Someone pointedly cleared their throat behind her. Vanessa jumped back into the chair she'd been half leaning out of and tried to get control of her breathing. Control. Yes, she seemed to have rather too little of that. She reached up to touch the amulet around her neck. It was clearly not enough to help her reign in her more animal instincts around Green.
"I have your orders," the waitress said and moved in between them to the plates on the table.
"Th... thank you," Vanessa said.
She couldn't meet the gaze of either the waitress or Green. Instead she studied the pattern of the worn linoleum floor.
"No problem, enjoy your meal."
Vanessa listened to her walking away and wondered if she should follow. The smell of the burgers wafted up to her.
"Are you into pain or something?" Green asked as he got started on one of his burgers.
"What?"
He nodded to her fingers playing with the necklace. Vanessa slid it back under her t-shirt.
"It doesn't hurt me," she replied and picked up a burger.
"It's silver," Green said. "Are you telling me you're the only werewolf in existence who doesn't get burned by silver?"
"No."
"Then why are you wearing it?"
"I told you, it doesn't hurt me," Vanessa said around her burger.
Green looked skeptical, but before he could say anything more Vanessa changed the subject.
"This is a surprisingly good burger," she said. "Don't you think?"
Green frowned at her as if he'd noticed her evasion, but he didn't say anything about it. Instead he took another bite of his hamburger. Salad and mayo landed on his plate.
"Sorry," Green said, blushing.
Vanessa smiled. It should have been disgusting, but she found his inability to eat a burger without dropping half of it on his plate adorable. She shook her head. She had to stop doing this. He was not adorable.
Green took another, more careful bite, but it didn't matter.
"I swear, I know how to eat," he said when Vanessa laughed. "I'm just not used to their being so much green stuff in a burger."
"What are your burgers like back home?" Vanessa asked. "Raw meat in bread?"
Green smiled. "Something like that. No, my dad makes the best burgers. You'll love them. But we keep the salad and coleslaw on the side."
"With corn cobs?" Vanessa asked, drawn into the food fantasy against her better knowing. "And butter?"
Green's smile widened. "You know it. Then mom brings out cherry pie with pecan nuts and we sit in the garden and binge while my uncles and aunts play music."
Vanessa sighed into her burger. It was becoming increasingly obvious that she wasn't paying enough attention to what she was eating. If she could long for corn cobs when she had her teeth in a more than decent quarter pounder something was wrong. Perhaps she had a vitamin deficiency? Or perhaps it was the image of a family dinner, of the familiarity and comfort of belonging. She'd thought she had that, once.
"They'll love you," Green continued, bursting her bubble.
"Yeah, right," Vanessa said and grabbed some fries.
"I can't decide if you have self-esteem or if you think my family are too stupid to realize how great you are," Green said conversationally.
"You don't think I'm great," Vanessa said. "Remember? You're just hoping I'll somehow change into someone great before you have to introduce me to them."
"Interesting," Green said.
Vanessa bit her tongue to keep from asking him what he found so interesting. She didn't care. She was going to be lured into conversation with him. There were limits even to her curiosity.
Green went on chewing as if he didn't have a care in the world. As if he didn't care that she didn't care about what he hadn't said. It was infuriating. Vanessa stuffed her mouth with fries to keep from speaking. Then she moved on to her second burger. Green glanced at her and smiled as if he knew something she didn't. After five minutes she couldn't take it any longer.
"What's interesting?" she ground out.
"What? Oh, I think it's interesting that you have such low thoughts of yourself. You come across as so confident, but I suppose sometimes being tough is only a person compensating for feeling vulnerable."
"Excuse me?"
"Like guys who feel insecure and therefore feel the need to strut around with their tattoos and leather vests and motorbikes."
"I don't think everyone with a tattoo and a bike is insecure," Vanessa said.
"I notice that you didn't say I was wrong about you."
"It shouldn't have to be said," Vanessa replied primly.
"Mm," Green said and started on his fries.
"And you said it yourself, you're only interested in the person you think you can turn me into."
"Wrong," Green said. "I'm not looking to change you, I'm hoping you'll relax enough to show me the real you."
"This is the real me!"
Green shook his head. "This is the part you show people you're afraid of."
"I'm not afraid of you!" Vanessa said loudly enough to make the other dinner guests look over to them. "I'm not afraid of you," Vanessa repeated, leaning closer to him. "I just don't like you."
"Of course you do," Green said and scrunched up his empty packet of fries. "Or you would if you gave yourself permission to do so."
"I don't need to give myself permission to do anything," Vanessa said.
"Please," Green huffed. "You haven't told me anything about yourself, haven't asked me anything personal."
"That's because I don't want to get to know you," Vanessa said, tugging into her pie.
"Exactly. You're scared that if you got to know me you'd discover that I wasn't the horrible person you think all pack wolves are and then where would you be?"
"I don't think you're horrible," Vanessa said, chewing. "Stuck up, high handed, pompous and egotistical, yes. But not horrible."
Green laughed. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"You still haven't asked me or told me anything personal."
Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Fine. Tell me something about yourself."
"That's not a question."
"Will you tell me something about yourself?"
Green shook his head. "And to think I wished for a mate who was clever."
Vanessa raised her eyebrows and licked her spoon. Green followed the movement with his gaze with the same complete focus she knew he'd have sneaking up on prey during a hunt.
"Well?" she asked.
"Huh? Oh. Yes." He cleared his throat. "I'm the youngest of three kids."
"I thought you were going to be the next alfa?" Vanessa asked, temporarily forgetting that she wasn't interested in his life.
"I will. We don't go by age, we go by aptitude."
"You fight for it?" she asked.
That was how her old pack had solved conflicts with regards to leadership. It tended to get bloody. She'd gotten the impression things were more civilized over here.
"No," Green said. "But my sisters have all married guys in bigger packs and taken over leadership there."
"So leadership is yours by elimination?" Vanessa asked, storing away the information that he had two sisters.
Green glowered at her. "I'd have broken out and created my own pack if my sisters had stayed."
"Sure you would."
"Do you have siblings?"
For a moment Linda's face flashed before her eyes. The image cut right to her heart. It had been years, but the pain never seemed to go away.
"Vanessa?" Green asked, bringing her back to the present. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," she said.
"You don't look fine."
"It's time we get going, don't you think?"
"Yeah, sure," Green said and she could tell that he was dying to ask her something more or perhaps simply get an answer to his first question.
She heaved a sigh of relief when he got up and followed her out without a word.
"It wasn't a candlelit dinner exactly," Green said as they drew near to the car, "but at least we managed good food and conversation."
"Is that what passes for romance for you?" Vanessa asked and opened the door.
"It's a start," Green said as he got in and she didn't like his smug tone. "What are we doing now? Are you going to drive all through the night?"
Vanessa considered it. She was feeling better after the break and the food, but realistically, they would need to stop for the night somewhere. Otherwise she'd have to pull over and sleep somewhere on the road and when she finally got to San Francisco she'd be too tired to appreciate it.
A couple of rooms for the night, then. Vanessa wondered if she should brave another motel. Her nose scrunched up as she remembered what the last one had smelled like. On the other hand, the stink of detergents would be much worse for Green whose werewolf senses were as astute as always.
"Hello? Earth to Vanessa?"
She shook herself. Fun as it would be to torture Green a little, she wanted to be awake enough to continue driving the next day. They'd be going through the mountains and mountains always freaked her out a little. There had been nothing like mountains where she grew up and now she felt like they were towering over her or like she might slide off them whenever she came close to them. Sleep had to be her highest priority.
"Do you have a phone?" she asked Green.
"Sure."
"Can you book us a couple of rooms?"
He pulled out a phone from his pocket. "How long do you want to drive for?"
"I should be fine for another three or four hours."
"You know, I can drive for a few hours if you want to rest."
"No, thank you. I'd prefer not to wake up halfway back to Indiana, thanks."
"I wouldn't do that. I have four months, remember? That's plenty of time for you to come to your senses."
Vanessa shook her head. When she came to her senses the first thing she'd do was ditch her travel companion.
"How about you start looking for a room near Denver?"
"Sure thing."
"I have a couple of requirements," Vanessa said.