The Jaguar's Halloween Bride (Holiday Mail Order Mates Book 5)

by Lola Kidd

  “When I’m feeling stressed, working out always helps. You know it releases endorphins and everything. I may be sad or angry when I get there, but I always leave the gym with a smile on my face.”

  “Are you kidding me?” she asked, exasperated. “I don’t even have a gym membership anymore. I thought they told you.”

  Abe’s mouth dropped open. “What happened to your membership? Nobody told me anything. Why would they?”

  “Well, they kept mentioning how strange it was that your girlfriend wasn’t going to have a gym membership. They thought you would put me on your friends and family plan.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I think if I could get a free or deeply discounted membership, you should have mentioned that a long time ago.”

  “But we’re not family yet,” he sputtered. “I mean, do you want to be on my friends and family plan? Is that why you canceled?”

  Lizzy sat down on the couch. “No, that’s not it. I don’t want to go to the gym at all. That’s why I canceled my membership. I mean, if I was getting it for free, I guess I would’ve kept it. You know, just in case or whatever. But I’m not, and I’m not going to pay for something that I’m not using.”

  “But you said you like the gym.”

  “I never said I liked the gym. I was excited to try to go, but it’s never worked out for me before. This time was no different. I’m just giving up on the whole thing. I don’t like anything about it, and I don’t want to go.”

  Abe sat down too. What a mistake this was. They were having an argument about a gym membership. He just couldn’t believe she had lied about wanting to go.

  He knew he should let it go, but he had to push a little more. Maybe she was just feeling down. Sometimes when he felt that bad, he didn’t want to work out either, but once he got to the gym and started working out, he always felt much better. He was just trying to get her to put in a little effort. That wasn’t asking too much. From the sound of it, she had only gone once or twice and then quit.

  She had sounded so excited and had said she liked her trainer, but maybe Jennifer wasn’t right for her. Maybe if she had a trainer like him, she would try harder. He didn’t understand why she was refusing to go with him.

  “We can go now, and I can sign you up on my plan,” he suggested. “I can even take over as your trainer. I can set you up a whole new workout plan.”

  She slammed her hand down on the couch. “Let it go, Abe. I’m not going to go to the stupid gym.”

  “Please don’t call my workplace stupid. It’s not like I talk about your stupid candy shop.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You think my candy shop is stupid?”

  Lizzy was quickly going from sad to mad. He hated to see her sad, but this was even worse. He needed to get out of there. Nothing he said was going to make this better.

  He stood up. “I think I need to go and start my workout. If you want to get on my plan, please let me know.”

  He didn’t wait for her to open the door, and he didn’t kiss her goodbye. He wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. He had no idea what he had done. He didn’t want to start a fight. He was just trying to help.

  Abe was upset the entire drive to the gym. He didn’t know what he had done to offend Lizzy, but she was clearly mad at him. He had only asked her to go to the gym. He hadn’t said anything mean or been rude. Maybe he shouldn’t have shown up at her place unannounced, but she didn’t have to freak out on him.

  He’d thought he was being a good boyfriend by supporting her and her dreams, and he had hoped that she and Ray would do the same for him. She had been clear when she told him her health goals. She wasn’t going to reach them by doing nothing.

  Earlier in the week, her trainer had said she missed seeing Lizzy, so Abe knew she wasn’t going to the gym regularly. He knew how hard it was to motivate yourself to go to the gym, and if he were in her position, it would be nice for someone to surprise him and ask him to be their gym buddy.

  None of it made sense. Abe didn’t know what to think.

  When he got to the gym, he saw that he had a missed call from Ray. He returned the call before going inside. “What’s going on?”

  “I think I found where we should take Lizzy tomorrow,” Ray said. “What about the park on the other side of town? It should look really pretty now, with all the leaves changing colors, and it’s never crowded.”

  “I don’t know if she wants to go for a walk with us anymore.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know. I’m just making a guess. She didn’t seem excited to see me today. I surprised her and asked her if she wanted to go to the gym. She got really mad at me.”

  “Was she doing something important? I’d be mad if you interrupted me.”

  “No, not really. She’s just chilling at home. I know she hasn’t gone for a few days, and I wanted to help her out. Give her a little boost of confidence. I know how hard it can be to motivate yourself to go to the gym alone.”

  “Maybe she just wasn’t in the mood to see you today.”

  “Maybe,” Abe said. “I don’t know.”

  Ray sighed. “What are you thinking?”

  “She said she doesn’t even have a gym membership anymore. She said that she didn’t even like the gym. But remember when we went out on our first few dates? How she was all excited about going to the gym again?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “So, maybe she was just pretending. Maybe she hated the gym all along, but she wanted to try to impress us.”

  Ray snorted. “She’s not like that.”

  “But how many girls have we gone out with who were? You said the same thing about all of them.”

  “Yeah, but that could just be our bad luck. It’s different this time.”

  “Or maybe she’s a continuation of our bad luck and poor judgment. We always get drawn in by a pretty face and a hot body.”

  Ray didn’t say anything for a moment. Abe had to check to make sure he hadn’t hung up or been disconnected. “You still there?”

  “Yeah. Just thinking. Okay, so if what you said is true, she would have had to lie about more than the gym. I’m not going to be mad that someone hates the gym. Heck, I don’t even like going that often.”

  “I’m not sure. I’m not looking for signs of her being a liar or anything. This could just be the tip of the iceberg,” Abe said. “Wait. Actually, I have one more. Remember how she was all excited to go to our Halloween party? Now she says that she might not go, and she doesn’t even care. I bet she didn’t want to go in the first place. She isn’t even trying to find a new costume or anything.”

  Ray made a noise. “Yeah, that was kind of bothering me too. If she was really excited to go, I think she would try harder to find a new costume.”

  “See, that’s what I mean,” Abe said. “What if she doesn’t even like the same things that we do? What if she’s saying whatever she needs to so she can get in our pants? If men do it, you know there have to be women like that too.”

  Ray laughed. “But she hasn’t tried to sleep with us.”

  “That could be part of the plan. Lure us in and make us think she likes us and then leave after she gets what she wants. We’ve had girls do that kind of thing before.”

  Back in high school, they had dated girls who weren’t very interested in them except as eye candy. They would seem interested until after prom or homecoming. Once they’d gotten the formal pictures they wanted or the homecoming crown, the girls would drop them like a bad habit.

  Abe was slow to trust, but he tried to get to know everyone and give them a fair shot. But he’d seen some things happen over and over. He didn’t understand it, but some people put up a false front to try to date them.

  He didn’t want to think the worst of Lizzy, but she was starting to look like a shady lady.

  “We have to talk to her tomorrow on the walk,” Ray said.

  “Agreed. Look, man, I gotta go. I’ll see you when I get home from the gym.”

&
nbsp; “Bye. Have a nice workout.”

  Abe had a lot to think about. He was glad he could mindlessly work off his problems. They were going to have to get the bottom of this with Lizzy, but he was hoping for the best. He liked her a lot, and he didn’t want to get burned again.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Lizzy was so mad, she could barely think straight. She’d been seeing red ever since Abe had left her house.

  He’d come by not once but twice now to try to get her to go to the gym. She knew she should have told him earlier that she had quit, but what did it matter? It wasn’t like she had ever talked to him at the gym or had even been at the gym when he was there.

  It wasn’t their hangout place or anything, either. Yes, it was where they had first met, but that was in the parking lot. She didn’t understand why he was so mad.

  The only thing her mind kept coming back to, over and over, was that he wanted her to go to the gym because he wanted her to work out more. He wanted her to work out more because he wanted her to lose weight.

  That couldn’t be it, though. It was a stretch.

  But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense.

  She had planned to sleep on it. She would talk to them about her feelings on their walk the next day. But the more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She was mad enough to drive over right away.

  She knew it was crazy, and she tried to stop herself, but with no luck. As the night wore on, she got angrier and angrier. Finally, knowing that she would never be able to get to sleep, she threw on her pajama bottoms and a hoodie before leaving for the twins’ house.

  The whole way, she bit her nails and thought about turning back. This was starting to get a little ridiculous. She had no idea what she was going to say. Her anger was fueling her, but what she was feeling didn’t make much sense. By the time she arrived at their place, she had decided to wing it. She would just say whatever first came to mind.

  When she got there, Abe open the door, obviously surprised. “Lizzy, what are you doing here?”

  “Can we talk?”

  He looked like he was going to say no, but then Ray came up behind him. “Hey, Lizzy, what’s going on?”

  “I was hoping we could have a little talk. That is, if Abe will let me in.”

  Ray laughed. “Of course he will. You’re always welcome here.”

  Lizzy entered their home tentatively. She still wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to say, and she could feel her anger getting the best of her. Just looking at Abe was annoying her.

  “I wanted to talk to Abe about surprise-visiting me.” She looked at Ray apologetically. “You really don’t need to be here for this.”

  Ray looked uncomfortable. “I kind of do. I don’t think we should split up when we’re talking about something that’s important.”

  “It’s not really that important,” Lizzy said. “I just wanted to ask him to stop surprising me.”

  “You don’t want to see us that much anymore?” Abe sounded hurt.

  “No, I want to see you,” Lizzy clarified. “I just don’t want you to come over and ask me to go to the gym.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were quitting?” Abe demanded.

  “You quit the gym?” Ray asked. “You know we get a really steep discount, right? I don’t go very often, but I only pay like two dollars a month. Even if you only go once a month, it’s worth it.”

  She sighed, exasperated. “What is it with you guys and the freaking gym? I don’t want to go to the gym now. I don’t want to go to the gym ever. I don’t like the gym. You guys are making a big deal out of this for no reason.”

  “I thought you wanted to go to the gym,” Ray said. “You seemed really excited about it on our first date. You mentioned it more than once.”

  “I just wanted you to reach your goals,” Abe said, crossing his arms. “But if you’re all talk and no action, that’s fine by me. You won’t be the first person I’ve said that to, and you definitely won’t be the last.”

  Lizzy put her hands on her hips. “All talk and no action? This doesn’t really need any action. I don’t care about it.”

  “Now you don’t care about your health?” Abe scoffed. “What was all that talk about, then? We weren’t the ones who made the goals for you. You were the one who chose them and told us all about it. I was only reacting to your excitement.”

  “Really? It seems like you’re reacting to the fact that I was going to the gym to get all toned. You just wanted me to change.”

  “I wanted you to change? No, I want you follow through with what you plan to do.” Abe sat down on the couch and kicked up his feet. “I know it’s much easier to be lazy than it is to follow through. I’m not going to hold it against you. Lots of people are lazy. Lots of people don’t do the things they say they will.”

  “Whoa,” Ray said, putting his hands up. “Let’s not throw around accusations. I don’t think Lizzy’s lazy. She just doesn’t have follow-through.”

  Lizzy gritted her teeth. “I do have follow-through. I have my own freaking business. I don’t know why you guys are talking to me like this. It’s just that damn gym.”

  “Yeah, just the gym. You know, the place I work at and dedicate my life to,” Abe said sarcastically. “This isn’t about the gym. This is about you saying you’ll do something and then not doing it. And now you’re mad at me because you’re not following through. Or maybe you’re mad that I was trying to hold you to your promise to yourself. But whatever. This isn’t my problem. It’s yours.”

  “Abe just won’t ask you to go to the gym with him anymore,” Ray said, trying to bring down the tense atmosphere. “It’s not a big deal. If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to go. He won’t surprise you at your place anymore, either.”

  “I like him coming to my house,” Lizzy said. “I like when he surprises me. I just don’t want him to ask me to go with him to the gym anymore.”

  “You don’t want me to ask you to follow through. Whatever. I won’t come see you by myself anymore. I’ll always call ahead first.”

  “Abe, could you quit?” Ray snapped. “Lizzy, you’re right. Abe shouldn’t have asked you to go to the gym after you’d already said no. But you can see why he was worried, right? You can see why he asked you.”

  “No, actually I don’t,” she said defensively. “I’m an adult. I know how to follow through with my goals. If it’s important to me, I’ll do it. I choose what I want to do. You can’t force me to like something just because you do. I don’t appreciate you guys calling me lazy or saying I lack follow-through.”

  “Fine. Whatever.” Abe turned on the TV and began flipping through the channels.

  “I don’t appreciate you ignoring me.” Lizzy stepped in front of the TV so he couldn’t watch it. “Are we through with this conversation? Do you understand why I’m angry?”

  “Get out of the way. I’m trying to watch something. I turned on the TV, and now I’m following through with my decision to watch it. Or do you want to stop me from following through with my plans too?”

  Lizzy threw her hands up. “I can’t win with you. You’re taking this too far. I don’t know if I want to be with someone who takes all these things so seriously.”

  “Are you saying you want to break up with us?” Abe asked, finally looking her in the eye. “Because if you’re going to break up with us over something so stupid, then I don’t think I want to be with you, either.”

  “Hold on a minute,” Ray said. “This escalated quickly. Why don’t we all just take a minute so we can cool down before anyone says something they’ll regret?”

  Lizzy turned to him. “So, what? If I break up with Abe, I have to break up with you too?”

  “We’re kind of a package deal,” Abe said sarcastically. “You know, alpha triad. That means three. Not two.”

  “Whatever,” Lizzy said. “Well, then, I’m breaking up with both of you. Nice knowing you.”

  She walked out of the house, slammin
g the front door behind her, before they could see her cry. But by the time she got to her car, she had no idea what had happened.

  She knew there was no taking this back. The fight had gotten out of hand, but she had meant what she’d said. She didn’t want to be with someone who talked to her like that. If that was how they felt about her, then that was how she felt too.

  It was over.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “I can’t believe you’re still going to do this,” Ray said.

  “We have to get back out there if you want to find our mate,” Abe told his brother.

  “We’ve already found our mate.”

  Ray shook his head. He had been shaking his head at Abe a lot these past few days. The small movement was getting on Abe’s last nerve.

  It wasn’t his fault Lizzy had lied. He wanted her to be their mate as badly as Ray, but he couldn’t put up with people who told lies, when they said whatever they had to in order to get close to him. He knew how that always turned out in the end. Ray should be thanking his lucky stars that Abe had figured this out so quickly.

  He was a hero, really. He was protecting them. It was better to know the truth now, before they really fell in love with her. The whole situation could have been so much worse if Abe hadn’t been insistent and forced Lizzy to show her true colors. Ray was too kind-hearted. He always wanted to believe the best. It was always up to Abe to do the hard work. This time was no different. He’d had to call Lizzy out on her lies.

  They still could have come back from her deception. She could have owned up to lying and tried to start over as her real self. But no, that was asking too much. She had dug her heels in and tried to make him out to be the bad guy. It was totally crazy. Now Ray was acting the same way, and it pissed him off. He couldn’t even speak about it with his twin.

  “You should come with me,” he told Ray.

  “I don’t want go out now. What if she shows up? It would be too painful to see her right now.”