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too.”
She grabbed his hand and stared up at the shocked waitress.
    Laughing harder than he had in days, he felt a hard kick in
the knee from
Sandy
as she let go of their hands, drank her glass of wine, and snarled, “Shut it,
both of you. I don’t see what’s so funny.”
    He looked over to see Zack laughing. Pulling her hand up,
Jake kissed it. “Oh, Little Red, you’ve made a bad day into a much better one.
It’s nice to know you are already starting to feel we’re yours.”
    She rolled her eyes at him. “You’re not. Remember this is
just one night. I had to agree to get Zack out of my room.”
    Jake snorted at her lame excuse.
    “Okay, fine, so maybe I want a repeat of last night and
can’t be bothered to go out to a nightclub and pick up.”
    “No more picking up for you. We are it for you.” Jake
couldn’t help the growl that followed her statement.
     
Sandy
shrugged, shoved food into her mouth,
and downed another glass of wine. Jake turned to see a huge grin on Zack’s
face.
    “Susie never said what you do for a living. You haven’t
mentioned anything either. You know I’m a cop and teach self-defense as a side
project.” Jake watched as she poured more wine and stared at him like she was
debating what to say.
    She picked up her fork only to pause with the food halfway
to her mouth. “I don’t know what Zack does.”
    He saw Zack swallow what he was eating, put down his
utensils, and take a deep breath. “What do you think I do?”
    Sandy
turned to Zack, swirled her glass of red, and
then she looked at Jake and mouthed, “Help.” Jake shook his head. He wasn’t going to help, and Jake was interested to know
what she thought his cousin did.
    “Um, I didn’t even know you existed until the other night
so you can’t work at the gym. Not that I go there, but Jane does. You don’t
look like the cop type, but then neither does Jake.”
    He looked down at himself and wondered why he didn’t look
the part.
    Zack seemed to have done the same because he asked, “Why
don’t you think I could be a cop?”
    “I never said that you couldn’t be a good cop. I said you
don’t look like one.” Her hands trailed up Zack’s arm, circling every tattoo
visible. “So what do you do?”
    Zack grinned down at
Sandy
.
“Do you like my tattoos?”
    She nodded and grinned back at Zack.
    “Well, you and Jake are the only ones in the family who do.
I own a tattoo shop called Enjoyment Ink. I just bought the only other tattoo
shop in town. I’m refurbishing it, and in a month if all goes okay, I will open
it again. So my shop is very busy at the moment. Open almost twenty-four
hours.”
    She turned to Jake. “It was dark the other night, and I got
distracted later with my family, so I didn’t get to check if you had any tats.”
    Zack laughed, and Jake watched as Zack’s shoulder dropped,
and he sagged like he’d had a weight lifted off his shoulders. Jake knew Zack
worried that his mate wouldn’t want to be with the black sheep of the family.
    Jake had his own worry that maybe he was too old and
dominant for
Sandy
,
especially after meeting her father and brothers and knowing how she felt about
them being so alpha. He would have trouble reining it in, but when he looked at
Sandy
, he
already knew he would do anything to keep her. If that meant toning down his
dominance, he would.
    ****
    Dinner went better than he thought it would, especially
after her reluctance that morning. Zack was even happier that
Sandy
liked his tattoos. That’d been
something he’d worried about. His family wasn’t too fond of them, and his
mother hated the fact her son owned two shops. She said too many notorious
people hang out in tattoo shops, and the Bear family didn’t socialize with
them. Zack really didn’t care what his family thought, but the snide comments
annoyed him all the same.
    After pulling into
Sandy
’s
driveway, he got out of the car and waited for Jake to come with
Sandy
. She was drunk.
They