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“What is it?” he asked.
I bit my lip, wondering whether or not I even needed to admit what was on my mind.
“Tell me,” he urged when he saw me hesitating.
I finally shrugged, then said, “I really, really, really want a bear claw. As in, I’m about to get in the van and drive that way.”
He reared back as if I’d slapped him. “Was my food not good?”
To be truthful, I hadn’t had any of it yet.
When I’d walked in the door, the very last thing I’d wanted was whatever he’d made for everyone else. The smell was atrocious.
“Umm…” I hesitated. “The smell of whatever you cooked is making me want to vomit.”
His lips quirked up at the edges. “Here I am, a professional chef, and you want to vomit at the smell of my food?”
I shrugged. “I also wanted to vomit at the smell of the grass as I walked outside…so there’s that.”
His eyes seemed to twinkle at that news.
“Do you really need a bear claw?” Coffey asked me, his gaze filled with mirth.
I didn’t need it. But I certainly wanted it.
“No, I don’t need it,” I admitted. “But life is short.” I narrowed my eyes. “Sometimes, when I’m asked if I need to have something, or I go somewhere and wonder if I need to eat that second piece of chocolate pie, I remind myself that there’s a supervolcano underneath Yellowstone National Park that is forty thousand years past due to erupt. And when it does erupt, it could potentially cover all of America in ash and create a volcanic winter that could quite possibly kill half the world’s population. So yes, I am going to have the bear claw.”
He blinked at me as if I’d spouted complete nonsense.
Then he shook his head and walked to get me a bear claw.
“Have a seat, darlin’,” he teased. “I’ll go get you that bear claw.”
And he did.
When he arrived with not one bear claw but two, I devoured both.
Only when I was so overly stuffed that I couldn’t lick the glaze off my fingers did I call out, “You know I love you, too, right?”
He looked up from where he was at cleaning up his kitchen.
Everyone else had devoured his meal of pancakes, quiche, and bacon, whatever he’d made. They’d all taken up the rest of the seats that were surrounding the food truck.
Everyone seemed to stop at my declaration.
It was Autry who made it weird, though.
“You do know that you just declared your undying love for a man whose heart already belongs to ten men, right?” Autry asked.
There were a lot of snickers that filled the air. But also there were a lot of agreements, too.
I looked at all the men and said, “I don’t love you guys yet,” I pointed out. “But I have a feeling I one day might.”
COFFEY
I have a feeling I one day might.
Simi’s words from earlier were sitting heavily in my heart.
Not in a bad way, though. A good way. A very good way.
“What are you over there smiling about, Dream Boat?” Banner asked as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
I snorted. “I’m thinking about how fast my life has changed since my dad died.”
It was weird.
I never thought that my dad dying was a good thing.
I mean, the man was my world. My sister’s world.
I couldn’t imagine a single day without him in it.
But that death led me to Simi.
And though I missed the hell out of the man that’d made me the man I am today, I also could finally see past the heaviness that his death left behind.
My dad was no longer in pain.
My dad no longer had to share air on the same planet as my mother, the woman that’d broken him so completely.
My dad was somewhere far better than where we were. He was happy, healthy, and not in any pain whatsoever.
Did I wish that he’d met Simi? Yes. Every single day.
Did I wish he was here to talk me down from this crawling need to go kill a man for hurting her?
Oh, God, yes.
But he wasn’t here.
And that wasn’t as excruciating as it would’ve been even a month ago.
As if he sensed my thoughts on a particular subject they were trying to avoid, Banner said, “I’ll keep you updated on the sheriff.”
I was glad that what had happened had happened in a town where not only had there been backup, but there’d been competent police officers that knew how to do their job.
Oh, and people that could watch anything and everything with such a penetrating efficiency that it was terrifying.
No, these officers wouldn’t be making any mistakes with ten Navy SEALs watching over their shoulders.
“Thanks,” I muttered. “I’m still trying to control the urge to storm the station and fuck the guy up.”
Banner chuckled and held out his hands. “We’re back to the base, buddy.”
