“It was great, thank you so much for giving me a chance.”
Deedee smiled warmly. She was a middle aged mother of three who ran her kitchen with an iron first. Kira had been a little daunted by the six foot two Deedee at first but by hard work she soon got on Deedee’s good side.
“No problem, it was good timing. One of my regular waiters Dennis had to drop his shifts, he’s been training to be an EMT and just found a regular job at the hospital in Darlington. I’m sorry to lose him but I’m glad you came along. You sure you never waitressed before?”
Kira grinned. “Never, I really enjoyed it though.”
“Jeez, I wish some of that enthusiasm would rub off on my kids. Whenever I ask them to take a shift here you’d think I asked them to clean out a sewer with a toothbrush. Ungrateful mites.”
Kira wiped her hands on her apron. “Do you need me to do anything else?”
“No you take off, I think your ride’s here. Night honey.” Deedee nodded at the window chuckling as she went back into the kitchen.
Kira spun round to find Gabe tapping on the glass, a puppy dog look on his handsome face. Her stomach did flip flops at the sight of him and her wolf yowled in happiness.
Since the alarm incident she hadn’t seen Gabe, he had been busy working and Kira hadn’t really wanted to leave Lilah alone. He had called though and they had shyly made it through a few awkward conversations.
Kira mouthed ‘one minute’ through the glass. At record speed she ran to the back ripping the apron off. She quickly combed her fingers though her hair and applied some lip gloss before applying a bit of breath freshener. Well you never know…
Grabbing her coat and purse she eagerly ran back out to the Diner and breathing deeply stepped out into the cold night. “Hey! What are you doing here?”
Gabe flashed her a dazzling smile and she almost melted on the spot. “Given that you’re not using your car Alec said we should give you a ride home every night, so I volunteered.”
“That’s so nice.”
Gabe opened the passenger door for her and she hopped in. Such a gentleman. He slammed the door and oofed as he tried to walk away only to be pulled back against the car. He’d managed to catch his jacket in there. Kira stifled a laugh and pretended she hadn’t seen.
He opened and shut it again before quickly jogging round and jumped in the driver’s seat, pretending his face wasn’t on fire with embarrassment.
As he drove Gabe flicked glances in her direction. “I was hoping to see you at the full moon run the other night.”
Kira fidgeted. “Yeah we were planning on going but right before we left Lilah had a headache so we decided to stay home.”
Truthfully Lilah had a panic attack about being around such a large number of other wolves. She hadn’t attended a pack run in almost two years. Not long after Kira left Charming Joseph stopped Lilah from attending full moon get togethers. He became paranoid about other males looking at his mate and insisted she stay home. Apparently six months ago Lilah’s wolf had been desperate to hunt and had run to join the rest of the pack. After that night, for disobeying him, Joseph waited until she shifted and chained her to the ground every full moon. Kira was increasingly horrified by her ex-brother in law.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope she’s feeling better now.” Said Gabe amiably.
“Thanks.”
“So how did you enjoy your first day at the Diner?”
Kira beamed. “I loved it. I know it’s only been one day but I really enjoyed it.”
Honestly there wasn’t much she didn’t love about being in Rose. Although she had niggling doubts about Joseph she had never felt more at peace before. Her wolf yipped in agreement.
Gabe sighed. They were already at Jolene’s house. The journey was far too short damnit! There was so much he wanted to say. His wolf howled at him to tell her she was his mate, he wanted her mated and bonded to him and couldn’t understand the man’s reticence.
Kira deflated a little. “Oh we’re here already.”
She was kind of hoping that Gabe was going to make some kind of move on her. She was convinced that he was her mate. But at one time she had also thought that Airis was her true mate. She needed some kind of encouragement from him before she laid her heart on the line. After all she just moved to Rose, how embarrassing would it be if she threw herself at him and told him he was her mate only to be rejected? She didn’t want to draw any more attention to herself.
Kira unbuckled her seatbelt. “Well thanks for the ride.”
“Kira I…”
“Yes?” She said hopefully.
“I… ummm… I’ll pick you up same time tomorrow night.” Wuss.