Wild Warrior (The Weavers Circle 2)

“What a fucking dick,” Wiley said softly. “I’m so sorry.”

“Dave was a dick. At least I found out before it got too serious. We never lived together or anything like that.”

“At least you dodged that bullet.”

“What about you? The other night you said something about being high-maintenance.” Baer shifted so that he was leaning forward with his forearms on his knees. “I’ve lived with you for over a week now, and I haven’t seen anything evenly vaguely high-maintenance. Is it because you like ranch dressing with your fries instead of ketchup like normal people?”

“No!” Wiley said with the laugh Baer had been trying so hard to get. He loved when Wiley laughed. The world was just a better place. His smile faded a little as he said. “Like you, I haven’t dated a lot. I don’t go out much, so it’s not easy to meet people. But the guys I’ve dated said I’m too much work.”

“That sounds like a lot of bullshit to me.” Baer rubbed his jaw, fighting back the urge to go track down some of those assholes and knock some sense into them.

Wiley twisted so that he was staring at the TV again. “You don’t know. I could be a lot of work.”

Baer had a sneaking suspicion this had to do with Wiley’s issue with stairs. He wanted to ask about it, but he didn’t want to pressure Wiley into telling him. He was willing to wait until Wiley was comfortable, when he trusted Baer enough to tell him.

“Maybe so, but I look at it this way—anything worthwhile in life takes some work. How much do you appreciate something if it’s easy? If I care about somebody, I’m gonna work hard to make them happy and make sure he knows I care about him.”

Wiley’s smile was like sunshine, bright and so damn warm. It touched Baer’s soul. “I’ve never thought of it like that, but I like it.”

“I don’t know if I’m right, but I will say that I think we’ve both been dating the wrong people.”

Wiley chuckled. “Yeah, you might be right. This got way too serious after video games.”

“Yep. There’s only one way to fix this.”

Wiley turned around to face him again, his expression bright and eager. “What?”

“Ice cream.”

Laughter filled the room as Wiley shook his head. He lifted his arm and glanced at his watch. “We’re going to have dinner in like two hours. Grey said he’s making beef stroganoff tonight.”

“True. Then we make root beer floats. That doesn’t count as a snack. It’s a drink. We’re just getting something to drink.”

“Oh yeah, that just happens to have ice cream in it,” Wiley teased.

Baer shoved to his feet with a slightly muffled groan. No more sitting on the floor for him. “Well, if you’re not in the mood for a root beer float, I can just get you a water.” He watched Wiley out of the corner of his eye as the blond jumped to his feet and followed close behind Baer as he headed toward the stairs.

“Oh, no! I’m not missing out on this. You’re making two. You’ll just have to explain to Grey why we’re not eating a lot of his dinner.”

Stopping at the head of the stairs, Baer patted his stomach. “Don’t worry. I can handle anything you can’t.”

“I’m holding you to that.”

Baer led the way down the stairs, fighting the urge to look back at Wiley. He didn’t want Wiley to feel self-conscious, but Baer could still hear the incredibly quiet counting following him. They’d had a good afternoon, some good laughs. And one of these days, Wiley would feel comfortable enough with him to tell him why he thought he was high-maintenance.Chapter 8Baer climbed out of his Jeep, shoving the keys into his pocket as he walked to the sidewalk to join Clay and Grey. The day’s muggy heat had stuck around well past the setting of the sun. Of course, the massive live oaks that dotted Savannah’s historical district helped to hold in the humidity.

Flo’s prediction that a new Weaver was close proved to be more accurate than even she expected. Just three nights after their dinner and the unfortunate shower incident, the aunt appeared to tell them to haul their asses to Savannah to find the missing Weaver. Unfortunately, all she could tell them was that he was going to be close to Chippewa Square.

Not super helpful, but they’d make it work.

Very likely, the presence of a Weaver without his powers was going to draw in the pestilents. They had a much better shot of killing a Weaver before he got his gift back from his goddess.

Baer also hated to admit that he was glad to get out of the house. With each passing day, it was getting harder and harder to keep his hands off Wiley. The damn episode with the shower made it clear that while his head and heart were a mess when it came to the guy, his body was definitely on board with getting much closer. Like deep inside of him.