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“Hey, dollface. You okay?”
I picked up her plate and loaded it with more food than she was likely to eat, but I wanted to make sure she had anything and everything she needed. She could have all the food if she wanted. She turned her stunning blue eyes up to me and blinked before they seemed to focus on my face.
“What?” She looked down at the plate in front of her and looked back up, her cheeks full and flushed. “Oh, um, I was just thinking. I guess.” She picked up her fork and started raking it through her eggs.
I took my seat as Ethan walked back into the room. He still looked like he’d been sucker punched, but didn’t look freaked out, so I guess he was working on his own acceptance. “Do you want to talk about it?” I asked, parroting the words Ethan had spoken to me in the bedroom.
She stuck a forkful of eggs in her mouth and looked up at me, then turned her head to Ethan. She chewed slowly and pointed a finger to her face, making me chuckle. Alright, she didn’t want to talk yet. That was okay. We needed to have a serious conversation about what was happening with her, but it could wait until later.
Ethan cleared his throat and started fixing his own plate. “So, we were talking about it this morning before you got up, and we wanted to hear your opinion on what you want to do today. I know my mom gave you a job. Do you want to go in with us when we leave for work? I don’t want to strand you at the diner all day. I’d give you a car to use, but we only have the two.”
Casey swallowed. “Oh, it’s ok. I can’t drive. If you want to drop me off, that’s fine. I can take a cab back or something.”
“You can’t drive?” We were both staring at her in disbelief, forks full of food hanging mid-air as she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. I snapped out of it and shoved the eggs in my mouth. She reached for her toast and started tearing it into little pieces.
“Well, technically, I can. I just don’t have a license.” She shoved one of the small pieces in her mouth.
“Do you want to get your license, sugar?” Ethan asked as he continued to stare at her. I kicked my leg out under the table, trying to get him to take the intensity down a notch or five.
He grunted and took a bite of food as he glared at me, promising retribution with his eyes. She shook her head.
“I can’t. I don’t have any paperwork with me.” She was shutting down on us while I watched. I suspected that her lack of identification probably had everything to do with the reason she’d run away from home. A lack of ID or a birth certificate would definitely stop her from being able to be put into any database that would be searchable. Ethan met my eyes from across the table. He had come to the same conclusion I had. It was frustrating as hell not to have the answers we desperately needed in order to protect her properly.
“That’s fine,” Ethan reassured and reached over to pat her leg under the table. The touch made her jump in surprise and then pink up again almost immediately. “I can usually get away from work when I need to. Just give me a call, and I should be able to pick you up and bring you back home.”
She mumbled something as she shoved more food in her mouth, chewing rapidly this time. “What was that?” I asked as I reached over to place my hand on her other leg. I fought to hold back my grin as she startled again and began to shift in her seat. I watched her closely. If she were uncomfortable, I would pull back, but that wasn’t the reaction she was having. No, instead of looking like she wanted to throw our hands off of her, she looked like she was fighting the attraction.
I gently squeezed her small thigh and pulled my hand back at the same time Ethan did. She took a shaky breath and reached for a piece of bacon. Thankfully, she didn’t shred it like she had done with the rest of her food.
“I don’t have a phone,” she sighed and took a bite.
“You traveled all alone across the country and didn’t have a phone with you?” Ethan asked, incredulity lining his words. “That’s dangerous, sugar.”
She stared at her plate and shrugged a shoulder. “I guess it was, but it’s not like I had much of a choice.” Her words were so quiet I could barely hear them.
I glared at Ethan, trying to force the words,fix this, into his head. He grimaced, knowing we had to tread carefully with her.
“That’s fine. I can have a phone for you by this afternoon.”
She jerked her head up, but before she could begin her protests, I cut in. “It’s important for your safety to have a phone, dollface. We can just add you to our plan. It’s no big deal. I promise.” She looked at me for a long time before jerking her chin in a nod and turning back to Ethan.
“Okay. Thank you. That would be great.”
My fingers twitched with jealousy as I watched him smile gently at her and reach over to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. I wanted to feel her hair on my fingertips, too.
“Anything for you, sugar.” He winked at her and grinned at me. If she weren’t sitting at the table, I would have flipped him off. Instead, I kicked his shin again. Then it was me grinning at him as he glowered back at me.
“Eat up, guys. The daylight is burning.”
Eleven
CASEY
I staredat the soda machine in horror as the Coke started spurting, then suddenly began to turn clear instead of the dark liquid it was supposed to be.
“No. No. No.” I started looking around for Grace as I held the glass of really light colored Coke in my hand. She pushed out of the kitchen, holding four plates of steaming food, all balanced perfectly in her hands.
I watched as she hurried over to a table without so much as dropping a single french fry. It was like watching some kind of magic show, Grace bustling around the busy diner. She was always on the go, and she always had a smile on her face and a friendly word for her customers. I loved it as much as I was intimidated by it.
