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“Well….If you want the full Kentucky experience?A hot brown.It’s turkey, ham and bacon, on fried bread, covered in cheese sauce.”
“I’m amazed it isn’t calleda heart attack on a plate.”
He snorted.“Honey, almost all diner food would have to be called that, so it’d never work.”
My insides had gone all tingly at the sound of his delicious endearment.“Hot brown it is.And to drink?”
“Again, for the full experience, shitty diner coffee, although the coffee here isn’t so bad.Alternatively, a chocolate malt milkshake.”
I frowned.“I’m not entirely sure a hot brownanda milkshake will fit inside this dress.”
“You’ll make it work.”He grinned down at me, his eyes dancing with good humour.“I believe in you.”
“Well, as long as you, Mr.I-never-met-a-steak-I-couldn’t-finish, believe in me, I can do anything.”
He laughed.“I know you’re being sarcastic, but I bet youcando anything.You’ve made your own business from the ground up, so Jess tells me.You had a bad break-up, but rather than stay and wallow, you flew half a world away to honour a commitment you made to family.”
I shrugged.“I don’t know.Crossing an ocean is just another kind of wallowing, isn’t it?I ran away.”
He tilted his head thoughtfully.“Maybe it’s a matter of perspective.”
I nudged him affectionately with my shoulder.“You should be available on prescription.I’ddefinitelylisten to you narrate a seven-hour audiobook about perspective.”
“I’ll keep that in mind if work falls through,” he chuckled.
This was so easy.Nice, warm, comforting.
Maybe I was only relaxed because I knew I was going home eventually, and so, that meant nothing could come of how I felt about Rick Callahan.
I wrangled my thoughts away from how good he looked and smelled and sounded.
Maybe I should rethink spending time with him.
And maybe I should stop overthinking and justfucking enjoya trip to the diner.
Rick turned a corner and Otter Street, the main street of Redwing Falls, opened up.There wasn’t much to it, but it was easy to navigate around.
A butcher, a grocer, a tiny lawyer’s shopfront, an adorable looking giftshop and florist combined, a barber, two hairdressers, and of course,Cake Away.
“There’s a gym, too.Well, more of a one-stop fitness shop.It’s got a boxing ring and a gym, and they do classes.It’s a couple streets away,” Rick explained.“In an old car parts warehouse."
“It’s cute.The town, I mean.I doubt the gym would want to be described as cute.”
He smiled.“I thinkquaintis the way a lot of out of towners describe it.”
He glanced back and forth at the cars moving along the road, and my heart bumped when he grabbed my hand and made to cross.
I curled my fingers around his—he had calluses from all the woodwork and maybe from holding firearms, too— and he turned to look down at me.
“Sorry.I’m trying to remind myself to hold hands for when I walk Toby across the street.It won’t be long.”
I squeezed his hand.“It’s nice.You’re a great Uncle.”
“Well, I hope Jenny thinks so.”
His compassion was endearing and only made me like him even more.I should have slipped my hand free from his grasp, but I couldn’t.
Friends could hold hands, right?
