Rux felt his heart twinge, recognizing his behavior and how it echoed his own trauma.
“Does she know about fated mates?” Ellen asked him.
Rux shook his head, feeling more and more like a little boy.
“Does she know that you’re a panther?” Gerri chimed in.
Rux shook his head again, diverting his gaze to the table.
He saw the two women look at each other in his peripheral vision, shaking their heads back and forth. They were still grinning, probably a little tickled by Rux’s extreme lack of experience in the dating world.
“I know you’ve had a few flings,” his mother said, consoling him. “With both humans and shifters, but if you feel that Dana is different, the approach is going to be different.”
Rux felt like scoffing, a defense mechanism he recognized as it rose into his throat. He stifled it, sporting a scowl instead.
“Do you feel that she is different?” Gerri said plainly. “Meaning, is she the one?”
Rux looked down at the table again and nodded.
“I knew it as soon as I met her,” Rux whispered.
He saw his mother's mouth stretched out, nearly touching the bottom of her earlobes. She patted him hard and spoke with great encouragement.
“Then you’re going to have to try harder, son,” she said spritely. “Humans don’t have fated mates. The concept is foreign to them. So you can’t force her into it. You have to win her over.”
Rux let out a long, childish huff, his lips making a raspberry sound. He held out his hands on the table, a gesture of complete compliance.
“Please,” he said, hating that he had to use the word, “help me understand what I need to do.”
Ellen and Gerri looked at each other again, something light moving between them. Ellen raised her hand to the server and asked for an extra coffee for her son.
The server came by with a mug and saucer and then filled Gerri’s and Ellen’s cups too. Once they were settled, Gerri sipped her beverage and then held it between her hands.
“So,” she began, “what do you know about Dana so far?”
Rux felt his brain light up. The mere mention of her name was like discussing the most precious stone found on Earth.
“She’s a musician,” Rux mused, thinking about her in that scantily clad red dress. “She is working on an audition for the Philharmonic Orchestra. She moved around a lot as a kid, and her dad loved classic cars.”
Gerri let the steam from her coffee rise into her face. She considered Rux’s words, then spoke to him delicately but directly.
“What do you think that means she might need now?”
Rux’s eyes wandered to the window. The sky was gray, personifying the pain within his heart, but slivers of light still managed to peek through the darkness.
“She needs consistency,” Rux said. “She doesn’t need any more upheaval.”
“And perhaps some control in her life?” Ellen added. “Which could translate into dictating the pace of the relationship.”
Hope was blossoming inside Rux’s chest. He had desperately hoped that he hadn’t doomed their potential by pulling her in for a kiss and taking it a bit too far. Recognizing that, yes, she did want him, but any form of change made her put her guard up, gave Rux a passionate drive to try.
“She probably doesn’t want some man distracting her from her musical dreams,” Rux said. “It’s a lot to have to choose between a relationship and your original passion.”
Rux took a sip of his coffee, feeling invigorated, his mind on fire.
“It won’t be easy, Rux,” Gerri said, “but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing. She likes you, but sometimes we behave in ways even we don’t understand.”
Rux’s heart was pounding hard, little sprouts of flowery feelings making their way back into his ventricles. He wanted to embrace that romantic part of him that had been hidden away for so long. He wanted to overwhelm Dana with it, but he also had to pay attention and take his time.