Fifteen minutes later, we were sitting at our regular booth in the back corner. It was a good thing the hostess knew our orders by heart because our waitress didn’t bother to stop by our table until we were halfway finished with our shakes.
“What can I get you?” she asked without bothering to look up from her notepad.
Larissa rolled her eyes before answering, “Nothing. We’re good with the shakes.”
Her head jerked up, and she glared at us. “Seriously, you don’t want anything else?”
“Nope.” I let the P pop and grinned when she huffed in frustration and stomped away.
“I wonder when she started here,” Calliope grumbled before slurping on her vanilla malt. I always got strawberry, and Larissa got chocolate, but she rotated through the flavors. I suspected that sometimes she picked based on what she was wearing. The cream cable-knit sweater she was wearing today was almost a perfect match for her shake.
“She’s got to be new, or else we would’ve seen her here before,” Larissa suggested as she scooped off the last bit of whipped cream from the top of her shake.
“Maybe she replaced Candi since she usually does the Sunday evening shift, and I don’t see her anywhere,” I added.
Larissa and Calliope leaned against each other and giggled, shaking their heads.
“What?” I asked, not getting how I’d made them crack up.
Larissa pulled her straw out of her shake, sucked the shake out of it, and pointed it at me. “Only you would know the waitresses’ schedules by heart. You’re obsessed with this place.”
“You might be right.” I shrugged and grinned. “Even though my mom made all of my favorites over break, I legit dreamed about these strawberry shakes a few times while I was home.”
“You do realize your mom would’ve made you as many milkshakes as you wanted, right?” Calliope asked. “You should’ve saved your fantasies for something good, like hot guys.”
“She would’ve tried, but they just wouldn’t be the same.” I sucked down the rest of my shake and pushed my empty glass to the end of the table. “And you know I haven’t found a guy worth dreaming about yet. I thought when we got to college it would be different, but the boys here are just as immature as the ones in high school. All they care about is getting into your panties before moving on to the next girl.”
“Yeah, it would be nice to meet someone who was ready for a relationship for a change,” Calliope agreed with a nod after finishing her shake and nudging her glass next to mine.
“Just so long as we remember we’re worth way more than the boys on campus are willing to give, we’ll find the right guys eventually.” Larissa reached out and lifted her pinkie in the air. Calliope and I followed suit, and we wrapped them together as a reminder of the pact we’d made to wait to give up our V-cards until we met guys who we could truly see ourselves spending the rest of our lives with.
She was done with her shake less than a minute later, but the glasses sat there for another fifteen before our waitress stopped by and picked them up. We asked for our check, but she didn’t come back with it for another ten minutes. When she disappeared in the back again, I’d had enough.
“You guys go ahead.” I held out my hand for Larissa to fork over some of the cash her dad had given her. “I’ll pay the check and meet you back in the dorm.”
The waitress was slow as heck, and another half hour passed before she brought my change back. I’d been tempted to just let her keep it so I could finally leave, but there was no way I was going to leave her that big of a tip after the crap service she’d given us. I dug a few singles out of my purse and dropped them on the table after pocketing the bills she’d given me—because of course she didn’t bother to give me anything smaller than a ten. I heard her huff behind me as I stalked outside to wait for my rideshare. It was cold and snowy, but the car was only a few minutes away, and I was beyond ready to get out of the diner.
When the driver pulled up to the curb, I yanked the rear door open and jumped inside. “Thanks,” I murmured, rubbing my arms in an attempt to warm up more quickly.
“No worries.” After a quick glance in the rearview mirror, he turned up the heat, and said, “It’s cold out there.”
“Yup.” I nodded as I buckled my seat belt. “I’m lucky you were available. Walking back to campus in this would’ve been awful.”
“Yeah, I think you’re going to be my last trip tonight since it’s starting to really come down, and the plows haven’t done a pass yet.”
2
Zeke
Kicking back in my leather recliner, I grabbed the remote to turn on the football game. With a plate full of chicken wings, a bag of chips, and a cold bottle of beer waiting for me on the table at my side, I was looking forward to a night all to myself without any responsibilities. My week had been jam-packed, and my plans for a chill weekend had been blown out of the water yesterday morning when my mom had called to ask me to come over and help move her living room furniture. It’d turned into a full day of rearranging almost every room in her house, followed by the feast she’d made to thank me for all my help. While we were eating, she’d mentioned that she wanted to go to the farmers’ market one town over this morning, so I offered to take her and ended up spending almost five hours running errands.
Now that I was finally back home and nobody needed me for anything, I was ready for some alone time. I normally preferred to spend most of my time surrounded by family and friends, but every once in a while, I needed to recharge on my own. Unfortunately, my solitude only lasted for about five minutes before Kace flung open my front door, stomped through my living room, and dropped down on my couch.
“I need you to head over to Stewart and talk to the owner of the liquor distributor we use for Howler’s.” He tossed a sheet of paper in my direction, and I reached out to snag it from the air. Glancing down, I wrinkled my brow when I scanned the list of alcohol bottles with check marks next to way too few of the items.
“They fucked up almost half of our order yesterday, and I’m tired of this shit. A phone call isn’t going to cut it this time. They need to understand there are repercussions beyond losing our business for pulling this kind of shit.”
“Fuck,” I groaned, running my fingers through my hair. What Kace was asking should’ve been an easy yes for me. Stewart was only two towns over, and I was always up for knocking some heads together when warranted—plus, there was the fact that I was a wolf shifter, and he was my alpha. But I’d been looking forward to my low-key night, and I had the worst luck whenever I had to run an errand there. “Can’t Tane do it instead?”
“You got a problem with the shit I tell you to do?” he rumbled, his dark eyes flashing with more than a hint of his power.
“Dude. You know me better than that.” I tilted my head to the side, just enough to show him my throat as a gesture of submission. “I’m a part of your pack not just because I was born into it. You’re my alpha because I respect you and can’t see myself willingly following anyone else’s lead.”