“Not wrong, necessarily,” I mumbled. “Ryder is going to start working with your dad again, so I’ve pretty much just been fired. Nicely. And invited to dinner tonight in the same text.”
Rocco groaned. “Dammit. I’m sorry.”
“Why? You have a job.”
“You liked it.” The words were simple, and took me longer to process than they should’ve. “You could start looking for music-related jobs again.”
“I’d have to move to have a real shot at most of them. Do you want to move?”
There was a pause. “I mean, I don’t want to, but for you to follow your dreams, I will.”
My lips curved up slightly. “That’s really sweet of you, but I like it here. And I already got rejected from all of the jobs I really wanted, so there’s not much of a point.”
Rocco scoffed. “Not with that attitude.”
“Mr. Positivity, are you?” I drawled.
“Miss Give Up, are you?” Rocco countered.
“Eh. More like Miss Work Smart, Not Hard. As much as I wish it was possible, my dream isn’t going to work out. So now I’ve got to dream a new dream.”
Rocco didn’t seem to agree, but asked, “What’s the new dream, then?”
“Not sure. Still trying to figure that out.” I closed my eyes. “Right now, my new dream is to sleep until noon.”
Rocco snorted. “We can make that happen.”
My stomach growled, and I sighed. “After we eat, I guess.”
Neither of us put on any extra clothes as we headed down to the kitchen; Rocco wore only a pair of basketball shorts that practically framed his erection, and I wore just the t-shirt and panties that probably framed my nipples almost as effectively.
“Want to know something about me?” Rocco asked, as he peered into the fridge while I went up on my tiptoes to grab a few boxes of cereal off the top of the fridge.
“Duh.” I didn’t bother to pretend I wasn’t interested.
“I hate planning meals,” he admitted. “I don’t mind the cooking, but when it comes to sitting down and figuring out what to cook, I’d rather be shot in the damned ass.”
I snorted. “Dummy.”
The insult earned me a face-splitting grin.
Pushing past him, I ignored the goosebumps that followed the brush of his chest on my arms and his erection on my lower back as I grabbed the milk out of the fridge. “We’re having cereal for breakfast, and then I can make us a meal plan, and we can go shopping. Maybe afterward…” I trailed off, biting my lip. “Well, we can either start looking for a new job for me, or we can stop by your school and see if you’ve still got your job.”
“I’ve still got my job.” Rocco didn’t go sit down, remaining where he was so our bodies brushed again as I pulled the milk out. “One of the retired werewolves will have taken over my classes until I’m ready to go back to work; that’s what we always do if someone finds their mate.”
Huh.
It was pretty cool that the community stepped up like that.
“So we’ll go find another job for you.” He didn’t sound completely sold on that, though.
“What aren’t you saying?” I asked, shutting the fridge and spinning to face him.
He grimaced. “The job situation is pretty much the same for the mate chase as it is for the hunt. We’ll both be pretty volatile until after the climax, and even then, it’ll take some time to adjust.” He gestured between us, his hand nearly brushing my breasts.
I fought the urge to drag it to my chest, and plop it down right on my boob.
“Well, alright. How long does the climax last if we don’t have sex?” I checked.