Page 15 of A Dead End Wedding

I jumped up out of my chair. “Enough! Ten burgers for each of them, one for me, tons of fries, lemonade for me and Jack, and one milkshake, please.”

Lorraine marched off before either the tiger or the troll could continue the ridiculous burger-upmanship game.

“It’s nice to meet you. Do you have a family?”

“Why are you in town?” Jack asked bluntly.

“No family, yet.” The troll’s orange gaze turned sly. “You could marry me instead of him. I’m a good provider. Many fish.”

Whatever I expected, it was not that.

Seeing me freeze, the troll threw his head back and rumbled out a laugh that sounded like a five-car collision. “Humans have no sense of humor.”

“Trolls aren’t funny,” Jack put in.

“What’s your problem?” the troll demanded.

“Every troll I’ve ever known has been a troublemaker,” Jack said, leaning forward. “I hope you’ll be the exception.”

“I’m as gentle as a lamb,” Braumsh rumbled. Then he rubbed his enormous belly. “Love lambs. Good eating.”

I winced. “Okay, well, it’s nice to meet you. How long are you in town?”

“Trying to run me out already?”

Lorraine arrived with our food before I could answer, and then several minutes passed with no words, only the sounds of Jack and the troll competing for who could make his way through the stacks of burgers and fries the fastest.

“I’m here to learn how you dry landers do things,” he finally said, after beating Jack to the last fry on the table. “You could help. Do you want to have dinner with me?”

“We—”

“Not both of you,” he said. “Only Tess.”

“While I appreciate the invitation, I can’t. I have to go to a town hall meeting.” I said carefully, lying a bit because I’d told him I was getting married, so I didn’t appreciate the invitation, but I also didn’t want to start a confrontation.

“Good idea. I will go to this meeting.”

“It’s about a Dead End problem,” Jack said.

“I live in Dead End,” the troll fired back. “I will ask this Lorraine for the details after I give her gold for this food.”

When he stood, I did, too. “Please, let me pay for it. As a welcome to Dead End gesture.”

Braumsh tilted his head so far to the left his ear touched his shoulder. “Why do you do this? I will owe no debts.”

“Oh. No. I’m not Fae! I don’t do things to incur obligations,” I told him. “It’s just a neighborly thing to do.”

He blinked his enormous orange eyes slowly. “Yes. Neighborly. Fine. When next we meet, I will pay for the food. Until later, Tess.”

“I … okay,” I said faintly, watching him turn and trudge off while pointedly not saying anything to Jack.

“Wow. No dead bodies, and two invitations to go on dates in one day,” I said, slumping back into my chair. “Now to attend a town hall meeting and then an archery competition.”

“If you want to go on a date with the troll …” Jack grinned at me.

My phone rang. Eleanor.

“Hey, what’s up?”

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