The Tracker's Secret: Sunderverse (Mate Tracker Book 2) by Ingrid Seymour (the gingerbread man read aloud .txt) 📗

And since, after paying all the bills, there would be a little money left, I had plans of going furniture shopping this weekend. Not much, just a few pieces, but I was psyched all the same. Of course, I would miss Rosalina. Staying with her these past few days had been amazing, but we both needed our privacy. Besides, if it turned out that my wolf shed, I doubted she would appreciate fur on her carpet and sofa.

I was still packing things up in the loft when Rosalina poked her head in. “Hey, Toni, someone is here to see you.”

I glanced back, frowning.

“Stephen Erickson,” she mouthed.

Crap! I had forgotten I was supposed to have lunch with him today. I jumped to my feet, dusted off my pants, and rushed to the mirror to check my hair and makeup.

“You look hot, don’t worry,” Rosalina mock-whispered.

I pressed a finger to my mouth. “Shh.”

Honestly, what was I doing? It didn’t matter how I looked. Plus, I didn’t want Stephen to get the wrong idea. I was only going out with him because I hadn’t been able to tell him no when he asked. He’d been in a hospital bed, recovering from the awful ordeal of being kidnapped, of being locked inside a dark van for eleven days. He was probably craving normalcy. I planned to go out with him only once. No romantic shenanigans. I would not let his dreamy blue eyes put a spell on me again. Nope.

I sighed. One good thing: at least now I understood my dumb attraction to werewolves.

Taking a deep breath, I followed Rosalina downstairs, nervously wondering if Stephen would notice anything different about me. He stood admiring the black and white photographs on the wall as well as the cool Cupid that dominated the room.

When he saw me, his handsome face lit up, and he drew me into his arms, wrapping me into a tight, warm embrace. He gave no signs of smelling wet dog on me, and I was grateful for it.

Rosalina walked to her desk, meeting my gaze over his shoulder, fanning herself as if the room had grown hot all of a sudden. I rolled my eyes at her and pulled away from Stephen.

“So good to see you out of that hospital bed.” I scanned him up and down. He wore gray slacks and a white T-shirt under a black trendy jacket with metal buttons. His red hair was a little long and tousled. Very stylishly. He still looked thinner than usual and a bit pale, but he was improving quickly.

“And I’m sure glad to be out and about.” He gestured toward the Cupid illustration above us. “She looks like you.”

“You think?”

“Well, the pink-tipped hair matches.”

“I guess that actually means I look like her  ‘cause she was the one who inspired me to color my hair this way.”

“Cool.” He nodded approvingly. “The place looks great. Very warm and inviting. And it puts you in the right romantic mood.” He pointed toward a picture of a man proposing to his sweetheart on one knee.

His words made me go even glowier inside. Rosalina and I had put a lot of thought into the décor, and it was nice to hear that it accomplished its purpose. It didn't escape me that Jake had never said one nice thing  about the agency.

The self-interested asshole!

“So what are you in the mood for?” Stephen asked. “Anything your heart desires. Just speak the word and I will make it come true.”

Behind Stephen, Rosalina fanned herself a little more and drooped down in her chair, acting as if she was about to faint. I walked toward the front door, passing Stephen and forcing him to turn in Rosalina’s direction. Stephen frowned at her wet noodle impersonation.

Reacting quickly, she let out a big, fake yawn and mumbled, “I didn’t sleep good last night. I might take a nap while you two go for lunch.”

I smirked. The little imp! She’d been quick with the lie. She, herself, had a lunch date with a college friend who was in from Austin where he worked at a big tech company. She wasn’t taking a nap.

“To be honest,” I said with a grimace, “I had forgotten you were coming, and I have an appointment with a prospective client at one o’clock. If we drive somewhere, it will cut our lunchtime short, so if it’s okay with you, we can go to Giovanni’s across the street. They have the best pizza. You won’t regret it.”

“It sounds perfect to me. I don’t care where we go. It’s the company that matters.” He smiled, showing his perfect white teeth while his baby blues twinkled with something like delight.

This time Rosalina didn’t fan herself, but her green eyes were expressive enough to show me that, inwardly, she thought the room was on fire. But no! I would be the fire hose if things got that bad.

Stephen opened the door for me, and I stepped out onto the sidewalk. My first instinct was to stare straight ahead and ignore Jake’s office, but that would have seemed petty of me, so instead, I gestured in its direction.

“I’m sure you noticed Jake’s PI firm.”

“I did. I’m so glad he’s finally doing this. He has talked about it for a while.”

I started walking in the opposite direction, toward the restaurant. We crossed the street as Stephen commented on some of the other stores and suggested we get ice cream at Mootown Cones after lunch, which sounded like a perfect idea because I loved their salted caramel gelato.

The familiar rumbling of an engine sounded down the street, and Jake appeared at the corner, riding his badass Harley, and as usual, wearing no helmet. As he checked left before turning, he noticed us. I caught the surprise in his eyes, which he quickly concealed. Instead, he put on the same congenial expression he might’ve used if he’d just run into his