Chapter 71
What are you doing here? You and I both know your cake can kick mine in the ass.” Aurelis smiled.
“Child, please. We both know cake is like beauty. Different preferences for different people.” Mrs. Wilder eyed Dani with interest. “You must be Daniella.”
She smiled wide. How the woman knew her, she couldn’t know but her best guess was that Aurelis had mentioned her lunchtime visits. “I am. Let me start off by saying that whatever you’ve heard is probably true but was either done under the influence of too much or not enough liquor.”
Mrs. Wilder broke into laughter. “I like her.”
“Uh-oh,” Aurelis said. “That’s never a good sign.”
“That’s not true.” Dani winked at her friend. “What if Mrs. Wilder has a super-hot son she wants to hook me up with? She’ll change her mind listening to you.”
Mrs. Wilder raised a brow. “Please, call me Gerri.”
“And she probably can hook you up with a sexy guy, but I don’t think she has a son. Do you, Gerri?” Aurelis asked.
“I don’t. Sadly, my husband and I never had children. As far as finding you a man...” Her gaze roamed over Dani’s face, searching for something. “I can help you find a mate if that’s what you would like.”
Dani shook her head and laughed. “I was kidding.”
Aurelis’ eyes widened. “No, she can help you. She has a matchmaking business. The Paranormal Dating Agency. They’re shifters. Hot shifters.”
“Really? But—”
“Wait. What about Tom?” Aurelis asked.
Gerri frowned. “You are seeing someone?”
Dani groaned. “Only in his mind. We’ve gone to some local events in a group and somehow he’s now under the impression we’d make a great match.” She frowned. “I disagree.”
Aurelis grinned. “He’s very persistent.”
Dani pursed her lips. “I keep rejecting him and he keeps coming back for more. I think he’s a masochist. Gerri, I don’t know—”
Gerri raised a hand to stop her mid-speech. “I do think I have what you need.”
The door dinged and Aurelis stood. “I have to go take care of this delivery but you sit here and talk. I’ll be back soon.” She patted Gerri on the shoulder. “I’ll send someone over to bring you tea.”
Gerri nodded and turned to face Dani fully. “Are you looking for a match?”
Was she? She’d given up on being the cream in a Kane and Blake’s cookie sandwich years ago. But most men were afraid of her brother and didn’t usually survive past “the talk” he had with them. The hurt–my-sister-and-I’ll-hurt-you talk.
She’d had boyfriends, but after a while she lost interest. The men she dated were boring. It was one thing for her to live with her head in romance books and quite another to make her own romance happen. Reality was she dated boring accountants and teachers, and the combination was lacking more than a little in every area. So much so that she ended up breaking things off after a few months. No man held her interest long enough for her to fall in love. Or even fall in lust.
“I might be harder for you to match than your usual clients,” she started. “I am a librarian. I love romance novels. My expectations of what a relationship should be about are probably way out there.”
Gerri nodded. “Tell me what it is you want.” She pulled out a notepad from her handbag and started jotting stuff down.
“Um. I guess I’d like to find that connection with someone that’s real. No fake shit.” She thought back to her last relationship and winced. “I’m tired of men thinking they’re doing me a favor by being with me. I want a man who will be dying to be with me. Not just some lame sex with a guy who thinks he has to ‘settle’ for the big girl.” She stared Gerri in the eyes. “If I’m matched with any man who acts like I should be glad he’s even looking at me, I won’t be responsible for what happens.”
“No need for that. The men requiring my services love curves. They appreciate and want a woman for who she is. Generally, my clients prefer someone who loves the body she has. Ideally with lots to hold on to.”
Dani blinked. “And these are shifters, like Aurelis said?”
Gerri nodded slowly. “All of them.”
Wow. She sighed. “That’s good then.”
“May I ask, are you averse to multiples?”
Say what? “I’m sorry what do you mean? Multiple what? Dates?”
“Multiple men. I’m not sure if you are aware, but some shifter packs have what’s called a Triad. That means two leaders need a female to complete their Alpha set and lead the pack. Together. They mate together and they sleep together. Almost all the time.”
She raised her brows in surprise. “You mean like a ménage but forever?”
“Yeah. Happily ménage ever after.”
“Well, shit. Count me in. I don’t care if you can get me one, two, or a whole pack of men who want me. As long as they genuinely want to be with me and are not just doing it out of some duty to help out the fat girl.”
“My clients are not that kind. They’re aggressive. Possessive. Jealous. They love their women because of their curves, not despite them. And they will show it.”
“They sound like what I need.”
Gerri stopped writing and cocked her head to the side. “You know. I really like you. You’re very open-minded.”
No. She was sort of desperate from the sounds of the stuff coming out of her mouth. The likelihood there’d be two men out there who’d want her for a partner was not something she fully grasped. And while she was more than okay with her body and her curves, the reality was there were a lot of men out there who were not. She wasn’t blind or stupid, she knew that.
“All right. I think I have a good idea of what you need, Daniella.” Gerri shut the notebook and slipped it into her bag. She glanced at Daniella’s hair. Uh-oh. “Do you normally wear shades of purple in your hair?”
Dani smiled. “Not really. I recently went wild and decided I wanted to get some purple in there. My boss wasn’t amused but since I’ve been at the library for years, she didn’t cause a stir. I normally wear my hair in a bun so you can barely see the purple.”
“I think it’s beautiful. It’s good to see a different kind of librarian,” Gerri said.
She frowned. “You mean because of the hair? Or the fact I’m not wearing a buttoned-up blouse with dress pants?”
“That dress is very pretty,” Gerri pointed out. “It makes you look very youthful.”
She snorted a giggle. “Nah. I just don’t like wearing buttoned-up anything. I feel like it’s choking me. Though my boss has tried. But she’s used to me doing my own thing. Don’t get me wrong, I wear some covered up stuff some days and then when I feel all girly I put on pretty dresses.”
“See. That’s another thing I like. You’re not afraid to break rules and go your own way.”
She sighed. “Well that’s more due to my older brother. He’s always been very overprotective and somehow that’s pushed me to want to be a little rebellious.” She laughed. “Not much since I am still a librarian, but enough to get me to wear a low cut dress once in a while and put purple in my hair.”
“That’s enough to let your personality shine through.”
She glanced down at her watch and groaned. “I need to go back to work.” She pulled out a piece of paper and pen and wrote down her information, handed it to Gerri and stood. “It was really nice to meet you, Gerri,” she said, shaking Gerri’s hand. “I don’t expect miracles, so if you can’t find anyone for me I’ll understand.”
Gerri’s lips lifted in a wide grin. “Have some faith. I know of a few men who’d love to meet someone as spunky as you.”
She cleared her throat, ribbons of heat crowding her cheeks. “Thanks. I’ll wait for you to call with further information.”
“You bet. I’ll get in touch with you later,” Gerri promised.
She went back to her office feeling excited. Maybe Gerri wouldn’t find her the perfect man, but she was sure any shifter she got matched with would be a lot more interesting than the men she’d dated her entire life.