So stupid.
Pain slashes through me as memories flash through my mind so vivid it makes my breath catch. Fucking Cody. I hate him. For a minute I’m so angry, I wish I would’ve let Mace kick his ass.
“Our monthly visit is the only thing I’m going to miss about being here.” I shake my head. “Nothing but bad memories now. Too much pain. Too many things that can’t be undone.”
He nods in understanding, hand resting on the steering wheel, eyes still glowing their inhuman green. “Yeah, sometimes you have to start over.” No arguing with that.
“Let’s get out of here,” I say looking back at him with a smile on my face. No more sad thoughts. I’m determined to get over Cody once and for all. I’m also determined to welcome this new direction my life has taken with open arms.
Positive changes, I keep telling myself. Positive everything.
C H A P T E R 3
Z O E Y
Full beer bottles clank together and tip over spilling frothy, golden liquid all across the bar top and my tray as I crash into the wooden bar.
Dammit.
Tripping again, that’s all I’ve been doing all night. Tripping, on nothing. How fucking stupid is that? I don’t know why I’m not getting the hang of this or why I can’t balance a tray of drafts on my forearm. It looked so damn easy when I watched Leanna do it when she trained me. I carried trays every day last week but none of them had more than one drink on it, so maybe that’s the difference. You’d think by the way I keep falling and knocking all the shit on the tray down that it’s freaking brain surgery.
I look toward the back of the crowded room. There are a lot of people here tonight. A bunch of shifters and a lot more humans, mostly women. No surprise there. Some of the bars down in Maxton get mobbed by some of the richer, more ritzy women. You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones who the only thing real about them is their eyes, maybe, in their four-inch heels so pointy and tall, it’s a wonder they don’t stab straight into the ground. They always breeze in like they own the place. One piece of jewelry on them could pay my salary for six months.
This bar feels better, I like it more. The women are more laid back. They wear cowboy boots that aren’t brand new and actually have mud on them. Which means they actually wear them and didn’t buy them just because they were coming to a country bar in the mountains. Sure, they wear their jeans so tight it looks like they were sewn into them, and their shirts so short and tight you see plenty of midriff and hard nipples. They might as well be naked, which is just perfect for picking up a sup male. Who never dressed a little bit like a ho to catch a piece of ass, am I right? I have quite a few times and Trex, well Trex dresses to impress the ladies all the time. The only difference is his ho card is a lot bigger. Most women want to sleep with him with the intention of snagging him. There is always that ulterior motive. Trex, and all the other males hate that part but hey, can’t expect a piece of ass to come with no strings. They all want to play the field without giving anything in return. What was that old saying, can’t turn no ho into no housewife? Well can’t turn no male ho into no househusband. Maybe someone should invent that saying and throw it out there into the world. I bet it would catch on like wildfire and there would be like bumper stickers and t-shirts and shit. Maybe I should do that. Throw it out there and see what happens.
Bright blue eyes connect with mine, a frown marring his handsome face. Trex is worried about me. I can see it in those eyes. There is nothing to worry about because everything is fine. At least that is what I keep telling him, but I don’t really believe it. Just when I think the pain is ending and I’m starting to feel better, like I’m actually getting over it, something happens that slams me back down again. And I’d fall off that high ass cliff all over again. Another hard week where I’m certain my life is never going to be easy again.
Working nights means, I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn like when I worked at the bakery when I first moved to Maxton, way before I got work at the clinic. It did little to help me this morning because I stayed up all night. I haven’t watched the sun come up since Cody moved in with Sara. This morning, I tried but I couldn’t do it. I was so angry and mad at the stupid sun. Imagine that. Mad at an inanimate object for something that doesn’t even make sense. Mad because my last memory of a sunrise was at the beginning of the most fucked up day of my life.
I’m trying to get back to doing the things I love, but I seem to just want to sleep most of the time. My head’s in a fog and my eyes are heavy. I wish I could blame all the clumsy mistakes on lack of sleep but to be honest, I suck even when I sleep well. I just plain suck at this job, but I can’t accept that. There aren’t many jobs here and this one pays the best because of the tips. I need the money. I need to find a way to get better and get my shit together.
“I’m fine,” I say snatching up the white towel Trex hands me. I feel heat rise up my neck and spread across my cheek as embarrassment burns through me. Dammit, I know what everyone is thinking. Trex, Leanna and the new waitress, Laci, who keeps looking at me and rolling her eyes. Well, she was earlier until I snapped my teeth at her and growled in her face. Dumb human should know better than to taunt a monster especially when she’s working in a bar full of them. Trex reamed my ass for that one, but it was so freaking worth it.
“You’ve been having trouble all night.” He leans against the counter, watching me in that contemplative way he’s been doing since I was a kid. “Want to talk about it?”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” Sighing, I start stacking the fresh bottles he has opened onto the tray. “I told you before, I’ve never waitressed and it’s just taking me a bit of time to get the hang of things.” It’s not exactly a lie, I just hope he doesn’t hear the false note in my voice.
“Um-hum,” he says noncommittedly. “Well, when you drop these off, don’t forget to cover the table in the back.” He twitches his chin toward the back corner of the bar.
Turning my head over my shoulder, my gaze shoots to the back left-hand corner of the bar. My eyes fall on the man sitting alone at the table farthest back, against the wall. The massive man has somehow managed to squeeze himself into the booth, but that isn’t what surprises me. In the middle of the smoke filled, booze soaked, pheromone drenched, louder than hell bar, the man sat reading a book.
“Now there’s something you don’t see every day.” I can’t believe what I’m seeing.
“A Vampire?”
Frowning, I look back at Trex. “What? No. Reading. Have you ever seen a man reading in a bar bursting with groupies?”
“Him.”
I motion over my shoulder with my thumb. “He’s a Vampire?”
Trex nods. “Yup.”
“That’s Laci’s section.”
“I know.”
I can’t help the smirk that crosses my lips. Laci’s afraid of the big, bad Vampire, or is it because he didn’t fall for her flirty charms, which remind me of bubble gum comics. I find it amusing. I don’t like Laci, at all. Trex keeps telling me to be nice to her and swear I am. I haven’t made her pee her pants lately. It’s been tempting. Very tempting, but I’ve been good. How is that not nice?