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Needless to say, takeout always won.
“So, Junior’s it is,” I said, and he shot me a finger gun while picking up his book and returning his gaze to the pages. “You said it.”
Junior’s Pizzeria in a small, middle-of-nowhere town, had to be the best pizza I’d ever had in all my thirty-nine years. It was the sauce. I didn’t know what the hell they put in it—no one did. That sauce recipe was the town’s best kept secret. The Shields family who owned and operated the place were seriously tight lipped about it. My buddy Owen Shields ran the local vet clinic, and because he’d chosen that path instead of joining the family business, evenhedidn’t know how to make it.
In my line of work, it was crucial that you remain in shape. It wouldn’t do to be carrying a person out of a burning building and have to take a break halfway down the stairs to catch your breath. I’d always prided myself on a balanced diet and plenty of time working out so I was in optimal shape for my chosen profession, but after one trip to the local pizzeria, I was hooked. Whatever the ingredients, it was addictive. I ate a few slices from Junior’s at least once a week and started working out extra to combat all the cheesy, doughy awesomeness.
Totally worth it.
Another selling point for me, at least in the beginning, was that the woman who ran the place was drop-dead gorgeous. A real seductress. I wasn’t in the market for a relationship. Never fucking again. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t up for a little fun, if there were no strings involved and we both knew the score. I’d been new to town, just starting to settle in, and I’d spent the better part of a month coming in and sitting at the bar where I could eat great food, drink a cold beer, and flirt with a fucking gorgeous woman. It had been going pretty damn well, and I knew she was feeling it too.
I’d been enjoying a slice for lunch one day, building up to make my move on the woman I’d come to know as Hardin, when the door to the restaurant flew open and a tornado of long, wild, dark hair came streaking through, running right behind the counter and latching onto her leg.
The second the words, “Hi, Mommy” came out of her mouth, I’d felt like a bucket of ice water had dumped over my head.
That was the day my plan to seduce Hardin Shields into my bed had died. I didn’t get involved with women who had children. It was absolutely out of the question. Hardcore deal breaker. As beautiful as the woman was, she’d forever be in the unattainable category.
It worked out for the best, because not long after, I met her older brother, Owen, and the two of us became tight. He was probably the person in Grapevine I was closest to; my best friend if I had to put a label on it, and everyone knew that fucking your best friend’s little sister was a hard no.
I jogged down the stairs just as the Darryl, the oldest member of the crew, let out a gruff, “I’m sick of Mexican, man. I want Chinese.”
“No Chinese,” Lydia barked back. She might have been the smallest member of the department, but she was also the biggest ball-buster of us all. She could hold her own on a call, no problem, and she didn’t give a shit how much bigger any of us were, she didn’t hesitate to put us in our place. There’d been more than one time I’d covered my balls to keep them safe when I did or said something to piss her off. “I had Chinese last night, and I don’t want it again.”
Darryl scoffed at the little woman glaring frozen daggers up at him. “How is that my problem? What you do on your free time has no bearing on the decisions made here.”
Lydia slammed her hands down on her hips and got right up in his face, or as close as she could, seeing as Darryl had nearly a foot on her. “It does when we’re discussing Chinese, and I don’t want it.”
It was inevitable that he’d cave to the little hellraiser, we all did, so I didn’t bother sticking around to watch it go down.
“Hey, Grimes. Where you goin’?” our rookie, Henson, called after me as I headed toward the back exit that would take me to the parking lot.
“To Junior’s to pick up a couple pies. Be back in a few.”
“I could do pizza,” I heard Lydia say as I pushed the door open. And as it started to swing closed, Darryl’s voice followed. “Works for me. Problem solved.”
The last voice I heard before it clicked into place was Crawford’s. “Thank fuck.”
3
HARDIN
The bell over the door let out its melodic little chime as it was pushed open.
Usually, I loved the sound of that bell. It meant customers, which meant revenue, which meant we’d stay in the black. But today, that bell set my teeth on edge.
Because it meant another customer.
What had started as the morning from hell had only gotten worse as the day progressed. I hadn’t been able to get anyone to cover Kadence’s shift, which left me short-staffed. Which meant I had to do the job of managerandwaitress. I had invoices to pay, payroll to run. I had distributors waiting for me to call them back and a schedule to create for next week.
But I hadn’t had the chance to do any of that because we’d been hustling from the time we opened. It was the heart of tourist season, so our small town, and the ones surrounding it, were flooded with out-of-towners looking for an escape from city life in our beautiful mountains.
I didn’t know what it was about being a tourist that made a person’s manners fly right out the window, but it never failed that the out-of-towners left my restaurant in much worse shape than my locals did.
Most days, I didn’t mind because they tipped really damn well. But this wasn’t most days.
The smile I pasted on my face was forced, making my cheeks feel like brittle plastic as I turned from the filthy table I was bussing to greet my latest customer. “Welcome to Junior’s. Have a seat—oh,” I finished as I saw the person who’d just waltzed through the door.
The man who’d walked in was the only man I’d ever laid eyes on whose looks hit me like a wrecking ball to the stomach every... single... time.
