I realized that actually, I’d like some company.
I nodded, but they were already walking my way, either because Jame could tell I was going to say yes because I was giving off body language a werewolf could recognize, or because his boyfriend, Ben was reading my mind.
Wait. I was pretty sure Rossi had told me vampires couldn’t really do that.
No...he’d just said they couldn’t all read each other’s minds.
“Hey-a Chief,” Ben said with a smile that looked a little tight. “Mind?” He waved at the table.
“Have a seat. You off shift?”
Jame Wolfe and Ben Rossi were one of those couples who were testing the tensile strength of love. For one thing, they weren’t even the same kind of creature, Jame being a werewolf, and Ben being a vampire. For another, their two families did not get along.
Add to that the fact they were gay in a small town, and worked together in the fire department. Any one of those would be thecoup de grâceto a relationship, but they were making it work.
“Yep. Next two days off. Thought we’d catch a meal,” Ben said.
I raised one eyebrow. Vampires could eat. Not much, and in my experience, they tended to pick a few favorite foods and nibble. Vampires could also drink, which seemed a little easier on them than solid food. Blood was needed to refresh and restore their strength, and most of the vamps got their supply through some Red Cross back channels, or held a blood drive here in Ordinary to sample the local flavors.
It was a nice way for the town to unknowingly support their neighbors, knowingly feel like they’d done a good deed to save lives—and they had: undead lives—and it allowed the no-non-consensual-biting rule to remain in place.
Still, I didn’t think Ben was hankering for diner food.
Jame, on the other hand, might be on for a full meal deal. Werewolves were carnivores with high metabolisms. According to some recent horrified gossip in the Wolfe camp, one of the younger girls had gone vegan. It was almost enough of a shock to take the Wolfe family attention off of Jame and Ben’s illicit relationship.
“Eat here often?” I asked.
“Now and again,” Jame said in his low, soft voice. Everything about him seemed thick and solid: shoulders, chest, arms, fingers. Even his dark hair and closely trimmed, slightly reddish beard were thick.
Ben, who was half Jame’s body mass was just as strong as his partner, if not stronger. Vampires tended to be slender, but that did not make them weak.
“Why are you here tonight, Chief?” Ben asked with a knowing look.
Piper appeared at that moment, and handed Ben and Jame menus. As she reached, I noted she had written#5 T-souron her pad.
“Hey there, gentlemen. Can I get you tomato juice? Lemonade?”
“Tomato juice,” Ben said.
“Lemonade,” Jame said.
That wasn’t odd, right? Out of all the drink items on the menu she had chosen the two they wanted. Or had they just agreed to her suggestions because it was easy? Maybe she’d served them before and remembered what they liked to drink.
“Have you decided on dinner yet?” she asked me.
“I’ll have the soup and half a turkey on sourdough,” I said. “And keep the coffee coming.”
“You know I will.” She moved her pen like she was writing on the pad only it didn’t look like the pen pressed to the paper.
She walked off to refill a coffee cup a few tables down.
“Can I see your menu?” I asked.
Ben handed me his. “I already know what I’m getting.”
Jame laughed once, a sort of low chuffing sound. “They make better fries at Jump Off Jack.”
“Please,” Ben scoffed. “Any fry in a storm.”
