“Oh, believe me, I will.”
Pixie pulled on her leash to follow, but Mayer held her back long enough to say, “Always good to see you, Shelby.”
She smiled, and again, Dev read the discomfort in the tight lines at the corners of her mouth.
The guy was smart enough to follow his grandmother out to her vehicle without another word.
Once the front door was closed, Dev pivoted to join Shelby on her way to the back. “Has he been here before?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t even know he was her grandson. Though she did mention having one the last two times.”
“I don’t like that guy.”
A grin curved her mouth as she straightened up the exam room. “Never woulda guessed.”
Dev shrugged. Yeah, he might have overdone the bodyguard role, but just the thought of Mayer looking at her the wrong way had him ready to kick his ass.
Shelby braced one hand on the table, the other on her hip. “Anyways, he’s gone, and I’m done for the day. Get me out of here before an emergency comes in.”
He swept his arm toward the door. “As you wish.”
She grabbed her things from the break room, and they walked out to his truck.
“You ready for your next lesson?” he asked.
“Ready and willing.”
The eagerness in her voice skipped his mind clear over self-defense, straight to the bedroom. The word willing didn’t help one damn bit. It had him picturing that sexy little satin slip from back when she was sixteen.
“Although…” At the passenger door, Shelby gave him a head tilt and eyebrow arch that was becoming very familiar. “Isn’t there something you wanted to ask me first?”
He paused with his fingers curled around the door handle. “And what would that be?”
“Dinner at your parents’?”
Well, crap. Dev jerked open the door, his jaw tightening. “Mom texted you,” he guessed as she climbed inside.
“She did,” Shelby confirmed. “And I said—”
He slammed the door on what she said. Because of course, after he’d answered his mom’s text about dinner with a no, she’d gone behind his back because she knew Shelby would say yes.
Her gaze had him tingling with awareness every step of the way around the front of his truck. As soon as he opened the door, she finished her sentence.
“I said yes.”
“I thought you wanted to put in extra time on self-defense.”
“We can do both,” she argued. “I had to switch the vet check with Grayson to tomorrow, but we don’t have to be there until ten. So we can work late and sleep in.”
“Easy for you to say,” he groused as he started the engine and drove toward the exit. “I haven’t slept in in over ten years.”
She shrugged lightly. “I can always text her back if you want. It’s just that I haven’t seen them much since moving out of my parents’ place, and I thought it would be nice to sit and visit.”
And once again, he couldn’t say no to Shelby.
After she changed into a pair of skinny jeans and a soft, cream-colored sweater back at his house, they were on their way again—with a detour for dessert at her sister-in-law’s bakery, Must Love Frosting.
“I’m shocked Mom asked you to bring anything,” he commented. While his mother never went anywhere empty-handed, she also never asked guests to bring anything to her house.