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More giggling. And I was so not a giggler. “Truly there’s enough. But I promise to have some set aside for you.” Cheeks burning, I turned over one of the mugs on the table and rushed away to get a coffeepot. “Ready to order?”
“What do you recommend?” He studied the menu as if it held the secrets of the universe. “It all looks good.”
“It all is good. Do you have a big appetite?” Why did that sound dirty? Nothing I ever said sounded like that. It just wasn’t me.
“Huge.” Now those blue eyes were fixed on me. “Does that affect what you’re going to offer me?”
“It might.” Continuing in being totally out of character, I slid into the booth next to him. “If you’ll look right here”—I pointed at the first thing on the menu—“we have the Off-Main Sampler. It has a little bit of just about everything we sell for breakfast. One mulberry pancake, one Dutchman’s choice waffle, one slice of ham…” And on I went, reading it to him as if he couldn’t read it for himself. And sounding like an utter fool.
“That sounds good,” he said, without commenting on my unusual behavior. “But only if you’ll join me.”
Chapter Six
Tom
But only if you’ll join me…
It wasn’t enough that Emmalise had to put up with those old guys watching her like she was doing a striptease instead of just serving pancakes and accepting payment for pancakes. No, now she had a crazy cat shifter asking her to sit down and eat with him. If she kicked me out, it would be no more than I deserved.
My lion’s rumbling indicated what his feeling would be if that happened. I would be in hot water for alienating our mate. Not that he hadn’t been egging me on the entire time. I waited for her to tell me I was a piece of something objectionable and to either shut up and eat or leave. Or something. But to my surprise and my lion’s pleasure, she smiled and said, “Things are slowing down, so maybe… All right. I can take a short break, and I’m hungry, too. Let me put the order in and when it’s ready, I will be back.” She disappeared through a door into the kitchen.
Stunned at her agreement, I settled back in the booth and sipped coffee while I waited for my breakfast to be delivered by my protectee. Whom I shouldn’t be socializing with. Two platters appeared in the pass-through, and a bell dinged. “Order up!” came a voice from the other side of the wall.
“I’ll get it, Gabe.” The woman who walked up to get the dishes was not Emmalise, and for a moment, I thought maybe she’d changed her mind after placing the order. But the older woman delivered the plates to a table near the old guys, right before anotherdingand several plates appeared.
Emmalise emerged through the swinging door and approached the pass-through. Her hair was in a complicated braid that swung when she was loading her arms with plates. How many orders was she loading all for one trip? I wanted to stand up and offer to help her.
My lion demanded I stand up to help, but she was already headed our way and when she was done unloading her arms, the table was covered with enough food for six humans.
Or one very hungry lion shifter and a server?
“Is this all for us?” Maybe another server would be joining us?
“It’s the sampler.” She slid in next to me and sighed. “I really hope you meant it about a huge appetite.”
There was about a foot between us on the bench seat, and her scent was overwhelming me and making my lion offer suggestions that would certainly get me slapped and then evicted. He should know humans weren’t like shifters who met their mate and went for it. I’d lived among them too long not to know better. He just ignored anything that didn’t interest him.
My appetite was immense. But not for food. Although that smelled good, too. “I’ll do my best but if I can’t finish it, I hope you’ll wrap it up to go.”
“Bachelor living all alone?” she smirked. “Never cook a real meal for yourself?”
“No, I live with my abuelo. And he won’t be at all sad if I bring him some of these goodies. Usually he cooks for us. It’s his talent.”
“Abuelo…wait, you aren’t Luis’s son, are you?” She leaned closer, risking being pounced on by a lion shifter. “I see the resemblance. He comes in here sometimes. Such a sweet man.”
Nobody had ever called our international pack alpha anything like that. He’d probably be shocked to hear it. Then again, from Emmalise, he might be charmed. “Yes, Luis. But he’s never been all that sweet in my experience. It’s probably the company. When it’s just the two of us, he’s…”
“Gruff?” she supplied helpfully.
“All right. We can go with that.” More like bossy and sometimes grouchy. “So he’s been coming here all this time and never told me I needed to meet you? I’m Tom, by the way.”
“Emmalise.” She held out her hand to me, and I was lost in waves of connection as she went on. “You live in town and have never…never come in for a pancake or a burger? Where do you eat?”
If her fingers hadn’t been trembling in my grip, I’d never have known that she was reacting as much as I was. But they were. And I didn’t let go of them. “Amazing, isn’t it? Living with my grumpy grandpa and missing out on all the best food in town.”
“You didn’t go to school here?” She pulled a pancake onto one of the empty plates she’d had stacked under the others and smothered it in real maple syrup. “I’d remember you if we met. It’s not like there are a million students.” No, maybe a thousand in the entire high school, maybe less.
“I did for a while, but I think I must have graduated before you were there. Then I went away to the military.”
