“I’m good. Again. Thanks,” I muttered. Everyone here took the pills, and no one knew what was in them. I had a sneaking suspicion that Ginata was getting them from Ludovica, and if they were anything like the candy Tully and Dante had at their underground casino, I wanted no part in it.
Prue shrugged and popped it into her mouth, chasing it with a gulp of blood from her reusable bottle. She swallowed and stared at me. “It just makes you feel happier, is all. I don’t get why you wouldn’t want that.”
“Being happy all the time is overrated. I enjoy the rage boiling inside me at all times.” I replied without missing a beat.
We changed into our uniforms and walked out onto the floor when Landon called me.
“Scout, come on! Time is money, and we’re losing time!”
I cocked my head, considering his words. What was time for us immortals? He rolled his eyes and motioned again for me to join him.
“Did you forget you weren’t slinging trays tonight?” he asked as I pushed through the half door to go behind the bar with him.
“No, I guess I just— still didn’t believe it?” I cringed.
“Well, believe it. I want you back here with me from now on.” Landon’s chiseled face was stern when he looked at me, and it sent butterflies to my stomach, causing the knots to loosen, then tighten quickly again. I pressed my ruby lips together and nodded.
“Okay, make me a sex on the beach.” He crossed his arms and stared at me blankly. I did the same.
“What’s in it?”
He sighed. “That’s your job. I’m the customer. I don’t know what’s in it. I just know all my girlfriends are drinking them, and I want one too.”
“Okay, well, I don’t have a way to look them up.”
“You still don’t have a phone?”
I shook my head. I’d been avoiding it. I looked down at the floor. Flashes of the reason for my hesitance to put down roots went through my mind. They were interrupted by Landon reaching out and touching my chin. I jerked away and stared at him with wide, shocked eyes.
“You know, you’re safe here.”
“What?” I snapped.
“I don’t know what brought you here, to Ginata’s territory, but you’re safe now.”
I stared at him for a long moment. I would never, ever tell anyone what Desi had done to me. I reached for the necklace I still wore around my neck with his name. I couldn’t help it. I had tried to take it off, but I couldn’t bring myself to.
I wanted to bury him and his memory, but I couldn’t if I continued to hide from him.
“Scout?”
I blinked away the red liquid pooling in my eyes and looked up into the handsome vampire's blue ones.
“Tonight, after work, we’re going to get you a phone. And my number is the first one you’re gonna put in there.”
I nodded, although I still felt unsure about it. “And you’ll teach me how to make a sex on the beach?” My voice came out soft and almost desperate. He grinned.
“I’d like to teach you a whole lot more if you let me.”
My stomach went fucking crazy. The butterflies used their tiny butterfly hands to unravel all the knots I’d spent a month tying and were rising up into my chest.
Just like Prue had last night as we left work, I eyed Landon up and down. Ideas of what he could show me started playing through my mind. Would that be so bad?
Yes. I wasn’t ready to forget Desi.
“What do you say?” He offered me his hand to shake, and I stared at it like an idiot.
“To what?”
