Page 26 of The World She Never Knew Existed

Dillon thought that he saw her smirk before she turned her attention back to the stove.

She slid two eggs, a couple pieces of bacon and some toast onto the plate before setting it down in front of him. He poured a couple glasses of orange joice and a couple cups of coffee. She turned back to the stove and finished cooking her own eggs before sitting down at the table with him.

Dillon thought that she felt a little awkward but wasn’t sure how to put her at ease.

He grinned at her and said, “This is delicious. I’ll have to invite you over more often.”

His words seemed to help her relax a little, and she smiled back at him.

“I cook breakfast the same time every morning for Zeke. If he had his way though, it would be pancakes every morning, although he does like my French toast.”

“A boy after my own heart,” Dillon said. “He’s a good kid.”

“He is. I love him to death,” Clara said. “He certainly likes you. You won his heart when you played ball with him.”

Dillon smiled.

After taking a couple bites of her food, she said, “You’re relatively new here, too. Have you heard the legend about the dragon king and the billionaire’s daughter?”

“I have,” Dillon said. “I think that every newcomer is told about that legend if they didn’t already know about it.”

“Jamie seemed to believe in the legend, wholeheartedly,” Clara said.

“I am pretty sure that everyone who lives in this city takes the legend very seriously,” Dillon said. “It’s almost as though it is what the entire city is based on.”

“I thought that it was based on tourism,” Clara said.

“Sure, to the outsiders. However, the legend is wound into the very fiber of the culture of the city,” Dillon said.

Clara was quiet for a minute and said, “It’s hard to believe that shifters even exist. I’m not even sure I believe in ghosts, and I think that I’ve seen one with my own eyes. It is really hard to believe that there are humans who can turn into an animal form and back again.”

Dillon opened his mouth to explain to her that there was such a thing as shifters and they exist all over the world, but he shut it again. He didn’t want to explain how he would know about shifters – at least not yet.

“Jamie said that the Faisons, who own Forest Resort, are the descendants of the billionaire from the story,” Clara said.

“That is true,” Dillon said.

Clara was quiet for a minute as though she was processing all of the information.

“Alexis came in to the café the other day. She seemed as though she was super nice. She invited me to have dinner at the resort with her. I told her that I already had plans and asked for a raincheck.”

“They all seem nice, at least at first,” Dillon said. “However, they have a reputation for being quite vicious if someone annoys them in any way. They own the city government, including the cops here.”

Clara nodded as though she understood that Dillon was warning her.

“Do you believe in the legend?” she asked.

“Yes, I do,” Dillon said.

Clara looked at him as though she was going to question him about it, but then the alarm on her phone went off.

“Dang, I’m running late. I’m sorry to leave you with a sink full of dishes, but I have to get home and get changed,” she said.

“It’s only fair that if you cook then I do the dishes,” he said.

Clara brushed a kiss across his cheek and then rushed out the door, grabbing her purse. She was gone before he could offer her a ride. Luckily, she only lived about a block away, so it wasn’t far for her to walk.

Dillon wondered what she thought when he told her that he did believe in the legend. He was sure that she was going to ask him whether he believed that shifters existed before her alarm interrupted her train of thought.

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