Have My Baby (Crescent Cove 1)

She waved me off. “Sure. Take it now before the biddies come in for the early bird special.”

“Truth.” I smoothed my hand over my apron and stuck my order pad in the front pocket. I double checked that I had three pens like I always did. Patrons were notorious thieves. Not sure why they wanted my cheapie Bic pens, but they were forever walking off with them.

Stop stalling.

I was tempted to roll my eyes at myself, but that took too much energy and I didn’t have much to spare. I grabbed a fruit plate and a scoop of cottage cheese to get me through the rest of the evening. Sage and I might have time for a bite after the dinner rush, but more often than not, it just rolled into dessert business and the endless coffee mug crowd.

I snagged a menu on my way down the aisle to him. Seth was sprawled in his favorite booth, his long legs encroaching on my side. I kicked his boot as I sat down and dropped the menu in front of him. “How you don’t have that memorized is beyond me.”

He straightened and placed his phone face down on the table, then propped the menu against the wall. “Just coffee this time.”

“Oh. Have an appointment?” I ate a forkful of my cottage cheese.

He sneered at my plate. “So gross.”

I forked up some more and held it in front of him. “So good.”

“Gross.”

I snagged a piece of pineapple to go with my forkful and chewed with a smile. “How would you know? You still won’t try the wonders of my fruit plate.”

“It’s a texture thing.”

“And yet you’ll eat grits.”

“Only Angelo’s grits. Which reminds me.” He flipped over his menu. “I have been dreaming about his kitchen sink omelet.”

“Kinda lame dreams.”

He glanced over the menu. “I can’t have dreams about you naked all the time.”

“Har-har.”

He winked at me and I tamped down the hormones prepared to leap across the table.

Sage came over with a grilled cheese sandwich and slid it in front of me. In her other hand was a pot of coffee. “What are you having, Seth?”

I frowned. “I didn’t order this.”

Sage put her hand on her hip. “That fruit thing isn’t going to hold you over for the rest of the day.”

“Thanks. My ass won’t thank you, but I do.”

“Your ass is just fine.”

“Sure is,” Seth agreed.

What the hell was up with the comments? He didn’t notice my ass.

Did he?

I shook my head and peeled the triangles apart as the lava-like mixture of cheddar and gouda that spilled onto the plate made me moan. Cheese was my downfall. I could pretty much give up anything except that.

Noticing Seth’s smirk, I dragged my fingertip through the cheese and brought it to my mouth. “What?”

“Should we leave you alone?”

“Fine by me. We’ll live happily ever after, won’t we, you gooey piece of perfection?”