Where Winter Finds You (Black Dagger Brotherhood #18)- J.R Ward Page 0,14
release some tension.
“This is bullshit,” Liza said. “And you better call me to make sure I get home safe.”
With that, she huffed off, and it was only when the coast was clear that Therese glanced over. “You know, if you want to go, I can handle—”
“No.” Emile shook his head curtly. “She needs to do her own thing. I don’t know what her problem’s been the last week or two.”
You haven’t noticed that she’d like to stab me with a fork? Therese thought. And every shift she’s denied the chance, she gets even crankier?
Emile looked over. “We’re not dating. Just so you know. She lives two streets away from my apartment and I give her rides. That’s it.”
Therese stepped away from the water machine. “She doesn’t bother me.”
Emile’s smile was relieved. “That’s good. That’s… really good.”
To break the eye contact, Therese took a couple of steps over and made a show of assessing the main dining room. There were twenty or so tables of various sizes and configurations, and just as Liza had reported, only two were filled, one by a human couple, and another, a four-top, by a male of the species. The bar, which had banquette seating, was totally empty, and the other front room, which was Liza’s territory, was empty.
And then Therese realized something.
“Wait, are we the only servers here?”
There was the sound of ice rattling into a container. “Now that Liza’s gone, yes, I think we are. The hostess left.”
Therese sensed the human man staring at her, and she wanted to tell him to stop. Not because he was being offensive or invasive and not because she felt threatened. It was because she felt absolutely nothing at all—and also because he only thought he knew who she was. Humans assumed vampires were a Halloween myth, and that secret needed to be kept. But more than that, she wasn’t looking for any kind of a relationship, not even a casual-dating or friends-with-benefits one.
If she was going to get involved with somebody—which she was not—it was going to be that Shadow—
Stop it, she thought. Just frickin’ stop it—
“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
Therese shook herself and focused on Emile. His handsome face was stricken, his skin pale.
“What?” she said.
“Look, I don’t…” He put his water container down on the counter. “I don’t want to make things weird.”
“What?”
As he stood there, looking downcast, she cursed under her breath. She must have spoken the red light out loud.
She put her hand on his shoulder. “Oh, my God. No, no. I was talking to myself. That wasn’t directed to you. I’m sorry.”
As his features eased and he started to smile, she almost went to find Liza and suggest she be the one to work with the guy. What the hell was going on tonight? There seemed to be trouble happening everywhere she turned, even though she hadn’t dropped any trays or spilled wine on any customers.
Yet, she tacked on. She hadn’t done a dropsy yet. The night was still young.
Before she could figure out a way to kindly pump the man’s breaks—although maybe she should lead with a flash of her fangs and then dematerialize right in front of him; that would take care of things—Emile smiled like the prospects of the evening had just gotten so much better.
He nodded out to the dining room. “You see that blond guy?”
Relieved to have anything else to focus on, Therese glanced toward the hearth. “Yes?”
“You take that table. He’s a great tipper.”
“I don’t want to cheat you out of—”
“No, you take it. And don’t worry, I’ll handle everyone else that comes in. I’ll make it up.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Trust me,” Emile said dryly. “You’re going to need the extra time with him. Even if he eats alone.”
CHAPTER FIVE
And still the cold waters of the Hudson River beckoned.
As Trez pulled his car into his reserved space behind shAdoWs, he killed the engine and just sat there outside of his club, watching the snowflakes clutter up the windshield that no longer was swept clean by the wipers. When it dawned on him that he’d turned things off with the blades halfway up the arc of their path, he reignited the electrical system and brought them back into their proper place, all tucked in under the lip of the hood, a pair of twins put to bed. It felt good to set something, anything, into alignment, and the fact that the best he had to work with in that department was the wipers on his car?