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I chuckle. “Oh, now, who cares about gravy when you’ve got fried chicken.”
“Yeah, she makes the best,” Sammy says.
She shakes her head and forks more of my eggs into her mouth. There is something so satisfying about feeding her and her children. I wasn’t lying. I cook for my friends and family, but having them here, sharing a meal with me, there’s something special about it.
By the time we clean up, and she’s pushing the kids and Houdini out the door, it’s almost ten in the morning. It’s a late start for me, but I don’t have to be at work for lunch. I handle dinner on Friday nights.
“Thanks so much for breakfast,” she says. “I’ll have to pay you back sometime. And again, apologies about my kids.”
“Naw. I had a blast. And if you cook me fried chicken, we’ll call it even.”
“It’s about the only thing I can make.”
We stand at the front door, not moving, just standing in awkward silence again.
“So, I guess I’ll see ya.”
I want to pull her into my arms and kiss the hell out of her. She looks so unsure of herself, as if she doesn’t know how to handle having a man look at her the way I do. Or is it that her kids have never seen her with a man other than their father?
“Yeah, even if we didn’t live next door to each other, we would run into each other. ThisisJuniper.”
She gives me a sweet smile, need deepening golden flecks in her brown eyes of her eyes. Then, she turns and follows her kids and dog back to their house. Once I close the door, I lean back against it.
I can’t fight the warm feelings I have rushing through me. It has to do with the woman, but those kids are so damned sweet. I rub my hand over my heart. I usually avoid getting serious with most women, especially with kids in the mix. Don’t get me wrong, I want kids one day. Even if they aren’t my own, it won’t bother me. The Golds pretty much adopted us as Wyatt struggled to keep our lives pieced together.
Kids are fragile. They may pretend that they aren’t, but they are. I never thought it was right to be in their lives, then disappear. That’s just not my thing.
Those kids? That woman? I get a weird feeling when I think about being in their lives. Stupid, right? I mean, I barely know Liv and her kids. Still, Sammy is hilarious, ideally suited to a dog that breaks into people’s yards. And Callie? Liv’s Mini-Me is just too precious for words.
What the hell am I gonna do?
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I immediately pull it out because Fridays could be dicey atThe Mason Jar. Of course, it’s just my sister Everly.
Sister from Hell:You’re entertaining women for breakfast?
I don’t answer her because I know it will drive her crazy. Besides, I’m not ready to talk about Liv and my feelings for her until I know what I’m going to do about it.
With that thought, I decide to keep busy, or I’ll drive myself crazy.
ChapterTwelve
MASON
“Your sister’s here,” Jessica announces as she sweeps into the kitchen just after the lunch rush petered out.
I roll my eyes. Of course, blowing off my sister has consequences. Most sisters would probably just berate you in private, or at least not show up to your restaurant and embarrass you.
Everly isn’t that type of sister.
She’s a kick-ass, take-no-names kind of woman, and I love her for it. But it isn’t easy being her little—as in age—brother.
I sigh and wipe my hands dry. If I don’t go out there, she will just pop into the kitchen. I step out into the restaurant and zero in on her. I expected she would have Esme, my niece. But seeing Everly’s business partner Becca with her, along with Wyatt, has me blinking. Everly and Becca run a comic book store, so they either eat together at the store, or take lunch separately.
Wyatt—that’s definitely weird. He usually doesn’t show his face before five on weekend nights. About ninety percent of his social life is stunted by his business. The other ten percent is stunted by his personality.
I walk up to them, and notice that she asked to sit at a six top. She made sure there was an empty seat for my interrogation.
Everly is tough because she had to be. She not only grew up in between two asshole brothers, we all lost our parents at a young age. She smart and freaking sarcastic, which usually she shows off with her t-shirts. Today’s t-shirt says,Don’t talk to me and I won’t punch you.
