Page 17 of Knotting Hill
He leans on the counter as Elle giggles. “You name it, I’ll find it.”
“Suppose you’d better start with if she has a fella she’s ready to mate with,” the old man says.
“That’s a start,” I murmur, wishing this wasn’t happening in a quite so public way.
“Done,” Elle says and taps into her phone.
Me and the old man stare at her, waiting.
“Well, give it a minute,” she huffs. “The grapevine takes some time to warm up.”
“But I’m riveted,” the old man complains.
Elle’s phone beeps, causing my heart to skip a beat. I’m so nervous; it’s ridiculous.
“It’s your lucky day. She is single.”
Relief floods over me. If I were feeling all of this for a soon-to-be-mated omega, it would be extremely disappointing.
Elle blinks, searching my eyes before she bites her lip. “I could arrange drinks or something, all of us?”
It feels like my heart has been jumpstarted after the tension. I grab Elle’s upper arms. “Yes!” I practically shout in her face to the delight of the old man. I clear my throat and force myself to calm down a bit. “Yes, please, that would be good of you.”
Elle rolls her eyes and purses her lips as she taps into her phone again. “Now we wait,” she says firmly, turning to the till to ring up the old man’s goods.
“Bummer,” he murmurs. “This was better than ’Enders.”
“Come back later in the week for an update,” I inform him, nervous energy along with the six cups of coffee I’ve had today already bouncing through my veins.
“Oh, I will, son,” he says and picks up his bag of books, giving us a wave as he leaves.
“Smitten,” Elle says dreamily. “Wish I had someone to moon over.”
“You aren’t short of admirers,” I remind her.
“Yeah, but none of them are mooning overme. So why should I moon over them?”
“I’m sure they’re mooning; you just don’t give them a chance.”
“Humph,” she mutters and turns her back on me, but she knows I’m right. I just hope she can pull off this drinks thing soon before Stormdoesget snatched up. There is no way that a pack isn’t sitting in the wings waiting for her to say the word.
I wonder what JP and Russell will think of her. It’s definitely worth finding out in case she turns out to be my one. She kind of has to be theirs too.
But this will come in good time.
First, I need to know her.
Twelve
Storm
Marching down the road,wishing that stupid door had a sign on it telling me which way to push or pull, I try to put as much distance between the shop and me as quickly as possible. Besides, I’ve probably been pretty close to half an hour already, so I need to get back to my desk. I can’t give Angela any reasons to be awkward with me now that I know she is capable of it.
When I see the practice in sight, my phone rings in my bag. I snatch it up and answer, “Hey.”
“You will never guess who just came in here!” Cassidy practically bellows in my ear.
“Who?”
