Two
“Move that ass, Ruby Jean,” Cam said as she sidestepped Ruby Jean St. James. It was a busy day at Cam’s Diner, but she loved it—thrived on the chaos of the packed restaurant. There was something soothing to her soul knowing that her customers came in hungry and left full and happy, their bellies warmed with her home-cooked recipes.
Now, if she could just get her cook to hustle, they’d be caught up in no time.
“Don’t you come in here, to my kitchen, and start sassing me. What do I look like? A damn octopus? I only got two arms, woman, not eight.”
Cam rolled her eyes at Ruby Jean’s theatrics and finished plating another order. She rang the bell to signify another meal was ready to be delivered. Cam started on the next order as Callie swung by to grab the plates with a smile plastered to her face.
Cam grinned, genuinely happy that her friend—and employee had found happiness when she had found her mate. Callie’s life had changed in so many blessed and truly unexpected ways over the past few weeks, Cam still had a hard time processing that her once human friend now had a wolf spirit, like her own—thanks to the Gods.
Cam had found her mate, but had yet to find any sort of happiness whatsoever. In fact, she couldn’t understand the instant rejection the second he had laid his eyes on her. Her wolf felt it too—possibly even stronger than her human self had.
She would never forget the look of complete and total disgust on his face when he glanced at her. If looks could kill, she would have been dead. Those few, precarious seconds with her mate had been hell on her self-esteem. She’d never thought of herself as hideous or un-mateable until she saw the look in his eyes.
It hurt.
It pissed her off.
It made her question everything about her appearance and her life.
All that negativity from a single look. She didn’t like how he made her feel about herself.
“Camryn, girl—where is your head? I’ve been calling your name for over a minute.”
Cam snapped out of it, shaking off the fresh wave of self-loathing that had been brought on by thinking about her supposed mate. “Sorry, I guess I just have a lot on my mind. What else do you need me to do?”
“Uh-hhh sure you do. Nothing now, we’re all caught up. That’s what I was trying to tell you.”
“Whew! Thanks.”
Cam felt like she was under a microscope in some weird science project as Ruby Jean eyed her up. “You know what they say? Think of the devil and he appears,” Ruby Jean motioned through the window to Ethan, who was leaning against a light pole watching Cam’s every move.
A light blush covered her cheeks. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ruby Jean. I wasn’t thinking about him.” She tried to defend herself, but Ruby Jean knew her well enough, and saw right through her pathetic act.
“Sure you weren’t. Is there something going on between you and Mr. Hot-ass that you want to share with the class?” Ruby Jean arched an eyebrow and settled her hand on her right hip, expecting Cam to spill her guts.
Cam knew that look well enough. It meant that she needed to get the hell out of Dodge. “Nope. Not a thing.”
Technically, it was the truth. Sadly, there wasn’t a damn thing going on between her and her mate. And—judging by the scowl on his face there probably would never be anything going on between them.
“I’m out. Holler if you need something.” Cam hauled ass out of the kitchen before Ruby Jean’s line of questioning could continue. She loved the girl, God knows she did, but that didn’t mean she had any intention of dragging Ruby Jean into this mess. At least not until she knew what the fuck was going on.
***
Cam didn’t spare a single glance back at Ethan as she made her way to the front of her diner. She didn’t even undress him once with her eyes—really. If he wanted to pretend like she wasn’t his mate,the one the Fates had chosen for him, so be it. Two could play that mother-humping game. She would go about her day, without another thought or glance in his direction. There was more than enough work to keep her busy.
And that was exactly what she did. The lunch crowd came and went, a few stragglers had opted for a late-afternoon meal that kept her mind and body plenty busy. Before she knew it, the diner had started to fill up again for the evening rush.
She had sensed his presence before he’d strolled up behind her, felt the heat from his breath on the back of her neck the second he opened his mouth. It made her weak in the knees. It made her head spin. It annoyed the fuck out of her.
“We need to talk.”
That was all he had said. The first words that he had ever spoken to her. Not a ‘hi how are you’ or anything like that.
If he could be indifferent about her, he had better expect the same in return. She wanted to ignore him, tell him to walk his hot ass right back out of the door, he’d just wandered in, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak the words. Her wolf begged her to be nice. At least find out what he wanted.
She wanted to play coy, shy—but she had no idea how to pull it off. The only languages she spokefluently were sarcasm and bitch — and,unfortunately, that’s exactly what tumbled from her mouth. “Really? I can’t imagine what you’d want to talk to me about.”
