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“Nawww,” she protested much too hard and waved her hand, pulling away and giving off this fake smile as she made a face. “We’re good, and why would having a boyfriend affect the café? I mean, working alone, I would be putting in long hours – but I would do that anyhow to make sure it was a success and…”
“Reyna,” Kyle said softly, coming to her side. “Talk to me…”
He knelt there, beside her, his eyes full of warmth, understanding, and love… so much so that she dragged in a shaky breath, shuddering openly, before speaking.
“I’m terrified…” she whispered nervously. “I never expected to care this much, and I’m afraid that if we aren’t spending time together? Then I can’t see you and make sure you are safe.”
“I’m always safe,” he replied – only to laugh as she gave him a flat deadpan stare before arching an eyebrow at him. “Okay, so maybe this last time was an exception, but normally I am very cautious and safe. We partner up for a reason…”
“You’re not endearing yourself at all, because I met your partner… and Austin is a complete goofball,” she interrupted bluntly.
“He’s a great guy and cracks jokes to keep things lighthearted so we don’t all panic, because we have an extremely intense job that we take pride in doing well,” Kyle said softly, looking at her with understanding and tenderness. “No one wants to see someone injured, die, or recover a body in front of a family member who made it out of the fire alive… we need that humor, those crazy jokes, and corny stunts to keep our sanity in the midst of it.”
“I understand that, but…”
“But what, sweetheart?” he replied tenderly, taking her hand and laying it against his cheek. “I would do anything for you – you just need to ask it. If you don’t want to do a soft opening at Christmas… pick another date and let me help you.”
“The date doesn’t change things,” she admitted, looking away from the love in his gaze as he smiled at her. “I would still worry about you and this place, working all sort of hours to make it right.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want to take away from us, our time together,” she admitted.
“I know that, too,” he murmured, turning to kiss her palm softly.
“So, what do I do?” she replied quietly, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to try to calm herself, because she had been torturing herself mentally about this very thing the last few nights when it had dawned on her.
She couldn’t hire help to staff the café yet, and she would need to make a certain number of sales per day to hit her goal… and even had it broken down to dollars per hour.
No, she couldn’t afford to pay someone – yet.
… And how long was that ‘yet’ going to end up taking?
She had no idea.
“You could let your fiancé help run the café so you could let our little Yam out to play, take a break, or spend some time with me… here,” Kyle said softly in such a tender voice that it took her a moment to process what it was that he had uttered aloud.
Reyna slowly opened her eyes and looked at him, disbelieving – and pulled her hand away.
“That’s not funny, Kyle…”
“I’m not joking,” he sputtered, laughing. “Do I look like I’m joking?”
“Yes,” she retorted mulishly. “You are laughing at me and that’s cruel. I’m sitting here, freaking out and trying to piece all of this in my head, while you are making sick jokes about us getting married…”
“Why’s it ‘sick’?”
“Because it’s cruel.”
“Why? Because you don’t want to marry me?”
“I never said that!”
“Then youdowant to marry me?”
“Good gracious, yes!”
“Then why are we hollering at each other?”
