Page 49 of The Eleventh Hour

I shake my head, but I can’t stop smiling. Rafe is something special.

Rafael drops his hand, steps back, and pretends to sit down. “So, what shall we eat?” He stands up and pretends to approach the invisible table. “Welcome to the Chicken Hut. I’m Emily.” He straightens up and looks horrified. “Oh, god, I can’t believe I remember her name. That’s how bad it was,”

His voice returns to the high feminine tone, “How can I help you?” Rafael’s eyes are twinkling, and I can’t stop laughing. “Terrance stares at his menu and doesn’t even speak. He may as well be on another planet. I give up, and I’m feeling desperate, and I look to Dane because, what the hell, and Dane looks up at her and goes like this.”

Rafael gets a big, dark scowl, shifts his arms wider, and grunts. It’s a freaking loud grunt, and I’m sure everyone in the library heard it, even Dane. My side hurts. I’m laughing so hard, and I have to wipe a tear away.

“The poor girl looks at me, and I just can’t find any words. I’m completely floored. I just open and close my mouth, and the girl blushes bright red. You can see the panic in her eyes, which I’m sure must have mirrored the panic in mine. She murmurs an excuse, and the next thing, an enormous woman with arms as thick as tree trunks comes stomping over to our table. Oh, yeah, we all notice her. Hard not to. The Chicken Hut was shaking like Godzilla was prancing around town. Her face is thunderous. ‘You been upsetting my girls, think it's funny picking on hard-working women?’ I’m literally about to be sitting in a pool of my own piss. When Dane looks up at this woman, and fuck me dead, that prick does it again. He just grunts at her. Like the most terrible, horrible, sound I’ve ever heard, and it’s so loud because no one is talking, it had its own echo.”

Rafe laughs and shakes his head.

I’m laughing so hard I’m struggling to breathe.

“I want to die, my face is fixed in terrified horror and is the colour of cherries. She freezes, this huge, huge woman with her air of sheer power and menace. I’m pretty sure the whole Chicken Hut leaned back in anticipation of the explosion. It boiled up, and she, like, did this convulsing movement with her upper torso that made her, and I really hate to say it, look like a chicken, and then she let loose this almighty and very unchicken-like roar. Her wrath was terrible to behold, like, the worst thing I ever saw. She screamed for about twenty minutes and booted us out. Lifetime bans. And that’s when I started to teach them because I never ever want to do that again.”

Rafael pats me on the back as I continue to giggle.

“He’s not good at people-ing. Dane is Dane. You either love him or you don’t.”

He stops talking, and a strange tension forms between us. He’s managed to snatch up my hand again without me noticing, and his thumb strokes up and down my index finger. I like him; I realise with a start. How long has it been since I let myself actually like someone? I glance up at him, look away, and clear my throat. This is a bad idea, like, a really bad idea. I shouldn’t be doing this. I can’t like him. He’s good and nice, and I’m a wreck. I blurt out the first thing that comes to my mind.

“Terrance wasn’t like that when I met him.”

Rafael gets a faraway look in his eyes. I don’t think he’s going to answer me, but to my surprise, he does. “He discovered who he was, embraced it, and stopped trying to be other people.”

I want to ask more. Who was he? What was he trying to be? But I keep my mouth shut because Dane peeks his head around the corner of the shelves and eyes us suspiciously. Rafael starts whistling and looks at the ceiling, and I have to bite my bottom lip to keep from laughing.

We pretend we don’t see the blush on Dane’s cheeks. And, maybe, I like Dane a little bit better, too.

Jax

Rafe’s face stiffens, and he jerks his chin quickly, indicating something behind me, and steps back, putting space between us. I tense and turn, ready for a fight as I feel someone approach us.

“Good morning, Jax,” he says, but his eyes are on Dane and Rafe.

“Hi, Richard,” I say and relax.

Richard is wearing a suit of navy blue. His dark hair is brushed back, and his smile is skin deep, his true emotion of complete boredom is reflected in his eyes. He’s got a book in his hands, which, interestingly, is titled Building or Buying. I wonder what he’s building now.

“What are you up to this morning?” His question comes out almost like an accusation.

“Working.” I shrug my shoulders. “I’m doing a tour guide gig.”

Richard splutters. “Tours? Of Hurricane?”

“Hey, it earns a living.”

Richard gives me one of those long looks that makes me feel like a child with grubby hands caught touching something I shouldn’t. “Yes. Well, while I’m here, I’ll pass on a message from Mr Harmon. He’d like to organise a dinner in two days. You’re to be there.” His smile is shark-like when he aims it at me. “Why don’t you bring your tourists with you?”

I scowl but nod. “Sure, I’ll be there, and I’ll ask them if they’d like to come.”

Richard looks past me to Rafael. “Dinner. Be there.”

“Yes, sir.”

Richard nods tightly, turns on his heel, and leaves. I roll my eyes at his display of arrogance. He’s got to die with that haughty attitude of his.

“Is he always like that?”