Her expression was pinched with worry when I turned to face her again.
“Can we keep all of this just between the two of us? I don’t want anyone at the shop to judge me,” she said, her lips pulling together with frustration.
I wanted to tell her that no one at the shop would care. We’d all been homeless at one point or another. That was just the plight of monsterkind and why Port Haven was so important to us.
Then I remembered the way Ambrose was talking about her at the bar. It hadn’t mattered much to me at the time, but now his words send a sparkle of irritation coursing through my body.
With a sigh I finally nodded. “Yeah, your secret is safe with me.”
Needing a distraction, my eyes settled onto the car keys that were clipped to the handle of her bag. Reaching out, I grabbed them and swung them around the tip of one clawed finger. “I’ll tow your car here in the morning.”
“You don’t need to do that,” Daphne protested, her whiskey-colored eyes widening.
“It’s fine. I’ve been looking for another car to tinker with, so you came at just the right time,” I told her, trying to keep my voice light as I clenched the keys in my fist.
A little flash of the snarky woman I’d seen earlier filled Daphne’s face before disappearing again. “I’ll pay you for all of the needed parts,” she insisted.
I shrugged. “Whatever works best for you. Goodnight, Daphne.”
With that I shut the door firmly, cutting off whatever she was going to say next.
When I came home earlier, I’d been exhausted after a long day of work, but now energy buzzed through my limbs as I descended the steps again.
“Keep an eye on the house,” I told the two pups sleeping in their bed. Oscar huffed in response as I opened the front door and stepped back out into the cool night air.
My chest continued to hum strangely as I got into my work truck. In the nearly three hundred years that I’d been alive I’d never felt anything like it.
Making a mental note to ask Effie what she thought, I put the truck into drive.
I’d pick up the rust bucket that Daphne called a car and take a look under the hood. Hopefully, that would work off some of my nervous energy, but I sincerely doubted it.
* * *
“Good morning,” Daphne’s timid voice filled the kitchen, barely louder than the pop and sizzle of the bacon that I was busily cooking in a cast iron skillet.
I glanced over my shoulder, finding her already dressed in another pair of jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt. The plain look contrasted the vibrant hue of her hair.
I wanted to ask her why she chose such a bright color but then dressed the way she did. The image of her in a pair of ripped, dark jeans that hugged her slender curves and one of my baggy black t-shirts slipping off of one shoulder flashed through my mind. I shoved it down with an inward growl.
“Mornin’,” I quipped gruffly, sounding more pissed off than I’d been meaning to. “Your car is a piece of shit. I’m surprised you’ve been driving it anywhere. Where did you say you drove in from?”
“I didn’t say,” Daphne replied, deftly sidestepping my fishing. “And don’t call Peep a piece of shit, I’ll have you know she’s been a great car so far.”
I snorted at that. I’d spent the better part of the night trying to figure out whatdidwork on the damn thing, and found that it wasn’t a very long list. “Why did you name it Peep?”
Daphne’s lips pulled up into a soft smile. “She looks like one of those Easter candies, you know the little marshmallow chicks you can buy?”
I frowned at her. “I’m not a fan of sweets.”
Her giggle was so tiny that I wasn’t sure if I was hearing things. “Are you one of those meat and potatoes men who don’t like froufrou things?”
“No, I just don’t like sweets,” I repeated myself as I portioned out some bacon for her and myself, finishing off the plate of eggs and potatoes.
“Eat,” I told her as I slid the plate across the table to her.
Daphne looked down at it, her expression changing to something into an expression that I couldn’t read. “You didn’t have to make breakfast for me.”
“I was doing it anyway,” I said, not looking at her as I shoveled a steaming bite of eggs into my mouth.
