He had no intention of touching the fucking food with a ten-foot pole.
“Trust me.” Taking a bite of her burger, she popped the top of the soda can. “Marty can be a little hard to take, but you’re going to love him as much as I do.”
“Doubtful.”
Reaper testily opened his bag, tilting it to look inside. The burgers were on the bottom of the bag, and Marty had dumped the fries on top. Taking one of the fries out, he popped it into his mouth as he dug one of the burgers out from under the mound of fries.
Ginny watched him with a smile. “Marty says it saves paper products by the way he bags them.”
“It would save paper if he served them on dishes, too.”
“Then you’re wasting water.”
The way the asswipe had converted her to his way of thinking had to be a result of the taste of the burgers or the man’s winning personality. Being around him less than fifteen minutes, he knew it wasn’t Asswipe’s personality.
Achieving his goal, Reaper pulled out one of the burgers. Ginny was starting on her second burger before he had started his first. Fuck.
Ginny nodded at him when his eyes widened in shock, silently agreeing with her on how amazing the burger was. The fries were nothing to sneeze at, either.
Aware of Asswipe waiting on another customer, Reaper shoved the rest of the small burger into his mouth and dug in for another burger before the asswipe could see him.
“You need to open another restaurant in Treepoint. You would be a millionaire,” Ginny told Marty, pointing a fry at him.
“Wouldn’t do any good. It’s the grill that makes the hamburgers so good. It’s one hundred years old.
“Number 23 up!” Marty bellowed.
“This baby is seasoned from years and years of frying burgers.”
Reaper stared at the third burger that he pulled from the bag at that bit of information, wondering if Asswipe had ever cleaned the grill more than the greasy apron he was wearing. Reaper thought about asking how old the oil was in the fryer, then decided he really didn’t want to know.
When his hand came out empty as he tried to sneakily take out another burger, he couldn’t resist tilting the bag to make sure there wasn’t another that his fingers had missed. Fuck.
Ginny, happily munching, took another out of hers. He couldn’t understand how she was still eating when she started before he had.
Being nosy, he snagged her bag and looked inside to see yet another burger and more fries.
Taking the bag from him, Ginny reached for her last burger. “Marty guarantees you four burgers in your sack, but he leaves it to his discretion if he wants to add more.”
“How many did you get?”
“Six.”
“There’s a lot of fries in there too.”
“Marty has always been kind to me.”
“I’d say so.” Sarcasm dripped from his tone at Asswipe’s palpable satisfaction as he handed off a waiting customer’s order.
Regretting now that he had wolfed the burgers so fast, he enviously watched the customer leave with the sack of hamburger gold, debating how badly he wanted another burger. Enough to swallow his pride and order another sack?
Ginny put an end to his debate.
“You might as well place an order. He knows you want it.”
“I wasn’t—”
Ginny scoffed at him as she dug more fries out of her bag. “You know you want another sack, I know you want it, and Marty certainly knows you want it. Been here, done this before with Shade and Rider.”
Hurting his pride was still a hard pill to swallow.
“Next time, you can sit in the car while I order the food.”
“Is that what Shade and Rider did?”
“It’s what everyone does.”
“Except for you?”
“Rudeness doesn’t bother me. It’s a person being mean that I dislike.”
“There’s a difference?”
Wadding her empty sack, she gave him a direct look. “Rudeness hurts with words; meanness uses actions. One can heal; the other leaves scars.”
Getting up from her seat, Ginny went to the trash can to throw the sacks away. “Marty, I’ll take a jumbo to go,” she yelled out as she sat again. “I need to make up for lost time without having you close by.”
The only response from Asswipe was a snort from the vicinity of the grill.
Ginny smiled sunnily, inviting him to smile back. Reaper felt as if every ounce of oxygen had been sucked out the restaurant with that one smile.
Staring down at his hands, he saw they were shaking. He pressed them down on the counter to stop the telltale movement.
Precipitously, Reaper rose. “Cancel the order. Let’s go.” Managing to get the words out with the last bit of air in his lungs, he grabbed for his wallet in his back pocket, took out his cash, and strode toward the cash register, uncaring if Ginny followed him or not. Slapping some money on the counter, he was out the door before Marty could reach for it.
“I told him to keep the change,” Ginny said when she joined him.
He stood frozen, staring ahead, blanking, concentrating on getting his aching lungs to work.
“Wow. Those windows on that truck are tinted so dark, I can’t believe they can see to drive.”
He blinked at the truck that was driving by them. The tint didn’t look that dark.
“It’s getting warmer, don’t you think?”
To him, it felt the same as when they had gone into the restaurant.
“Won’t be long before spring is here. I can practically smell it in the air. Can’t you?”
Taking a deep breath of air, Reaper felt the oxygen flow into his lungs.
“All … I … can smell … is hamburgers,” he gasped out.
“You sure you don’t want me to get the jumbo sack to go?”
Shaking his head, Reaper wordlessly walked to the car, then got inside after Ginny electronically opened the door.
Ginny waited until she was in the flow of traffic before speaking. “Did I do something wrong?” She meekly looked at him through lowered lashes.
“No. I was full.”
Turning the radio on, he ignored her until they arrived at an apartment complex.
Taking his duffle bag, he followed her into the lobby then the elevator. Viper had rented the apartment next to Ginny’s during the duration of her contract to the band for use by The Last Riders.
When Ginny would have paused at the one he and Nickel would be staying in, he motioned her forward. “I want to check yours out. Stand in the doorway where I can see you,” he ordered her as she opened the door.
Stepping inside the apartment, Reaper prowled around. It was homey with decorative pillows on the overstuffed grey couch, while classy at the same time.
Going to a door, he opened it to find a closet. Moving to the kitchen, he gave it a perfunctory look, seeing there wasn’t a place for anyone to lie in wait. Going to a square hallway, he saw three doors. One was a bathroom. He took longer there, checking out the linen closet and the shower before going to the room across the hall. He was able ignore the headrush he received at the scent that hit him when he entered. Reaper didn’t have to be told that it was her bedroom; he could fucking smell her in there. It was like walking into a room filled with springtime.