Page 34 of Moonlight Hearts

No more kitchen work for you.You’re no Cinderella.

Again, I hesitated, then typed out:

But aren’t you a dark prince?Won’t you whisk me away to the ball?

Feisty.Careful what you wish for.I just might.I’ll see you soon, my heart.

Can’t wait.

I sent the text, then rinsed my face again, dried it with a paper towel, and left the bathroom.

I was thinking about giving Ant the rest of the day off when a noise from the storage room caught my attention.

Immediately, a shiver ran through me.The storage room really wasn’t scary, and we now had a very nice security system, complete with a small screen by the back door that allowed us to see the whole alley there.

Still, it was hard to forget that a black-eyed kid had once tried to get in there, even if I wasn’t too sure what it would have done to everyone if I’d let it inside.I was glad I hadn’t found out.

“Hello?”I said and took two steps, which brought me into the storage room.

Thaeros was getting the big box of napkins off a shelf and looked over his shoulder as I came in.

“Hi.Getting the napkins.We ran out.”

“Right.Let me help you.”

Together, we had the box down fast, and before I could, Thaeros was grabbing three packages.

“This should do.Who’s into blue, by the way?Everything’s blue, and everything has the blue logo.”

He handed me the napkins and went about getting the box back up on the shelf himself.I was used to doing that because I used to be the tallest—not anymore with Levi around—but Thaeros easily lifted the unwieldy cardboard over his head and put it back.It was a pretty big box.

“Must’ve been Dwayne.He started the diner.”

“Yeah, he seems nice.In a still waters kind of way.Not a bad thing, necessarily.You know him well?”

I really couldn’t tell with Thaeros.Was he trying to talk about Dwayne behind his back?Was he trying to get me to say stuff behind Dwayne’s back that they could then use?

I decided to keep it neutral.“Dwayne’s like family.”

Thaeros looked surprised yet again.“Really?You’re lucky.What I wouldn’t give to return my blood family and exchange them for someone like him.”

That didn’t just rub me the wrong way, it upset me.Was he…trying to get on my good side by suggesting that we were alike?The memory of the black-eyed kid was still fresh.If he was trying to play nice now, maybe he had an ulterior motive.Maybe, just like that black-eyed kid, he was working for someone.Maybe it was Cecil.

“Did you look into me?”

Thaeros looked genuinely confused.“Look into you?I mean, I looked at the Hawthorne announcement and asked around.Does that count?It’s not like people know you personally, and they know your vampire wouldn’t appreciate any gossip.I just know what was readily available.”

“You said that before about my vampire.You mean Elias?Elias Hawthorne?”

He snorted.“Who else?Why’re you still glaring at me?What did I do?”

That was a really good question, and unfortunately, I knew the answer.He hadn’t done anything.Well, nothing that couldn’t have been coincidence and me overreacting, and even then…Soyer had hired them.I had a very hard time believing that Soyer would hire anyone that was this blunt while being malicious.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes, my hands smelling of onion.“Sorry, I just… It was a long day, and I guess we got off on the wrong foot.Thanks for getting these.”I held my hands up with the napkins in them.“I’ll send Ant home for the day, or Levi.Maybe both of them.Then we can finish out the rest of the shift.Sound good?”

“Works for me.Anything else back here that I should know about?”

“Ah.Hold these.”I handed him the napkins and tapped the shelf that had most of the stuff we used back behind the counter.“Salt, pepper, the sweetener.Cream.The cherries.Oh, plates are in those boxes at the bottom, and I think Soyer ordered more.We have a security system, but I don’t have an extra key for the back door to give you.”