.”
She sighed, heavily. Of all the damn luck, all this had to happen right now. “Only if you’re interested in coming to Ohio. I got a surprise assignment.”
A few moments later, he responded. “Cleveland? I’ve always wanted to see Cleveland. Big Drew Carey fan.”
Garnet snorted a laugh, thankful that people were much more interested in the conflict than in her embarrassing nerd laugh. “No, Sun’s Hollow, shifter tourist trap. I’m still waiting on my hotel info, but I hope it has a good bath tub. It probably won’t, hotels never do.”
Shaking her head, she was just about to put the phone back in her phone when it buzzed again. “I like showers better anyway. Be there by dinner. Pick a place.”
With her heart pounding in her chest, Garnet considered asking him if he was serious, but decided that she couldn’t take the shock if he sent back a j/k, so she just sent back a smiley face. He tried to respond with another emoticon, but the one he picked looked like Grimace from McDonalds, with a pound sign in the middle of its face.
She laughed, unabashedly happy in the middle of a protest.
I’m happy, she realized with a little bit of a shock. Like actually happy. How long had it been? Not happy like getting a good piece of pie, or having that first perfect Honeycrisp apple of the season. Happy like being at home at Christmas, or having someone give you a hug when it was the one thing you needed most in the world. The sort of happiness that didn’t come with money or new iGadgets. The sort of happiness that was real and true and pure.
I’m a moron, she thought with a self-deprecating laugh. I had a blind date with this guy last night and I’ve decided he’s the one for me, that we’re destined somehow to be together. Then again, shifters ARE kind of given to think things like this... and more often than not, they’re right.
The protest had advanced further down the street and she knew she had to follow. Past that, Garnet knew she had to get her damn head together if she was going to write anything like a good story. The worst part of it all was that she was having a hell of a time caring about how the story turned out. All she could think was, “Stacy,” she said out loud, with a slightly embarrassing sigh that reminded her of the breathless heroine of a rom-com. She shook her head and smiled despite herself. I am a ridiculous teenaged baby.
She laughed again, just thinking about his warmth, and the way he laughed that filled her with happiness. And then she thought about the fact that the building she was holed up under had apparently begun to rain mortar onto the top of her head.
“Uh... what’s with this?” she looked up, and as she did, she instinctively opened her mouth. A heaping helping of dust and grit square in the kisser was the last convincing that Garnet needed to get the hell out of there. She darted out of the alcove, dodging a falling brick. And before she went another step hopped back in, grabbed her notepad and pen, and bolted again.
Back out on the street, she looked up, shielding her eyes from the sun with an outstretched hand, and watched a bunch of guys with jackhammers working on the building.
“You gotta get outta here! Construction zone, honey!” An older guy with a big potbelly, a walrus mustache, and a low-riding tool belt grabbed at her. Instinctually she pulled back, but he caught her. “This building’s comin’ down! You gotta get out of here. Damn protesters keep tearin’ down our barricades!”
She shook her head, trying to make sense of what was going on. “Building falling?” she gasped.
“Yeah! Move!”
Garnet darted out of the entryway with a substantial amount of urging from her hard-hatted friend. When they were safely to the side of the billowing dust, he pushed her into the front door of a closed coffee shop and she instinctively reached for her press pass.
“Don’t worry,” she announced, a little like Superman. “I’m with the news.”
He scrunched his nose, plucked a pair of reading glasses off of the cord around his neck and took a look. “Why’re you showin’ me that?”
For a second, Garnet cocked her head to the side and thought. “Well,” she stammered, “I’m not really sure. Guess it’s just kind of what I do when I think I’m in trouble.”
“Trouble? I just wondered how the hell you got into a construction zone without knowing you’d got into one. These damn protesters must’ve torn down the signs. And the barricades. And every damn thing else. I wish they’d just shut up.”
Like a tingling in the back of her head, Garnet felt her journalist sense flicker to life. “What are they protesting, anyway? Oh and what’s your name? And do you mind if this is on the record?”
The gruff, bearded foreman groaned and scratched at the ample whiskers bunched up with a ponytail holder on his chin. “Hell, little girl, I don’t...”
“Please?”
He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I can’t say no to a pretty lady, I guess. I’m also an idiot, I guess.”
“Why?”
“Because,” he looked at her in a way that said she should have picked up on some kind of hint. “I’m piddling around with a reporter because I can’t say no to pretty girls? And I should be working, and I’m probably going to say something I regret?”