“Thank God,” Dax breathed, pulling his card out of the ATM. The deposit had come through and after making his payment on his debt, he had enough to take Jennifer out somewhere really nice this time. He was worried the last date had been something of a disappointment to her, but he would make that up to her. This time he would do what the humans seemed to expect on a date: candlelit dinner, flowers, the works. If he could find anywhere on Oak Mountain that did that sort of thing, that is.
He decided to check out the neighborhood that was near the bar where the human worked. They seemed a little bit more open to adopting human customs into their way of life than the more traditional area where he had grown up. Maybe they had a nice fancy restaurant he could take her to prove he wasn’t just some cheap cop-out.
The thought made him physically sick. He hated not having money. What kind of a self-respecting woman would want to be with a man wracked with debt and barely able to raise his own child? No matter how hard he worked, the money always seemed to go into a black hole leaving him barely able to scrape by. He wasn’t a provider, he was a joke.
Dax’s chest tightened. He’d already committed to taking Jennifer out again, but maybe he would have to break things off after this. He couldn’t provide for her. He couldn’t take care of two women, even if she was bringing in her own income. It wasn’t proper for any self-respecting bear-shifter to have to rely on his mate to pull him out of the hole. How would that look to her? She wouldn’t want anything to do with him, and he wouldn’t be able to blame her for that at all.
“Dax! Haven’t seen you around in a while, man.”
Dax stepped into the woodshop and took a deep breath. There was nothing quite like the smell of the place; the sweet cedar smell that filled his nose filled him with hope. Maybe things weren’t hopeless. He should talk to his buddy about it and see what he had to say.
“I know, Hunter. I’m sorry about that.”
Hunter shrugged half-heartedly and continued working on the rocking chair he was building. He was a hell of a craftsman. He had gotten most of his furniture from Hunter’s shop. A few of the pieces they had made together, like Marnie’s crib and toy chest, and a jewelry box for his ex-wife.
“Don’t worry about that. How are you? How’s Marnie?”
“Oh, I’m good, man, and Marnie is Marnie. She’s been sick as hell for the past couple of weeks, though. There’s a flu going around, I guess.”
“That sucks,” Hunter said. “She feeling any better yet?”
“Yeah, just coming out of the woods,” Dax said. “Listen… I have to ask you about something.”
Hunter put his tools down and grinned. “Let’s have a beer.”
“You read my mind,” Dax said with a deep laugh. He had been needing a drink ever since he had retrieved his stupid ATM card.
They walked to the back of the shop and sat down behind the counter together. Hunter pulled out a couple of cold ones and they started drinking as Dax collected his thoughts. Finally, he took a deep breath.
“You ever dated a human?”
Hunter laughed sharply. “Hell no. You know I met my mate young. We didn’t get together right away, but we both knew we would one day. Why do you ask?”
Dax hesitated. “There’s this girl. The barmaid at the Yowler brother’s place. She’s human.”
“And you like her, huh?”
“Yeah, but you know the shithole my wife left me in. She racked my credit cards sky-high in debt. I can barely get by as it is, and humans and bear-shifters don’t agree on a lot of things but one thing we both understand is economy. You know, being a provider. I can’t be interested in her if I can’t be a provider, can I?”
Hunter chuckled. “You’ve got it bad, man. I haven’t seen you like this since you were with your ex and even then, there was something different about it.”
“Could you just answer my question, please?” Dax asked. He didn’t feel like going into his entire personal history, he just wanted to stick with the specifics of the situation.
“Look. The right mate won’t care about what a shithole you’re stuck with. She’s going to be drawn to you because that’s what’s meant to happen, not because of your bank account but because of who you are, you know? Try not to worry about it so much.”
But this explanation wasn’t comforting to Dax and he shifted miserably.
“Do you know any places around here that do the human thing? Romance, you know. Fancy dinners?”
Now Hunter burst out laughing and Dax glowered.
“Forget it, I’ll go ask someone else.”
He turned to leave and Hunter stood up, wiping his eyes as a final peal of laughter consumed his body then died away.
“I’m sorry. You’re just the most conservative bear-shifter I know and this girl has you thinking fire and picking flowers.”
“They like the candles,” Dax said with a shrug. “So do you know a place, or do I have to kick your ass and then ask someone else.”
Hunter grinned. “I know a place, but it might not be exactly what you have in mind. There aren’t a whole lot of options out here, and you don’t want to travel too far out of your way with that kid of yours, especially if she’s been under the weather.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Dax grumbled.
“All right, all right. I’ll get you the address. If it doesn’t work, don’t come back here and hand my ass to me. I have enough problems.”
“Sure you do,” Dax said, shaking his head. And yet he couldn’t help but laugh. His friend was something else, but he was helpful… thank God for that anyway. When it came to Jennifer, he needed all the damn help he could get.