I push up and glance at the time. “Man, it’s late,” I mutter, rubbing my eyes.

Out the window, the moon illuminates from the dark sky and headlights dot the street. Now that it’s nighttime, the sleepy little town has woken up.

“Hey you,” Jax says groggily as he slowly wakes up from dreamland. He looks at the alarm clock on the nightstand. “How long have you been awake?”

“Only a couple of minutes.” My belly lets out the hungriest grumble ever.

His eyes crinkle around the corners as he laughs. “A little bit hungry, are you?”

My cheeks redden as I nod. “Apparently so.”

He sits up on the bed, kicking the sheet off him. “Let’s go feed that bad boy then.”

He changes into a clean shirt while I quickly fix my makeup and put my sandals back on. Then we head out of the room, get into the car, and drive toward the opposite side of town.

“It’s like everyone was sleeping during the day,” I comment as I watch a seemingly endless amount of cars and trucks zip up and down the street. “I’m starting to wonder if the whole vampire thing wasn’t a joke.”

“It’d probably be better if it wasn’t,” he says bitterly. “The truth is worse.”

“What’s the truth?”

“That everyone’s waking up to get high, drunk, sell drugs, sell themselves. You name the illegal activity and it’s probably happening right now.”

Just then, I spot a few women and men passing around a joint on a street corner. By the time we arrive at the restaurant, I’ve seen two fights, a hooker get into a car, and a man scale a tree like a monkey, which according to Jax is probably because the man’s trippin’ balls.

“We can go back to the hotel if you want,” he says to me after the car is parked. “I know being out this late in this town is a lot to take in.”

The restaurant doesn’t look so terrible. The building structure is stable and freshly painted. Little twinkly lights sparkle in the windows and tulips line the pathway to the entrance door.

“No, I’m good. This place actually looks nice.” I smile, hoping to ease his worries.

He relaxes a smidgeon but tenses the moment we get out of the car. When we reach the front of the Jeep, he snatches my hand and clutches on tightly.

“Everything okay?” I ask as we cross the mostly vacant parking lot.

He edgily peers at the vehicles around us. “Yeah, I’m just thinking about when I came here with my mom. “

That doesn’t really explain his strange behavior.

“But why do you seem so nervous?” I ask as he opens the door for me. I step inside, and the warm, delicious smell of chicken and biscuits engulfs me.

“Because we weren’t here to eat.” He moves up to the hostess desk and tells her a table for two. After she wanders off to go check for available tables, Jax inches closer to me and lowers his voice. “I was about five-years-old. She came here to meet a client of hers. Usually she’d just do her thing in the car, but this time the guy wanted to go to a motel. So she piled me and Avery in this creepy asshole’s car.” His eyes glaze over as he stares off at the tables. “The thing I remember the most is that it smelled like peanuts and fish, but that’s probably because Avery and I had to sit in the damn car for three hours while the two of them went into the room. It was winter and really fucking cold—they didn’t even leave the heater on. I kept saying I was cold and begged Avery to go get our mom. She was too afraid to go get her, though, so instead she just hugged me until they finally came out.” His brows dip, and then he shakes his head. “I’m sorry. That was totally an inappropriate story for our first date.”

“No, you’re fine.” I suck back the tears, step in front of him, and catch his gaze. “I think you and I have reached beyond the point of inappropriate stories. We’ve told each other so much already.” The realization of my words strike me deeply, but not in a negative way. “And this is technically our first date, but not really.”

A hint of a smile rises on his lips. “So, what you’re saying is our friends with benefits thing was just an excuse? That really the whole time, you were secretly dating me?”

“You’re making it sound like it was a one-sided thing,” I muse. “Like it was all me.”

“You know that’s not true.” His lips dip to my ear, and my shoulder judders. “I think you’ve known for a really long time that I’ve wanted us to be together. That I was just playing along with you until you realized how much you liked me.” He nips my earlobe, causing my skin to flush with heat.

“Maybe…” I trail off as the hostess wanders up to us with a cheery smile on her face.

“Right this way.” She motions us to follow her then leads the way to a corner booth.

Instead of sitting across from me, Jax slides into the seat beside me. The hostess places menus on the table in front of us and starts filling up our glasses with water.

“You’re really going to sit there?” I ask Jax, opening the menu.

The hostess gives me a strange look, as if she can’t fathom why I’d ask Jax that question.

“I like being close to you.” He flashes the hostess a charismatic grin. “She secretly likes that I’m sitting by her. She just doesn’t want to admit it.”

The woman giggles and damn near swoons to the floor. “Your waitress will be over in just a few.” She smiles at Jax then blasts me with a death glare before whisking away to the front of the restaurant.