Prickly Business by Piper Vaughn & Kenzie Cade

indebted to him. I couldn’t risk that. Besides, I didn’t want to put you in the position of having to lie to your father.”
    Jaden frowned and picked at the sleeve on his cup. Avery smelled mocha, which wasn’t surprising. Jaden loved chocolate. “Well, I get that,” Jaden said finally, “but I feel awful that you were in danger and I didn’t have a fucking clue.”
    Avery squeezed his hand again. “It’s okay now. Dylan helped me take care of it.” Damn. Even saying his name made Avery’s body react, a flush of warmth moving over his skin, a little quiver down low in his belly. It used to be he couldn’t speak Dylan’s name without an accompanying flash of irritation. He kind of missed those days, to be honest. He’d gotten accustomed to those feelings. They were familiar. This new stuff? Not so much. “And you know you can’t mention the races to your father,” he added. “Victor would kill me if word got out.”
    Jaden gave him a wry look. “I’m not an idiot. My father would lose his mind.”
    “I’m just saying….”
    Jaden sighed. “Yeah, I know.” He peeled the sleeve from his cup and rolled the thin recycled cardboard into a cylinder. “What are you going to do? About Dylan and your parents and the money?”
    Avery shrugged one shoulder, but he was sure Jaden could see right through his casual act. “Find a job. What else can I do?”
    “That might take you months, though. When my friend Mickey got laid off, he didn’t find a new job for almost a year.”
    Avery’s stomach clenched. “I know. And I don’t have any work experience, not even from high school. Honestly, who do you think would consider me a good candidate? McDonald’s?”
    Jaden shuddered. “The smell alone would drive you nuts.”
    Avery nudged his mostly full bowl of soup away and dropped his head into his hands. “Ugh.” He gave a dry laugh. “And they probably wouldn’t hire me either.”
    “I’d put in a good word for you at Envision, but I know we’re not hiring right now.”
    Avery shot Jaden a grateful smile. He loved Jaden for even considering trying to get him in at Envision when they both knew Avery didn’t have the necessary experience to work for a marketing firm anyway. “Thanks, Jay.”
    Jaden stared off into middle distance for a moment, his expression contemplative. When he spoke again, it was with a hesitancy Avery seldom heard from him. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but Dylan was right about my father and the pack jobs he mentioned. You could go see him.”
    Avery couldn’t help his skeptical frown. “It’s not like I haven’t thought about it, but how would I explain why I suddenly need a job? He knows my parents support me.” Avery sighed at the stab of pain in his heart. “Supported me.”
    “You’re not looking at it objectively,” Jaden said. “He doesn’t know you’ve lost your parents’ financial support. Your father wouldn’t have called him. He’s only spoken to my father twice—once to ask if you could attend school here and the other to ask for approval for you to stay in Portland. We’ll tell him your parents want you to get some experience, learn some responsibility. Trust me, he won’t question it.”
    Avery worried at his lower lip with his teeth, trying to shove down the hope that threatened to rise in his chest. It couldn’t possibly be this easy, could it? Not with his luck. “Seriously?”
    Jaden nodded. “Seriously. I can take the rest of the day off. Let’s go see him when we’re done here. It won’t hurt to ask.”
    “Okay.”
    “And once that’s done, we need to talk about your mate.”
    Avery snorted. “There’s nothing to talk about. He still doesn’t like me.”
    Jaden arched a ginger brow. “That fifteen thousand dollars says otherwise. You guys need to talk, apologize, and get past what happened before. Stop being stubborn asses.”
    “Look, it’s done. I don’t care anymore, and he doesn’t want a mate,