“She had his fair hair, his green eyes, always searching for something.”
A smile tugged at my father’s lips, probably at a memory of his rider, and I knew what I was going through. “What is she like?”
“Dad, I hardly spoke to her.”
The cook yelled at the waitress. It was burgers and fries, and I hoped it was our order. I needed fresh air. “I think she knows. Her heartbeat was all over the place.”
The waitress’s shoes squeaked on the checkered tile floor as she delivered our burgers and baskets of fries.
Dad grabbed the ketchup as he thanked her, and her gaze flickered to me. I looked back down and grabbed the salt shaker.
“Can I get you anything else?”
“No, thank you. We’re all set.” Dad sounded extra friendly.
“Yell if you need anything,” she said in a singsong tone and left.
My father chuckled, and my gaze snapped at him. “What?”
“Her heart.” He nodded at the waitress. “Was it something like that?”
My gaze flickered back to the waitress, who was pouring cups of coffee for two men in blue shirts and baseball hats sitting at the long white table with spaced-out stools. The rhythm was the same. “Something similar.”
“It might not be that you are a dragon, but how you look.”
The smell of my beef patty, with fried onion rings and bacon, swirled through my nose, and my stomach growled. “No, she is different.”
“Humph. How do you know that? You said it yourself. You hardly spoke to her.” Dad sunk his teeth into his burger, and I curled my fingers around mine.
“I just do. It’s hard to explain. It is like knowing she was my rider the minute she walked into the cafeteria yesterday. She spared me a glance, and that was all it took. I just knew.” I took a giant bite, and the patty’s juices exploded on my tastebuds. These burgers were fucking delicious.
I chewed fast as if my burger would take off and run for the door.
Dad pushed his half-eaten food to the side of his cheek to form coherent words. “But her heartbeat was all over the place today?”
I swallowed and nodded. “Like I scared her.”
“Or just aroused.”
“Oh, stop it.” I murdered my burger and took another bite. “I just told you it isn’t like that.”
Dad leaned forward in his chair, closer to me. “The humans here are not that different from the humans in Paegeia. Sure, the humans back home have magic in their blood, but they are still the same creatures. Our human forms are not in their league. We are much prettier than them.”
I laughed, keeping my lips tight as I had food in my mouth. I finished chewing as my shoulders bobbed from the laughter and shook my head. “So, you think her heart beats faster because she thinks I’m pretty?” I took another bite, and I had almost devoured my burger. The juice from the patty ran down my wrist. I hated messy burgers, but I was starving.
“I’ll bet you a hundred Paegolians that it is the only reason her heart fluttered wildly,” Dad said with food bulging his cheek and chewing afterward again.
I shook my head and smiled as I finished my burger.
“You need to try harder tomorrow.”
I knew that and finished chewing the bite in my mouth before speaking. “I don’t want to push her away, Dad.”
“We have less than three months. It would become more difficult if Jako leaves.”
I took a few sips of my coke through the straw. The coldness of the sweet, familiar drink cooled down my throat to my stomach. The gas burped out silently. “We can follow.”
“True, but how do you think Elena would feel if she enrolls in a new school and you show up a few weeks later?”
