Free Bear The Heat (Mating Call Dating Agency Book 3) by Lynn Red Page B

can’t tell what I’m doing, and I think it might be a pretty terrible mistake, so I need your help .”
    “ Be right there—office? ” she texted back, knowing the answer before it came. Of course it was the office. What the hell else would Monte be doing that he needed such urgent help with?
    And anyway it’s not like he really did anything except working.
    “ Home ,” came the reply.
    She didn’t even bother to follow up. If he wanted her at his house, something was definitely wrong. A laundry list of possible problems ran through her mind, but the one that worried her the most was that he was having some kind of health problem – Monte never did have the best heart, she thought, and his blood pressure was pretty high.
    Rory ran to her car, not even thinking about the fact that in the space of a half hour, two things that she never expected had happened – she had apparently wandered into a guy who at least on the surface appeared to like her, and second, Monte asked for help at his house.
    There wasn’t time to think, not really, but when she pulled into the curbside parking space in front of her boss’s red brick craftsman house, she got a shock of energy that almost took her breath away.
    “What if this is it?” she asked her empty car. “What if he is it?
    Oh my God, I’m going insane. I’m talking to my air freshener and I’m thinking about living out some Leave it to Beaver fantasy with a bear I just met. I should probably get my shit together, and take things one step at a time. If I don’t, I’m going to end up taking forty steps at once, getting myself all screwed up over this guy, and then having my heart broken.
    “And yeah, I really need to stop talking to my goddamn car.”
    “Rory?” a voice from the open front door came, loud and clear. “I need your help!”
    BEAR THE HEAT

61
    Instinctually, she kicked open her Acura’s door, which had been kicked open so many times that a spider’s web of cracks and splits were all over the driver’s side door. As soon as she hopped out of the car and balanced on the curb on just her big toes— there are other benefits to mink-hood aside from the sense of smell—her boss tottered out of the house, shirtless.
    “Oh my God, Monte!” she shouted, running to his side.
    “What happened? Are you okay? Do you need an ambulance?”
    That’s when she noticed the truly horrific, eye-abusing, monstrosity around his neck. “Wait, why the hell are you wearing a tie covered in naked hula dancers?” She paused for a second, then grabbed the fat end of the tie and held it up in her hand, as though inspecting it more carefully in the sunlight would reveal she’d somehow mistaken what was printed on it.
    No such luck.
    “I need an explanation, and I need it now, otherwise I’m not calling the ambulance, I’m calling the guys in the white suits with the long-handled butterfly nets. You can’t be serious about wearing this out of the house, especially not if you’re going on a...”
    “Date?” they both said at the same time.
    Rory blinked her eyes hard and then pinched the bridge of her nose. “No, no, no,” she said. “No, this can’t be happening. I am not seeing this right now.”
    The end of the tie lay lazily on top of Monte’s slight potbelly.
    “What? What’s so wrong with me having a date? Dora’s a nice girl and she makes me laugh and—”
    “No, that part makes me happy,” Rory said. “Really happy.
    No, what I’m talking about is this thing on your neck. Honey, if you came to a date with me wearing that thing, I’d start looking for the Candid Camera crew.”
    “Really?” he asked, innocently. “I thought it was kinda funny.”
    “Yeah,” she answered sharply. “I think I finally realized why it took this long for you to get a date. Come on in here. I might not 62

Lynn Red
    be able to make sure you two hit it off, but I can damn sure prevent her spitting a drink all over you as she laughs, and then running