Her thoughts got a welcome break when she saw Sebastian come into the restaurant.
“Hey, darlin’,” the dark-haired, intense groomsman said. He didn’t break stride until he sat next to Penny in the booth and planted a sizzling kiss on the petite redhead.
Judging by the kiss, those two had something real and didn’t care if anyone saw it. Autumn probably wouldn’t care either if she were that blissful. Another thing to add to the Never gonna fucking happen to me list she had going.
Penny pulled away, breathless and smiling. “Bass, this is Autumn.”
“Of course.” Bass shook her hand.
Autumn only then realized her hand was sticky with syrup. Whoops. “Sorry,” she said.
He shrugged. “We met before the wedding but weren’t formally introduced. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Great…
“You said you were a mechanic?” Penny asked.
Autumn nodded around another bite of pancake. “Yeah. In the market for a new job, actually.” She’d had a good phone interview with a shop in LA, and then a follow-up Skype session. She was now just waiting to hear if she’d gotten the job.
In the meantime, she needed to earn some money and make a backup
plan. The job in LA wasn’t guaranteed. It was just an entry-level mechanic position, and she felt good about the two interviews, but who knew what they’d think when they took a closer look at her resume? She knew how it looked. A mechanic worth their salt would now be running the family shop, not crossing the country to hopefully get hired for grunt work.
So it was time to be realistic. She wouldn’t stay in Diamond long-term, but anything to get some money would be good at this point, since her savings was practically non-existent.
A deep and slightly annoyed voice came from behind her. “Another job, huh?”
Annoyed or not, she recognized it right away. She looked over her shoulder to find Huck walking up to her booth.
He glared at her like she’d kicked him in the balls or something. Didn’t he remember their time together at all? She’d been quite nice to his balls, actually.
“Hey.” Penny stood, which meant Sebastian stood as well. She gave Huck a quick hug. “You want some pancakes, too?”
Huck immediately took his friends’ spot across the booth from Autumn. “That would be great. Thanks, Pen.”
She nodded and walked around the bar and back to the kitchen. Bass was right on her heels, copping a feel as they went. The sound of giggling followed them. Good lord, was something in the water around here?
When Huck’s green eyes kept glaring at her like laser beams, she finally put her fork down and asked, “What is your problem?”
“You,” he said instantly. “Do you make a habit out of luring men into comas, then ditching out?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about this being the second time I’ve mysteriously fallen asleep and woken up to find you gone.”
She threaded her fingers together. With an amused grin, she said, “So you think that your passing the fuck out after we have sex is some mystery? Could it be that I exhausted you?”
“You didn’t exhaust me, honey,” he drawled, as if attempting to keep his pride intact with a thick coat of charm. “I’m typically the one to exhaust a lady.”
She shrugged. “Funny, I wasn’t even groggy.”
“Bullshit. You fell asleep too. You just woke up before me, and instead of doing me the courtesy of—”
“Letting you sleep.”
“—waking me up, you just left.”
“Oh, I’d beg to differ.” She shoved another bit of pancake in her mouth and pointed her fork at him. “An Oz-like tornado couldn’t have woken you from your beauty sleep this morning, big guy. I tried.”