Bear Arms (Alpha Werebear Shapeshifter Romance) (Mating Call Dating Agency Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

office two hours after the two had stopped talking that morning. “I think I’m gonna throw up.”
    Dora looked up from her old mechanical IBM keyboard. She’d never felt any reason to advance. Her computer was plenty new, but something about the tactile clicking and bouncing of the ancient keys comforted her squirrel ears. She thought maybe it was like those sound machines that make babies think they’re still in the womb, except for squirrels it was making them remember the clicking-tapping-munching sounds of being a tiny newborn in a nest. All the sounds were the others eating.
    Or at least, that’s what she told herself to justify spending a hundred bucks every time her keyboard needing servicing.
    “Trash can’s here,” Dora said with a concerned look. “You’re not sick are you? Like actually, getting-the-flu-and-thinking-it’s-nerves sick?”
    Eve pouted slightly, which she almost never did, and sat down in the chair facing Dora’s desk with a huff. “If it was I’d have an excuse to get out of this.”
    “You don’t have to—”
    “Yes I do,” Eve cut Dora off. “I have to do this at some point. I can’t just stay the lovable town spinster for the rest of my life or I’ll go legit insane.”
    It was Dora’s turn to interrupt. “You have gotta take it easy on yourself. For fifteen years you’ve been trying to get over the guy you thought was the one for you. And now you’re taking a pretty big-ass step right here. You have every right to be nervous.”
    “Well,” Eve began and then left off with a frown. “Maybe I should maybe just get a few more cats and start crocheting.” She made a deep-throated grunting sound. “I guess I’m just a wreck and won’t let myself do anything but dwell on it.”
    Dora stood from behind her desk and cracked her knuckles, then her shoulders, then her middle and lower back. “Let’s make a deal,” she said. “Now pardon me for being a little bit rom-com and a little bit sitcom, but if anything you don’t like happens, send me a signal. Some kind of sign. I’ll call, make up some bullshit about dying from some unnamed, unknowable illness, and then you have to leave to come get me.”
    “What if he picks me up?”
    “Insist on driving yourself.”
    “Oh come on, I might be overbearing sometimes, but wouldn’t that be just a little much? I should be happy to have a date, not all full of frets and panics.” Eve was chewing the inside of her cheek, which gave her face a slightly hollow look on the left side. “Do you think I’m crazy?”
    “Is that a trick question?” Dora smiled. “No, I think you’re nervous and I think you have every right to be. But,” she drew the word out for a few seconds and then left off, considering her words carefully.
    “But what?” Eve prodded. “You can’t just half-say something and then quit. That’s not part of the deal.”
    “I’m just trying to figure out the best way to say this without making it sound like I’m telling you that you’re desperate.”
    Eve laughed in a short burst. “Well I guess you pretty much said it now, didn’t you? May as well get the rest of it out.”
    “Sorry, that’s really not what I meant.”
    “Yeah it is,” Eve said. “And it’s okay because let’s be honest. I haven’t exactly been on a romantic hot-streak in the last... well, ever.”
    “It’s all right,” Dora said. “Before Monte, it had been... god, five years? Six? Since the last time I was with someone. We’re busy making matches, you know? You, especially. It’s hard to take out the time to do it for ourselves. Now, okay fine, I’ll talk without hedging my words.” She took a deep breath. “I think you should just go and give it a try. You’re not signing any mating contracts, you’re not about to open up a joint bank account. Why not just go with it and have a good time?”
    Suddenly, Eve stood up, rather stiffly, and stuck her fists in her sides. “Fuck it,” she announced in a somewhat