Beast Behaving Badly
Page 49

Youre right. That was a hell of a drop, though, for a little dog. Still gripping the beam, Bert leaned over. You all right, little dog? Can you hear me?
Ric muttered something, but Lock couldnt really understand him with his face smashed into the floor like that, so he lifted him up.
What did you say?
I said, I hate all of you.
Why? We didnt toss you up there.
Exactly, Bert agreed as he came down the beam. He took his bag back from Lock. We were the ones who helped you. We could have left you up there.
Yep. You should be grateful.
Ric limped away, muttering something about bastard bears.
Canines are so moody, Bert commented as they walked toward the team locker room.
And totally ungrateful.
Practice ended early, most likely because the team captain kept going on and on about how his face hurt from that thirty-foot drop hed taken. Whiner. And with the team gone, Bo once again had the ice to himself.
Using his stick, he kept the puck in front of him and skated a figure-eight pattern, looping around and behind the goals, picking up speed as he went along. To be honest, he never tired of this. He could stay on the ice for days at a time and hed be happy.
Speeding into the goal crease, seconds from sending the puck down to the opposite end, Bo almost rammed into the net when he saw Blayne skate through the doors. She had on her helmet, elbow and knee pads, and fingerless leather gloves. The kind Bo used when he did weight training.
Forgetting the puckperhaps for the first time in his lifeBo skated over to her.
Hi. What happened to your face? She had a cut open on the side of her head and a line of blood trickling down her jaw.
Huh? She touched her face. Oh. That. Its nothing. I got it during team practice.
Not paying attention again?
Can we talk about that later?
Okay. So whats up?
Uh . . . theres a strong possibility lion males may be coming to kill you. Okay . . . bye! She turned to skate off, and Bo grabbed the back of her sweatshirt. She kept skating for about a minute before she gave up completely, arms falling limply at her sides.
Are you going to tell me why lion males are trying to kill me?
I didnt say are. I said maybe. She faced him. For them to rally up enough energy to get off their lazy asses and drive up here . . . Id be more concerned if it were the females. Then Id just tell ya to get out of town.
Blayne.
Yeah?
Whats going on?
Thats when sheexploded with, Im sorry!
Okay.
I am so, so, so sorry!
The workings of the Blayne Thorpe mind. If he wanted a straight answer, hed have to ask her for one. Maybe you should tell me what happened first before you apologize any more, otherwise Im sensing well be here all night.
Its Mitchs fault, she began.
Okay. He waited a few seconds, then asked, Whos Mitch again?
Gwens brother.
Okay.
Hes a big fan.
Okay.
Except that year you were with Dallas. He hated you that year.
He wouldnt be the first from Philly to feel that way. And so Mitch . . . he pushed when she remained silent.
Oh. Right. See, this is what happened. I was over at Jesss house and shes pregnant and kinda feeling down because you know its never easy and I think shes just really tired and feels left out and this is her first pup so Im sure itll be better when she has a few more, which apparently she and Smitty are planning to do and anyway, I was trying to make her feel better, which is a definite problem of mine, not the making feel better thing but what I do to make people feel better, which is talk . . . a lot . . . and before I knew it I told her and the rest of her Pack about us having breakfast this morning with Bernie and they immediately began to think we were going out and I was telling them that you are not one of my gentleman callers but they didnt believe me and while I was trying to explain that no, you werent, in comes Mitch and he hears just enough to blow it all out of proportion and I tried to stop him before he came over here and got himself killed, and I had him in my jaws of death hold but hes a male lion and it wasnt as effective on him as it is on his sister and I told him to keep his mouth shut but he didnt and now everyone in Philly thinks youre taking advantage of me and all the ONeill males are in a rage because Im like family, and Im really sorry about all this.
Nope. Hed never heard anyone talk that fast while creating the longest run-on sentence in human historyand doing it all in one breath. Bo was fascinated.
Youre not saying anything, she observed.
After all that, what is there to say
I understand.
other than . . . exactly how many gentlemen callers do you have that Im not actually one of them?
Currently, I dont have any gentlemen callers, but I could at any moment. However, it is not a title given out lightly.