Page 37 of Falling for the Werewolf
“About you? I don’t.” Tiny leaned his muscular forearms against the counter. “But humor me, anyway.”
Jace didn’t know why he did it. Maybe he just needed to unload. Whatever the case, he told Tiny everything.
For his part, Tiny listened attentively, interrupting only to clarify something here and there. By the time he finished, Jace felt drained.
He pulled out a couple of bucks to pay for the coffee, but Tiny shoved it back at him.
“Come by tomorrow night, but make sure it’s before Dani’s shift. If she knows I’ve been letting your sorry ass hang out here, she’s likely to quit on me.”
Jace scowled. “What the hell for?”
“Christ, you ask a lot of questions. You want your mate back or not?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then be here. Unless I find out anything you just told me is bullshit, then you better not ever show your face around here again, got it?”
Jace left the diner pissed, but for whatever reason, he found himself back the next evening, right around the dinner rush. It was busy, so Jace had to wait quite a while before Tiny came over to him. When he did, he reached into his pocket and handed Jace a slip of paper with a name and phone number.
“Kevin Jeffries?” Jace asked, turning the paper in his hand. “Who is that?”
“Someone you’ll be wanting to talk to,” Tiny said, giving Jace a meaningful look before heading back into the kitchen.
Jace had his doubts, but he was willing to try anything.
Kevin Jeffries, it turned out, was a human who had spent several months interning for the bank Amanda’s father owned. Jace also learned that Amanda had been seeing Jeffries around the same time she had been seeing him. When Amanda’s father found her and Jeffries together in his office,in flagrante delicto, Kevin was promptly transferred to a branch office in a different state.
“How did you know?” Jace asked Tiny a few days later.
Tiny shrugged. “I hear things. You get what you need?”
“Yeah,” Jace said, relaying the day’s events.
He had called Jeffries and had a nice little chat. When Jeffries found out that Amanda was pregnant, he went ballistic. He met Jace at Amanda’s house, and when Amanda saw him, she broke down and confessed that she had tried to lay the blame on Jace.
Kevin was, in fact, the father, but Amanda was angry with him for leaving her so easily and sought to punish him by naming Jace instead.
“That’s good,” Tiny said, studying his toothpick. “Never fails to amaze me how a man can’t see what’s staring him in the face.” His voice was careful and even. Too even.
“Dani’s pregnant, isn’t she?” Jace asked, already knowing the answer in his heart.
Tiny met his eyes, but he didn’t say a word.
Jace’s heart stopped, then nearly burst from his chest. Wonder and amazement welled up inside of him, right along with a flash of anger because she hadn’t told him. Then he remembered the last time he had seen Dani. She had come to his place, saying she needed to talk to him about something. He had never given her the chance, taking her right to his bed, instead. Then he remembered, with chest-crushing clarity, how he had said something about wanting to avoid any more “complications.” And right after that, she had rushed to the bathroom, sick.
Because she was already pregnant.
“God, I’m such a fucking idiot!” he groaned, his head in his hands.
“No arguments here,” Tiny agreed readily.
“That’s why she’s avoiding me, isn’t it?”
“Took you fucking long enough,” Tiny grunted.
“I need to see her.”
“Yeah, you do.”
