Page 4 of Keel

She shook her head. “No, I can’t afford it.” Her gaze landed on the ruined food around her. “Shit, he ruins everything.”

Keel stood and pulled her up, too. “Please let me buy you breakfast.” He glanced down at her hands, seeing that they were cut up from her fall. “Your hands are bleeding, and your food is ruined. Please come over to the coffee shop with me, and I’ll buy you some food, and we can talk. We’re neighbors, at least for this week. Come on, neighbors are supposed to be good to each other.” It looked like she was going to say no, so he tossed her a bone. “Listen, you can pay me back by cooking me dinner one day this week. I’ll buy the ingredients, and you can come over and make something.”

Her lips thinned as she stared into his eyes. He caught himself before he reached out and pulled her into a hug. This was just him being nice. Nothing more. He didn’t date, even when the woman had beautiful brown eyes that seemed to stare right into his soul.

“Fine. I need to wash my hands anyway.”

“My friends call me Keel. What’s your name?”

She glanced away and then back at him. “Frankie.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said as he helped her clean up the mess, tossing the ruined food into the trash. At some point, he would talk her into going to the big grocery store with him.

While she was in the bathroom, he ordered two sandwiches and a chocolate pastry that he hoped would entice her. She came out of the bathroom, her eyes down as she walked through the restaurant, shoulders drawn forward like she was trying to make herself as small as possible. His heart squeezed at the way she was trying to look invisible on her way back to him.

“I got you a caramel macchiato. You seemed like a caramel kind of person.”

“Thank you.”

He almost didn’t hear the words since they were spoken so low. Now that she was close, he saw the thumbprint-shaped bruises on her neck. It was all he could do not to react with anger. If Pipsqueak were still here, he’d do a little rearranging of the man’s face.

Instead of saying what he wanted to about the jerk making her life hell, he took her elbow and led her over to a table in the far corner.

Their coffees and food arrived fast, and he pushed the pastry closer to her. Her eyes flicked up to him and then back to the table.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He had about a hundred questions he wanted to ask, but he felt like she would rabbit out of here if he peppered her with questions.

She picked off a small corner of the sandwich and put it in her mouth, chewing about thirty times before swallowing. When she took a sip of the coffee he’d purchased, she closed her eyes like it was the best thing she’d ever consumed.

It took her more than fifteen minutes to eat a quarter of the sandwich. He thought she might not finish the sandwich, but she took a napkin and wrapped the rest of it up.

“I want to take this back to the condo and save it for lunch. Thank you.”

“You should take the pastry, too.”

Frankie shook her head. “Oh no, I couldn’t. That’s too much.”

“No, it’s not. How about I get a bag so we can take it back to your place? Then we should go to the grocery store and buy some food.”

“No, you’re being too nice.”

She moved to stand, and he put his hand on hers. His hold was light enough that she could pull away if she wanted. Her gaze landed on his, and he saw desperation and worry in those brown depths.

“Frankie, you don’t owe me anything. I just want to help. When I was at my lowest, someone pulled me up and gave me a chance. They could have destroyed my life, but they helped me. Let me help you. And like I said, there are no strings. I’d still like to do dinner with you later in the week, if you’re still here, but you don’t have to.”

Her eyes drifted away as tears welled up. He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her it would be all right, but he didn’t know if it would be okay. That man, whoever he was, didn’t seem to have any boundaries where she was concerned.

“I promise you, this is me just helping you as a friend.”

Her gaze flew to his. “Why?”

He let go of her hand, a chuckle escaping his lips. “Like I said, someone helped me when I was at my lowest. I’ll tell you the story if you go grocery shopping with me. We can go sit on the beach and watch the waves come in while I tell you what happened.”

For a moment, he thought Frankie was going to say no, but she gave a slight nod, which was all the confirmation he needed. This week was shaping up differently than he’d planned, but sometimes the best things that happen aren’t from planned activities.

Chapter 3