“Five bucks says he will,” Ryder said.
“You’re on,” the Novak Raven said.
“I think I’m gonna call it a night,” Kane called out.
“Told you,” Wes said with a sneer.
“I bet Wes five bucks you would hang out!” Ryder yelled. “Don’t let my faith in you go to waste.”
“Cheater,” Wes muttered.
Lexi was human, but even she could hear Kane’s gritted out “mother fucker” from here. He looked pissed as he crossed the street. He flipped his dark hair, longer on top, to the other side in an irritated gesture. Dark sunglasses covered his face as usual. He liked to hide his dragon eyes from the town, but Lexi had seen them once at Drat’s Boozehouse when he was arm wrestling one of the locals.
“Pay up, suckaaah,” Ryder crowed at Weston. Sprinkles twitched in the cradle of his arm but didn’t wake.
Kane looked uncomfortable as hell as he looked around at all the full seats, but he needn’t worry. “Take mine,” Lexi offered.
Ryder was already pulling her into his lap anyway, the snuggler. But as his erection poked her butt cheek, she thought maybe it wasn’t so much snuggling on his mind as other intimacies. His waggling red eyebrows backed that theory.
She laughed and relaxed against him as the chatter of the crew picked up again. Kane was quiet like he always was, but after a few minutes, Lexi spied his first smile. How many times had she seen him around town, or at the bar when she’d gone to cut loose after bad days at work? A dozen? Fifteen? She’d maybe seen him smile a handful of times, but tonight, the longer he spent with the crew, the more his lips curved up.
“Lexi, you’ll like this one. We used to call him Karate Ryder,” Wyatt said with a laugh as he pointed the neck of his beer bottle at Ryder.
“Because I was awesome at karate,” Ryder said confidently.
“No, you were terrible,” Wes said. He arched his eyebrows at Lexi. “From age twelve to fourteen, he was the most annoying kid you could ever meet. Every sleepover, Karate Kid movies. Every day after school, karate moves in the woods. Every dinner conversation—”
“Let me guess, karate?” Lexi asked.
“Exactly. And he sucked at it.”
“False,” Ryder said. “I surpassed my master in under a year.”
Harper snorted. “You got kicked out of class because you refused to take direction.”
With a chuckle, Ryder argued, “That’s because I knew everything.”
He was trying to hide a smile again, and Lexi rolled her eyes.
The others launched into a discussion about how a Boarlander bear shifter named Bash used to make them pizza rolls after school and tutor them in math. Ryder had gone quiet, though, and pulled the hairband gently out of Lexi’s ponytail, loosing her long hair. His fingers were firm as he massaged the back of her neck. He watched her face with a slight frown. “You feel different.”
“What do you mean?” she murmured, relaxing into his massage.
He was quiet for a minute before he answered, “Forget it. I don’t know what I mean.”
Well, that was a copout if she’d ever heard one. He ran his fingertips up the back of her head, through her hair, and massaged until she curled her legs in his lap around Sprinkles and sighed happily.
The early spring wind kicked up, and even though Ryder was warm as a furnace against her, she’d only worn a T-shirt with her job logo on it, and gooseflesh rose across her arms.
“You cold?”
“A little.” Oh, he made her so mushy with how much he cared.
“Sad, little human with your pathetically thin skin,” Ryder said with a shake of his head.
Lexi swatted his chest. “I’m super tough, I’ll have you know.”
“Oh, I can tell from your shivering. Crew, I’m gonna see this one off.” Ryder rocked them up out of the chair and settled her on her feet.
“Neeeew,” Alana drawled. “It’s still early.”
“Ha, early for you party animals,” Lexi teased. “Get it?”
“Party. Animals,” Ryder said, finishing her joke with a snicker.
Wes, Aaron, and Wyatt shook their heads in mock disappointment.
“But really,” Lexi said. “I have to make breakfast for a couple up at the cabins in the morning, and that five a.m. alarm comes quick.”
“You said comes quick,” Ryder repeated through a smirk.
She giggled and leaned over to pat Kane on the leg as she passed. Quick as a strike of lightning, he grabbed her hand just before she touched his knee. His face had gone stone hard, and his grip was too tight.
“If you want to keep those fuckin’ dragon eyes in your face, I suggest you let her go,” Ryder said blandly.
Kane relaxed his grip and murmured a hasty apology. Then without another word, he stood and limped past Harper and Wyatt’s chairs and across the street to his ride.
Lexi watched him blast out of his parking space as she rubbed her sore hand gingerly. “Is that a rule? No touching?” she asked. “I didn’t mean to chase him off.”
“Nah,” Ryder said. “That’s just Kane’s rules. Most shifters thrive on affection, especially from their crew and mates. Kane never had a crew, though. He didn’t learn.” Ryder had said it lightly, but when Lexi looked up at him, a slight frown marred his striking red eyebrows, and he was staring at Kane’s taillights.