Page 27 of True North

He closed his menu and brought his attention to me. “I understand.” One corner of his mouth worked its way up in a barely-there smirk that still managed to pack a hell of a punch. “Like I said, get whatever sounds good.”

I finally settled on a burger the size of my head and sweet potato fries. The food came out a few minutes later, and I didn’t hesitate to dive right in.

As we ate, the conversation flowed with surprising ease. The questions weren’t very deep, but that was what made it so comfortable.

For a rough biker, Rake was surprisingly funny in that dry sort of way I’d always enjoyed, and by the time we finished eating, I was completely at ease (something that wasn’t normal for me when it came to being the focus of handsome men). Especially if I thought they could possibly be interested in me. I didn’t know why, but that always turned me into a stuttering, nervous mess.

However, that ease melted away when the bell over the door rang and I looked over to see North walking into the diner.

His gaze was already on me, and when my eyes locked with his, I felt pinned in place. My heart started to race and as those unique blue eyes traveled from me to my dinner companion, my skin suddenly felt like it was stretched too tight over my body.

“You okay, gorgeous?”

The question yanked my attention from North, and I turned to offer Rake a reassuring smile. “Oh. Yeah. I’m great. Totally great. Just . . . great.”

He leaned forward. “I might have bought that, sweetheart. If you didn’t use to word great two too many times.”

My mouth pulled into a wince. “Sorry, I⁠—”

That was all I got out before a large shadow stretched over the table. After our night together and his polite but final brush-off the morning after, I’d expected him to go out of his way to avoid me, not waltz up to my table like we were friends or something. And I sure as hell didn’t expect him to be staring at me with such intensity it made my entire body shiver and squirm in my seat.

He didn’t bother looking at Rake as he said, “Hi.”

My lips parted in preparation for words that didn’t come.

I caught Rake’s movement out of the corner of my eye. It bounced between North and me, and I could almost swear I felt a wave of curiosity coming at me from the other side of the table. He moved then, his arm coming out, hand extended in North’s direction. “Hey, man. How’s it going?”

North blinked like he was clearing the cobwebs from his mind and turned to look at Rake. His expression flickered with surprise for a moment, almost as it he’d completely forgotten about the man sitting across from me until he spoke.

To everyone else in the diner, he probably looked the picture of calm, cool, and unaffected. But years of watching North Hastings had made me a pro at seeing beneath the surface. Little micro-movements might as well have been advertised on a billboard for me.

It was something I needed to unlearn, and fast.

“Uh, hey. It’s going. Can’t really complain.”

I used the time they were occupied with each other to take a few quick, fortifying breaths and find my center so I didn’t make a fool out of myself.

“That’s good. Spotted a couple of your campaign signs around town. More people are putting them out on their lawns. Speaks of good things to come.”

North gave a jerk of his chin. “I’ve been doing what I can. It’s all I can hope for, I guess.”

Something hit me in that moment, an idea that lit a fire of excitement so bright I couldn’t keep it to myself. “You know, I bet if Lennon asked, she could get Pope to host some sort of event at the clubhouse.”

Both men turned to me, and it took everything I had not to shrink under the attention of two of the most attractive men I’d ever laid eyes on. Instead, I grabbed hold of my inner strength and squeezed it tight.

“I’m not talking about some stuffy, formal event. That’s not what this election, or really, this town, is about. Though, I’m ninety-nine percent sure that’s the route Tolliver and his family will go⁠—”

Rake snorted, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. “Those fucker’s would never lower themselves enough to mingle with us common folk anyway.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. The Bradys looked down their noses at every one of us and never bothered hiding it. They wore their disdain for the rest of Ashland’s citizens the way Tolliver Brady wore that badge he didn’t deserve.

The more I thought about it, the more my excitement grew. “It’ll be like those bonfire parties you guys throw,” I said, my words more directed at Rake since I was discussing his club. “Just on a bit of a larger scale.”

“That’s really not necessary—” North started, but I was beyond the point of letting him object. I was downright jazzed. And when I got an idea in my head like this, there was no stopping it.

“Something tells me she’s not giving anyone else much of a choice, my man.” Rake gave me another wink, and as I smiled his way, I could feel the flush hitting my cheeks.

Movement caught my attention, and I glanced down in time to see North clenching and fisting his hands over and over as his gaze locked onto my face.