smaller than the carefully plain block letters of the first.
GTFO!
“The hell?” I muttered. “‘GTFO’?”
With a shrug, I folded the paper back up and put it and the knife down on the table, putting it down to more of Seth’s shenanigans. Chaz would probably be pissed, but I doubted he’d do much more than growl and huff over it.
I enjoyed the rest of my coffee in bed while I waited for Chaz to finish up. When he walked out of the shower in nothing but a towel around his waist, I got up to give him a kiss and a few words of warning. “Don’t get mad, but it looks like Seth and his buddies left a little love letter on the door.”
“Christ, I wish they’d been taken in by another pack.”
f I shrugged, finishing off my coffee and setting the mug aside. “Like I said last night, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. They’re just being rowdy, disrespectful teenagers.”
He walked over to the table and picked up the note, puzzling over it like I had. At least he seemed more confused than angry over it. “What the hell is ‘GTFO’ supposed to mean?”
“Don’t know, don’t care. I’m going to take that shower, then let’s grab some food.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
I didn’t take too long to get ready, and soon we were walking arm in arm through the light drizzle up to the lodge. When we got inside, we followed our noses to the dining hall, more than happy to find that we weren’t too late for breakfast. There were only a handful of people in the dining hall: a trio of geeky looking guys who watched us groggily over cups of coffee from the corner furthest from the windows; one or two lone diners; and a bunch of Chaz’s pack gathered by the big picture windows, laughing and chatting. Thankfully, Seth and his buddies were nowhere in sight.
A stout older woman with blue-gray hair and an apron was laughing along with what someone at one of the tables was saying. She smiled and waved us over with her notepad, gesturing for us to take a seat at a round table with four other Sunstrikers. I sat down next to a slender woman with a ponytail and a tan, Chaz next to a guy with a number of gold piercings and a couple of tattoos visible where he’d rolled up the sleeves of his sweatshirt. The scent of Were was heavy in the room, not unpleasant, but bordering on overpowering mixed with all the food.
The older woman who had waved us over—Mr. Cassidy’s wife—beamed at us. “Good morning! Can I get you two started with some orange juice? Maybe some coffee or tea?”
“Coffee would be great,” I said, returning her warm smile as I settled back into the seat Chaz had pulled out for me.
“Shiarra, right?” asked one of the guys at the table as Mrs. Cassidy hurried off to get the drinks. “I’m Sean. This is Nick, Paula, and Kimberly.”
We all shook hands, me leaning over the table to reach across to Sean and Paula. Everyone seemed pleased enough to meet me, if a little bleary-eyed. Nick, the one with the tattoos and piercings, looked to be nursing a bit of a hangover. I was willing to bet he’d stayed up late to watch the game with some of the other guys at the bar. They all seemed younger than Chaz and me, perhaps in their early twenties, and were all wearing loose jeans or sweatpants and warm sweatshirts. The girls’ stuff was not nearly as ratty as the guys’ clothes, but they were still the kinds of things you wouldn’t necessarily mind shifting in.
“Thank you for coming,” Paula said, her cheeks dimpling with an impish smile. “Maybe having you here will keep these yahoos in line.”
“Hey! We’re not that much of a pain in the ass,” Nick protested.
“No more than Seth, anyway,” Kimberly said.
“Have you seen him and his cohorts?” Sean added. “They came in here this morning and were complaining so loudly about the food that Mr. Cassidy came in and told them they’d better go find someplace else to eat, or he’d personally whup their asses from here to Jersey. They slunk out of here with their tails between their legs and took off for town. It was great!”
“I’m not surprised,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “He and his buddies seem like nothing but trouble.”
“Don’t you get started, too. It’s bad enough I have to justify