Chapter Twelve

It had been too long since I’d had anything exciting in my own life. With my business picking up, I had less time for painting or graphic arts projects that were not marketing for others, so I’d let my social life come to a near halt.

The only thing I did for fun was meeting my friends to celebrate their milestones in relationships—and while I was happy for them, there was always the underlying feeling that they were moving ahead while I remained stagnant.

All of a sudden, there was something about me!

Had I been retreating into myself, hiding at home because things weren’t about me? Using work as an excuse? At least on some level, I had taken myself out of the flow of life and then wondered why I didn’t have a boyfriend. But…I’d done some research via a novel or two about shifters and some googling and thought I understood a bit about fated mates. And gargoyles were…well, they weren’t just statues, but I had a whole lot to learn about them. Wolf shifters, bears, lions, even raccoons and squirrels seemed to have lore, but I couldn’t find a thing about gargoyles beyond pictures of the stone types outside buildings. And I still hadn’t asked them what they did for a living.

I was sitting in front of my computer pretending to work but not getting very far when I got another message through the app. Feeling a bit tingly but also nervous about it maybe not being from the gargoyles, I swiped my screen.

Hi, Malinda, It’s us again. Video chat when you’re free?

Now is good. Because there wasn’t another thing I’d rather do, and my productivity was suffering while I was so distracted.

They did not reply, simply called me, and my heart thudded as their faces came up on a split screen. I wondered how much their faces resembled how they would look as their other forms, if that indeed was how it worked. They indeed had what could be called chiseled features, and even though they had not implied that they were related, there were similarities in their strong jaws and Roman noses. They looked in general like they could pose as outdoorsman of most kinds. Like cowboys or contractors or maybe forest rangers. All the fantasy types. At least for me.

Behind them, I could see trees and what looked like a farmhouse. “Are you outside?” Duh. Of course they were.

“We were about to start a new job when we thought of calling you.” Oz, who I thought might be a little taller, beckoned behind him. “A wall around the farmyard.”

“So you’re, what, bricklayers?”

Koruk shook his head. “Masons. We work in local stone. There’s a whole lot of it around here.”

“Oh!” That made total sense. And was way sexier than security guards, although uniforms could be yummy too. “Do you have any pictures of the walls you’ve made you can show me?”

“We don’t make them exactly, but…” Koruk paused. “Oz, you have our portfolio handy?”

“Yes.” His eyes moved away from the camera, maybe checking his files or something. “Sent.”

“Thank you.” I would check out the images once we disconnected, but for the moment, I wanted to spend time with the guys. Get to know them better, and find out if there really was the possibility that we could have a match or something. I had requested a match far from here, something I regretted now. Or not exactly regretted because I was very happy that the two I was mated to were these very special gargoyles, but it was not like we could just meet at the local coffeehouse for a casual date. Meeting in person would require some real planning and might not happen for months.

“Hey, we were thinking,” Oz said. “Would you like to come here for a visit so we can get to know each other better? As much as we enjoy this video chatting, it’s not the same as spending time together in person.”

“That’s weird.” Had he been reading my mind? “I was just thinking that we could do something like that, eventually.”

“Why eventually?” Koruk put in. “Unless you’re uncomfortable with the idea? Maybe you’d like us to come there so you are on your own turf? We could fly out and meet you at a restaurant if you like or something like that?”

I considered their suggestions. I had assumed there would be a lot more time before we met, but why? What was there to gain in just chatting online or in video or on the phone when we could meet and find out if there was any kind of spark in person? I was already more attracted to them than anyone I’d dated.

“Malinda?” Koruk asked. “Are we being too pushy?”

“No. You’re just being nice and making me feel special.” I decided right then what I wanted to do. “I would like to visit you. But I’d need to bring my dog. Do you mind?”

“Not at all. You’re both very welcome. We’ll make all the arrangements. You just have to show up at the airport.” Oz was glancing away again, probably already looking at travel info.

“It’s all right. I’ll book my own flights and everything and get you the information.”

“But we want to pay for your trip,” Oz said.

“I always pay my own ways. I have the money.”

“It’s only fair if we pick up the bill since you are the one going out of your way to visit us,” Koruk said. “It would make us happy.”

Was it a shifter thing? Or alphas or gargoyles or? Suddenly I didn’t want to argue. I was always pushing hard to be responsible for everything. My mom raised me all alone and never had much, and she’d taught me never to count on a man. I’d just accepted that, but now I wondered how much that had also kept me from finding a partner in life. My father had left her, and her many boyfriends had been unreliable to say the least.

But at some point, I had to take a chance.

“All right. Thank you.” Sometimes it got awfully lonely being responsible for my own…everything.