Page 65 of Devoured By the Forbidden Mountain Man

Rex kissed my temple instead, then put the fangs back in.

The moment lasted less than a minute before someone called my name from the dining room, and I returned to work with the ridiculous little crown still securely attached to my head.

Meredith arrived twenty minutes later.

I saw her through the front windows before she came inside, one hand holding her coat closed against the wind as she crossed the sidewalk. She paused beneath the orange lights outside the door, drew a breath, and entered.

Seeing her on video had prepared me for her face but not for the reality of her.

Her light-brown hair shifted against the shoulders of a simple gray coat. Her pregnancy was much more obvious in person, the rounded curve of her stomach changing the way she moved when she stepped around a family leaving an early dinner table. Her gray-blue eyes found me almost immediately.

I went to meet her before she had to search the room.

“Hi, Meredith.”

“Hi, Georgia.” She gave a small, nervous laugh. “I almost turned around twice between the parking lot and the door.”

“But you came in.”

She gave a small nod before looking beyond me into the restaurant.

Costumed staff crossed between tables. Case was behind the bar arranging glasses. Rex stood near the front of the dining room without the cape now, though the black clothes still made the vampire costume obvious.

Meredith noticed him too. “I remember Rex.”

“He’s helping me. He knows what you’ve already told us. Nothing more.”

Rex approached at an easy pace and stopped beside me rather than crowding her.

He gave Meredith a quiet nod, and she returned it.

He had already removed the fangs. Nothing about his manner suggested he planned to use the meeting to press her for answers.

“If you need anything while you’re here, tell Georgia or me.”

“Thank you.”

Meredith looked relieved when that was all he said.

I showed her the small office off the back hall first, explaining that we could use it when Gavin arrived if she wanted privacy. She stood in the doorway, looked inside, then back toward the dining room.

“I think I’d rather stay where people are for now.”

“That’s fine.”

We chose a table near the back wall, close enough to the hall that she could step away from the crowd without being shut in a room by herself. From there she could also see the front entrance.

A server brought water. Meredith wrapped both hands around the glass without drinking.

“I don’t know what I’m going to say when I see him. I meant what I told you, Georgia. I came because I agreed to talk to Gavin, but I’m not promising anything beyond that.”

“I know, and I’m not asking you to.”

Her shoulders eased slightly.

I could have sat with her until Gavin arrived, but hovering would only give both of us more time to count the minutes. The front doors were about to open for the party.

“I have to work,” I said. “I’ll be around the room. You won’t have to come find me.”