Page 4 of Seer
He gave me a dirty look, but he allowed me to put the loop over his head.
“Excellent. I’ll run him to the sanctuary tonight. Hopefully he’ll be neutered and ready to mingle with the other wolf hybrids by the end of the week.”
He curled his lip at me, and I grinned.
Silvia hugged him around the neck. “You be a good boy for Greg. You’ll have a happy life.” She kissed him on the head, then, face crumpling, she turned away as I dragged him from the car.
Craig walked around to the driver’s side to talk to her, and I hauled the pain in my ass through the empty lobby.
I shoved him through the office door, then I slammed it behind me. “What the fuck are you doing, Lloyd?”
He shimmered, shifting, then the older man stood upright, lifting his arms over his head to stretch. I cringed and opened my lower desk drawer for my emergency pair of sweatpants.
Lloyd put his hands on his hips. At least he didn’t try to hug me. “You have to introduce me to her. Like this, though.” Hegestured at himself. “The resonance between us was incredible.”
I slapped him in the stomach with the sweatpants. “I’m not introducing you to anyone without pants on. What the hell were you doing by the side of the road? And why here? I thought you were at TWIST.”
The door opened and Craig came inside. He instantly clapped his hand over his eyes. “Hey, Lloyd. Good to see you.” He grimaced. “Maybe not all of you.”
Lloyd huffed. “Fine, fine.” He put the sweatpants on. He was a good-looking guy, in a sort of middle-aged Morgan Freeman way.
Craig gingerly peeked through his fingers until he saw it was safe to lower his hand. “So what brings you here?”
Lloyd dropped into one of the guest chairs. “Destiny,” he said dreamily, looking at the ceiling.
I groaned and sat heavily in my desk chair. “Start at the beginning.”
“Your Uncle Edgar had a vision. He told me I had to walk along that particular road at that particular time. He even dropped me off.”
Oh, fuck. My mom was going to be pissed.
“Where’s Edgar now?”
“He went to Dallas. He was supposed to be there last night, but he said this was more important.” Lloyd rubbed his hands up and down his thighs. He gave me a pleading look, then turned it on Craig. “Y’all have to introduce me to Silvia. We’re meant to be.”
Craig turned to me, his eyebrows high enough to almost touch his blond curls. I sighed and said, “It’s up to you.”
Craig told him, “You’re welcome to come to game night at my house tomorrow night. But no one there, not even my husband Foster, knows about this.” He waved a finger between me and Lloyd.
“And,” I said sternly. “You can’t pressure her. If Silvia’s not interested, you walk away.”
Lloyd put a hand over his heart. “Upon my honor.”
Turned out, Silviawasinterested.
Everyone had taken Lloyd’s presence in stride, accepting that he was a friend of my family in town on business. He’d kissed Silvia’s hand as he greeted her, which I’d thought was over the top. But he’d followed it up by asking about the delicious food he could smell. She’d smiled and even giggled a couple of times as Lloyd had gushed over the food she’d made, rhapsodizing in Spanish how she must have trained under professional chefs to be so talented.
He'd managed to wrangle the seat between me and Silvia, and then he’d spent the evening complimenting her on her skill playingHues and Clues—which, mind you, was suitable for children as young as eight years old—and hopping up to refill Silvia’s plate or get her another beverage.
Right now he was raptly listening to Silvia’s description of her newly remodeled kitchen, praising her for her choices.
For her part, Silvia seemed just as smitten with Lloyd, and the resonance between them was as strong as Lloyd had said it was.
I suppressed a yawn. It was 9:30pm and we’d finished two rounds of the game. Half the usual crew had already called it a night and gone home.
The rest of us had stayed to drink and chat, hanging out around Craig and Foster’s giant dining room table. Craig was sitting to my right, and Lloyd and Silvia were on my left. Foster sat across from Craig, and to his right, directly across from me, was Malcolm, a good friend of Foster’s and mine. His fiancé Felix was next to him.
Felix asked Silvia what kind of oven she’d chosen, and I tuned out the conversation. Picking Lloyd up at his hotel had been a mistake. If I’d let him drive himself, I wouldn’t have to find out whether or not he was planning to stay overnight at Silvia’s house. I rubbed my forehead and grimaced.
