The Alpha and The Fool novel Chapter 4

I groaned as I saw Mom waiting for me outside the men’s locker rooms. “I’m fine,” I said before she could say anything.

“Are you sure? She didn’t just break your nose, she crushed it.”

“Yeah, I know. I was there remember,” I told her and waved my hand over my face. “But I healed, and I don’t even have a bruise.” I appreciated the worry, but it also irritated the crap out of me. She wouldn’t be mother henning Ryder, my older brother, like this.

Mom pursed her lips as she looked at my face. “Are you sure about her? I mean perhaps you were merely fascinated by her.”

I snorted. “Really Mom? I get you all think I’m out there, but I’m not that far out there.”

She smiled and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Sorry, it’s only she’s so…”

“I know,” I said, grinning remembering my mate in the black dress.

Mom sighed, snapping me out of my daydream. “Okay, new rule. No mentally undressing your mate in the presence of your mother.”

“Then let’s change the subject, because if not...” I said, waggling my eyebrows at her.

“Good lord, Dean,” Mom said with a sigh. “I’m afraid I’m going to be mending your nose quite a bit in the near future. So are you done for today?”

I let out a breath. “Yeah, finally. I probably should be going before I get sucked into the overnight shift. The boss is such a slave driver.”

“Your boss is a very lovely and dedicated person.”

I snorted again. “You would say that.” Especially since she was my boss.

Mom laughed, shaking her head at me. “Tell your father, I might not make dinner tonight. I’m trying to work out the schedules for everyone. That ditzy, Shelley wants off yet again. This is what? Her fourth funeral for a grandmother?”

“Right, well later Mamacita.” I saluted her and left the hospital.

The drive home, my thoughts returned of my mate - Nicole, Brook had told me her name was. She seemed to be more skittish than Brook was when she first arrived. I could ask Ryder — nope, I so wasn’t going to ask him anything. He and Andy would never let me live it down. They were already teasing me bad enough as it was. No, I’d handle this on my own. She was gun shy or something, it’s possible she had a jerk of an ex or something. I only had to play it cool.

The house was noisier than usual, but it was expected with almost every room full. While I usually enjoyed being around people, I wasn’t so sure I liked so many strangers here, made my instincts go a little crazy.

“Hey Dean,” Kara said, waving me over.

“What’s up? Decide to dump Andy for a real man?” I teased.

“Yeah, where I can find one?”

I grinned, normally I’d say something crude, but it didn’t seem right to say it now.

“Uh, right,” she said. “Well F.Y.I. your mate, the girl who knocked you out, is in the gym...alone.”

I grinned and threw my arms around her in a bear hug. “You’re the bestest friend ever.”

With a grunt, she tried to slap my arm. “Let me down, you dork.”

I set her down, but by the time she swung to slap my arm again, I was jogging down the hall. True enough, my mate was in the gym, lifting a dumbbell the size of my head. I swallowed. Okay, proceed with caution. I put on my best flirty grin, I walked into the gym. “Hey Beautiful,” I said, sitting on a bench next to hers.

Her eyes lifted to meet mine, surprised and wide, before she lowered them again and continuing to lift and lower the dumbbell, not saying anything. When she switched arms, I figured I was going to have to insist. “So Beautiful-”

Her head ducked lower and her shoulders tensed. “Don’t call me that.”

“Sure thing, Sexy-”

Her head shot up. Her eyes blazed angrily, and her lips were pursed. “Do you want to die?”

I threw up my hands. “What I did I say?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Go make fun of someone else, I’m busy.”

“Make fun of you? I’m trying to introduce myself, Sexy.”

“I’m not stupid, got it,” she said, and I tried not to flinch as she dropped the weight to the floor. “Stop calling me beautiful or sexy, or whatever. I’m not any of those things.”

Right, well at least we’re talking. “Well, that’s a matter of opinion, Beautiful. Now I’m Dean, a Leo. I like long walks on the beach, cuddling, and you. What may I call you besides, beautiful or sexy?”

She got a bewildered look on her face. “Are you serious?”

“Yep.”