shyly and reached for her phone. “Here, let me put it in my calendar so I don’t forget. It’ll have to be later though. I’m working until seven-thirty.”
“No problem. Is eight-thirty enough time, or do you want some more?”
“Nine?” she asked, tilting her head up at him.
“Nine works,” he said, gracing her with a full toothy smile.
Gayle bit her bottom lip, entranced by his gaze.
Her phone pinged with the sound of an incoming email, breaking the staring contest before it had fully begun.
She glanced down to read it.
“Are you fucking serious?”
Chapter Ten
Rann
He blinked in surprise.
“Um, yes? I am serious about taking you out.”
Gayle jerked her head upward to look at him, and Rann had to force himself not to recoil from the expression of fury on her face. “Not you,” she all but snapped, shoving the phone to him.
Rann fumbled it but managed to keep hold of the phone.
“Read that shit,” Gayle said, stabbing a finger at the screen.
He glanced down at her phone, glad she hadn’t been talking to him, but still caught completely off guard by her mood change. What could be so—
Rann read the email.
Michael Kostwick and Karen Smith would like to cordially invite you to their wedding. Please RSVP by…
He looked up. Then down at the phone. Then back up at Gayle.
“Is this who I think it is?” he said, not recognizing the names but making an assumption.
“Oh, yes,” she hissed. “That’s exactly who you think it is. My ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend. And that’s their wedding invitation. To me!”
Rann growled violently, nearly crushing her phone in his hand. He managed to pass it back in time before his knuckles popped as he squeezed his fists tight. If he ever caught up with this Michael…
What? What are you going to do? Beat up a human? Come on now.
“I can’t believe this,” Gayle said, some of the steam leaving her voice. “One day after they break the news to me about being in love, they’re getting married? And this RSVP is for next week!”
Rann was torn. He could feel the pain and despair entering Gayle’s voice. To know that you had been so thoroughly betrayed by people you trusted, it had to hurt. After all, there was no way that in a single day they had decided to get married. This had obviously been planned for some time now.
He wanted to reach out and hug her, to pull her in tight and tell her it would be okay. Oh, how he wanted to say he would protect her and keep her safe! That she didn’t have to worry about anything like that while he was around. His dragon stirred, acknowledging the sentiment and wanting to take it further.
But he couldn’t. Not now. She was hurting. Vulnerable. Rann wasn’t going to take advantage of that. He couldn’t.
Someone else had heard Gayle shouting, and another short, buxom redhead came over to see if everything was okay.
Rann recognized Claire, Pietro’s mate, and smiled at her in greeting. Claire’s eyes widened as she saw how close to each other Rann and Gayle were standing, but she didn’t say anything about it, much to his relief.
“Gayle? Is everything okay?” she asked. “I heard you yelling.”
Wordlessly Gayle handed the phone over to Claire.
Then she sighed. “This is what’s going on. Last night Mikey left me for Karen. And they said they wanted to be friends still. Now this.”
“What the fuck?” Claire snarled as her eyes flicked over the screen while also processing what Gayle had just told her. “This is a joke, right? They have to be joking. Nobody is this delusional and oblivious…are they?”
“I can’t believe they think I would go,” Gayle said, shaking her head, sniffing loudly, and blinking back tears. “In what world do they think I would ever say yes? I mean, come on.”
“You should go.”
Both Rann and Gayle stared at Claire in shock.
“What?” they exclaimed in near unison a second later.
“Yeah,” Claire said, her tone growing darker. “Go in spite of them.”
“What?” Gayle repeated. “No, I couldn’t.”
“Do it,” Claire urged. “Go rub it in their faces. Attend their wedding, eat their food. Drink their booze. Hell, take someone as your plus one as well. Show everyone you don’t give a shit about it and have the time of your life on their dime. Pretend to have fun, and it will make them uncomfortable as hell. Make both of them jealous.”
“I don’t know,” Gayle said.
Rann remained silent, watching the two of them, not speaking. He didn’t know how to