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Chapter Sixteen
Claire
The Sidecar was a tiny little dive near the downtown area of Mystic Springs. Known simply as “the diner” to locals, it was a relic of its time. Entering the little eatery, it was as if you had been transported at least 40 years into Mystic Springs’ past. The diner was narrow with a long lunch counter to the back of the diner with a row of brown, weathered booths near the front.
Being just after ten, there was little movement on the streets of Mystic Springs at this time of night. By all appearances, the town went to sleep close to nine.
But of course, I knew better. I knew what could happen to a young witch after dark in Mystic Springs. And the constant tickle at the back of my mind told me that there were two witches currently somewhere in the town who needed my help.
Mine and Jack’s.
As I stepped into the diner, I saw that there was no one there except for the cook who stood behind the long lunch counter, cleaning off the grill. Giving him a quick nod, I took a seat at the booth. After ordering a coffee from the cook, I tried to still my nerves as I waited. Tried not to focus on the fact that I was waiting for Jack to appear. Tried to ignore how greedy I was for even this little sliver of attention.
I knew he arrived before I saw his shadowed form walking toward the diner through the large plate-glass windows. The door opened with a jingle of the entry bell and a whoosh of air.
My breath caught every time I saw him. I had thought he was handsome long before I’d ever presented to him, but he seemed to have grown even more attractive over the years.
I ignored the way my heart jumped in my chest as he stepped into the diner. So damned tall and imposing. Even the cook looked up, giving him a once over, before returning his attention to the coffeemaker. He towered over the booths as he turned and saw me. And when his blue eyes met mine, my stomach did that annoying little flip it always did whenever he looked my way.
And every time, I always wondered what it would be like to look up into those dark blue eyes when he was deep inside me.
Sometimes I questioned if what I felt was love or merely a facsimile. After all, he never seemed to return the affection. Not really. Could you love someone so unconditionally and thoroughly if they never gave you anything other than brief glimpses of who they were?
I still wasn’t sure that I believed him about his not fucking Lana Rogers. As hard as I tried, there was no way I couldn’t hate her. Not when she was getting the one thing I had wanted for so long. Was it fair to her? Probably not, but none of this was fair.
Thoughts of what it would feel like to hold on to his broad shoulders as he worked himself inside me tumbled into my mind, unbidden. Too often I had dreamt about what it would feel like to have Jack Beaumont’s knot swell inside my pussy. If he had been with her, those were all things that she would have experienced. Things that I never would.
I pushed the thoughts away as he folded himself into the booth seat opposite me. He seemed uncomfortable with how close the booth made us. He always did his utmost to keep himself separate from me. Now that we were sitting in the booth, I couldn’t push away from the intimacy our proximity created. The booth was so small that I could feel his legs brush against mine. Layers of fabric separated our skin, but there was still no mistaking the heat of our bodies.
Knowing he would be uncomfortable with even this bit of touching, I pulled my shorter legs back into myself and pushed all those annoying thoughts I was having earlier away.
“I assume that if you found out anything, you would have called me already,” I said.
Once Jack had taken a seat, he ordered coffee from the tired cook after he loped reluctantly to our table.
It occurred to me that, as long as we’d known each other, Jack and I hadn’t often shared a meal. The times we had, it had always been something necessary like this. Coffee, maybe a donut or a slice of pie, but never had he taken me out for a meal. There were certainly no romantic dinners shared between the two of us.
And why would there be? As far as he was concerned, I wasn’t his mate.
“The Morgans are insular as hell,” Jack said as he leaned back against the booth seat. To anyone else, the movement would have looked like nothing more than a man relaxing in his seat. This was his way of putting as much space between us as possible. His body tensed, and it hurt to know he felt so uncomfortable around me.
“They want their daughter found,” Jack continued, “but they’re unwilling to admit to anything that might have put her in danger. To hear them tell it, she had no bad habits, was a model student, and never even raised her voice.”
I snorted. As far as I knew, no such teenager had ever existed who embodied such a description.
“I tried to call and talk with them today,” I said, twirling my coffee cup in my hand, focusing on the movement instead of how near I was to Jack. “They hung up on me.”
Carlton was irritated that we hadn’t gotten very far with either the family or the Mayor. It salved my bruised feelings to know that he at least understood it wasn’t my fault. We were dealing with a magical community that was determined to keep its secrets.
“I’ve had no luck with the Mayor either,” I said.
“You need to be careful with him, Claire.”
“You know something.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know anything yet. The only thing I know is that something isn’t adding up. The only reason that he held that news conference was because the Morgans put him on the spot.”
“That much was obvious. Doesn’t explain the suggestion for caution.”
