Chapter 3 #2
I had pulled out onto my street when my phone vibrated in the center console again. I pressed the button on my steering wheel, and the truck read me the next message.
“Duncan said: I’m not sure I know where the diner you’re talking about is. I can try to find it though. Or you could meet me here? Whichever works better for you.”
There was a slight pause.
“Would you like to reply?”
I was a bit frustrated, and no, I didn’t wish to reply. I held the button down until the vehicle chimed. “Call Duncan,” I said.
“Calling Duncan.”
The phone rang a few times before he picked up.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Duncan. It’s Clay,” I told him. “I thought I’d call since I’m driving, and it was just easier.”
“Yeah, I can understand that.” There was a slight pause. “I don’t get downtown much. I’m not sure about the diner. Sorry.”
“Not a worry. It’s not far from our office, and my brothers and I eat there all the time,” I told him. “Which Burgers N Shakes are you at? I’ll come pick you up.”
“Umm…when I left your neighborhood, I turned left and drove toward home. This one isn’t far from my apartment. It’s over on Twelfth Street.”
“Got it. I’ll be there in about twenty or so minutes. Does that work? I’m in a silver pickup. It’s more gray-colored, but technically, it’s silver.”
“I’ll be outside waiting. I can follow you if you want. That way, you don’t have to drop me back off later to pick my car up.”
“Unless there’s a reason you really want your car, I don’t mind picking you up.
But I do understand if you want your car for certain reasons.
But I promise you can trust me. I’ll even call Charlie when I get there, and you can let him know where we’re going.
I swear, you’re safe with me, and I won’t do anything but talk to you and feed you an amazing meal. ”
I got it. He was an omega, and he was a lot smaller than I was. But he also knew Charlie and sort of knew Silver. He should feel somewhat safe around us. At least, I would have thought so.
“No, I have no problems with riding with you. I was just trying to not be too much of a bother. It would be easier for me to drive myself, I thought. That way, you could just go home from there.”
I bit my lower lip for a moment to make sure I didn’t say something that would upset Duncan. He didn’t know me. I didn’t know him either.
“I will do whatever it is that makes you most comfortable,” I told him. I stopped at a red light and could see the sign for the place up on the right. “I’m about to leave my neighborhood area. I’m just sitting at the light on Long Hollow, so I should be there in about twenty minutes.”
“Okay. I’ll come outside and wait for you in a bit.”
“All right. I’ll see you soon.”
The call ended, and after what felt like an eternity, the light finally changed, and I was able to go through the intersection.
It seemed like it took even longer for me to finally get to the other side of town and turn into the parking lot of Burgers N Shakes.
I saw Duncan leaning against the back of an old blue station wagon toward the back of the parking lot.
When I pulled in beside it, he was already wringing his hands together.
I recognized that for the nervous trait that it was. I put the truck in park and hopped out.
“Would you like to ride with me?” I asked him as I rounded the bed and got another look at him. He was even more adorable than he was an hour ago, but I was going to keep that thought to myself for the time being.
“If you really don’t mind,” Duncan said. He wouldn’t look up at me though, and we were definitely going to have to work on that. He had pretty brown eyes that I wanted to stare at more.
“I wouldn’t have offered if I did,” I told him. I gently reached out, and after touching his hands, he separated them, which allowed me to gently take one and lead him over to the passenger side of the truck. “Do you have everything you need for now? Car locked, things like that?”
Duncan finally looked at me and nodded. I opened the truck door and gestured for him to hop in. “The air is on, but if it’s too much, feel free to turn it down.”
Duncan’s eyes widened. “Yeah, my car doesn’t have AC, so I’m not going to complain about it.”
I nodded, and after helping Duncan up into the truck and closing the door, I gave a long look at the station wagon that I was parked beside.
It was…rough. I wasn’t a snob. Nothing of the sort.
But one of the first things I would see to would be to get Duncan something newer and most likely more reliable.
It could be a mating present from me. Or a wedding present.
Silver and Charlie were planning their wedding, but Charlie had insisted on waiting until after he gave birth because he didn’t want to be heavily pregnant in his wedding pictures.
I guess I could understand that, but I wasn’t the one who would ever have to carry the babies, so I couldn’t relate to that side of things.
I climbed into the truck, and after I put on my seat belt, I smiled over at Duncan. “Thanks for agreeing to go out,” I told him.
“I didn’t have anything else to do. I was messaging my roommate Mark, and he told me that Jake and Chris were having a party and Dave was over.
So he pushed the dresser over in front of our door and climbed out the window.
He’s staying with his sister tonight, and I didn’t really feel like climbing into my window.
” Duncan sighed. “Not that it really would have done any good. The noise would still be there.”
I was trying to keep up and understand as best as I could, but I had almost immediately gotten lost. Especially when he mentioned our door. What was our door?
“I’m trying to follow, but you’re going to have to maybe give me more detail. What do you mean by our door? Do you share a room? You’re seeing someone?”
Duncan looked at me with wide eyes. “Yes, but no.” He frantically started shaking his head.
“Charlie said you had roommates.”
“Yeah. We rent a two-bedroom apartment. I share a room with Mark. He’s okay.
He’s another shifter, which works for me.
He’s an omega too. Jake and Chris are both humans, and they know we’re shifters, but they don’t really seem to care too much either way.
They’ve not ever been assholes about that. They’re just assholes in general.”
I blinked a few times. “Got it. So you share a room with Mark. In a two-bedroom apartment.”
Duncan sighed. “Yeah. It was all I could afford at the time. I could probably afford something else, but I’ve been saving to hopefully get a newer car. I’ll get funds saved, and then some disaster always seems to happen, and then I lose most of my savings and have to start all over again.”
I nodded slowly. “We can talk about all of that over dinner. Are you okay with diner food? It’s this great little diner that has amazing home-cooked type food. Very eighties feel, and it’s one of our favorites.”
“I love all foods, and I’m not going to say no to anything, really,” Duncan said.
“Like I said earlier, I didn’t have anything else going on, and I definitely didn’t want to go home.
There is probably a ten percent chance that the cops don’t get called to our place tonight.
” He sighed. “And it’s really difficult to sleep when your roommates are blasting music or yelling at some video game or something. ”
I glanced over at Duncan. “So where were you going to sleep?” I asked.
Duncan looked out the window. “I had decided the best place was probably at our apartment complex in my spot. It’s a station wagon, and I keep a blanket and pillow in the back just in case.”
Just in case? Just in case of what? I had more questions than I did earlier, but I was going to do my best to ease Duncan into answering them.
Later. Over a nice diner meal. And then I’d figure out how to convince him to spend the night at my place.
There were several beds to choose from, and I would without a doubt prefer if he were in mine, but I would certainly respect his choice to sleep upstairs.
Now that he was in the cabin of my truck though, I knew without a doubt that Duncan was my mate.
I just had to figure out how to get him to understand that because I had a feeling that my adorable mate had a not-so-great life, and the last thing I wanted was for him to feel like I was taking over. Baby steps.