Page 26 of Guarding Over You
But the man she fell in love with was long gone and no amount of saying he changed was going to wipe away what she’d endured or what she refused to put her daughter through again.
8
SILENT INVITATION
“I’ll take the turkey bacon wrap and fries,” Blaze said on Tuesday. As his family predicted, he wasn’t enjoying his days off but picked up a shift yesterday, came in for a training this morning and then was going to cover for a few hours while the doctor working today could go to the training he’d just left.
“Coming up,” the cafe worker said.
He stood there while the wrap was assembled quickly, then the fries were dumped on his plate from where they’d been warming under a light a few steps away. The cafe was packed, and they were getting people through fast.
It wasn’t as if he had much time to come down here to eat most days—lucky if he could grab something and eat it on his way back to patients—but today he had forty-five minutes and told himself to take a few moments to chill and fill his belly. He wasn’t working a full shift in the ER, just three hours, which he knew would probably turn into four if things got backed up.
He opened the water bottle that was in his hand as he waited in line, took a long drink. Then he moved a few feet down whenhe saw his order was done, tapped his credit card to pay and picked the tray up to find a seat.
His eyes scanned the room quickly, latched onto a two-person table that had one open seat and his sexy neighbor taking up the other with her head down.
He moved in that direction, saw her head lift before he made it and her pushing the chair out in a silent invitation. Exactly what he’d been hoping for.
“Are you off and just coming in to eat so you don’t have to cook?”
He laughed at the way her eyes drifted over him from his tan cotton pants, light green shirt and sleeves rolled to his elbows. A few buttons undone because he liked to breathe.
He wasn’t the golf-shirt type, and those printed short-sleeve button-downs? Not a chance in hell. Too polished and too preppy for a guy who’d spent half his life picking apples and doing yardwork.
He’d take simple and lived-in over shiny and showy any day.
“If I didn’t want to cook, I’d just go see my mom at the cafe,” he said, pulling the seat out more and planting his ass.
“I’d love something like that when I didn’t want to meal plan. Having a fussy six-year-old isn’t fun.” She looked at her plate, the remaining special he’d noticed still there. Something with stir-fried chicken and rice maybe. “I have to get fancy cuisine here.”
“That’s fancy?” he asked, popping a fry into his mouth.
“Sad but true.”
She smiled as those words slipped out. Her brown hair was tucked behind her ears, loose waves floating on her shoulders.
There was humor in her light caramel eyes as if she wasn’t sure someone else would find her funny.
He did. He found his few interactions with her were full of what he’d said before. Layers.
Not stinky onion layers, but sweet smelling oranges, that each piece dragged away puffed more of the citrus into his nostrils, making him want to move faster to get to the sticky juicy center.
When was the last time any thoughts like those even filled his brain?
“Yeah, well, I’m on board with you. Give me burgers and potato salad any day of the week. Fancy food isn’t my deal.”
“I’d be thrilled if Gracie wanted potato salad,” she said, laughing. “Fries are the only way she’ll eat a potato. A burger, maybe from a fast food place but not what I’d cook. Comes from her father only giving her that stuff. Most of her food consists of frozen meat I chuck in the air fryer rather than when I cook on the stove or even the oven.”
He wasn’t sure what to think of that. That she’d be the type to give in so easily rather than push for something more nutritious. The doctor in him was kind of appalled, but the human in him knew there had to be more to the story.
“My mother, she had five kids to feed and a husband who worked the farm daily. One big meal and we all had to eat it. If we didn’t like it, we sat there while everyone else ate. There were no other options. She didn’t have time to give us a menu of choices.”
He watched her face for annoyance over his words. Nope. Nothing.
She continued to eat, letting him do the same.
He figured he’d just blown it right there, but if he couldn’t speak his mind, there was no reason to progress any further.
