If he was rude to her, surely she’d get the hint and go away. He tried his best to avoid her, but unfortunately for him, he had rotten fucking luck. Because Felicity O’Malley wasn’t just his next-door neighbor, she was also his sister-in-law’s friend. And she kept turning up at his house with such regularity, that, sometimes, he wondered if she’d moved in and no one had told him.
Which was something those asshole brothers of his would actually do.
It was a sad state of affairs when a man couldn’t even get a bit of peace at his own house. He didn’t really think it was much to ask for. Then, again, God was pissed at him.
“Do you mind if I sit here?”
He toyed with the idea of telling her he did mind. He’d been holding back, not getting as nasty as he was capable of being because she was Mia’s friend. But it was getting to the point that he was going to have to be blunt. Fuck him. Was he really going to be an asshole to the sweetest girl he’d ever met?
Yep, God definitely hated him.
Before he could answer, she was swinging her ass up onto the stool beside him. Which wasn’t an easy thing to do considering she was five-foot nothing and had a heavy cast on her foot. Not to mention a pair of crutches to deal with. He turned as she leapt onto the stool, slid over to the other side, and then crashed into him.
He grabbed hold of her, wrapping one arm around her waist. He hauled her onto the stool, holding her until she was steady.
“Whoops!” she said with a laugh. “Think I overshot that one a bit. Getting onto these stools isn’t the easiest with this thing on my foot.” She tapped a crutch against the cast. “Luckily, it comes off next week.”
He snatched his hands away as soon as he realized he was still touching her. This is why he tried to avoid her. She had some sort of weird effect on him.
“Anyway, thanks for catching me.” She sent him one of her bright smiles. He didn’t answer. Instead, he turned back to his burger and shoved another bite into his mouth.
He didn’t know how to do small talk. Even if he wanted to do small talk. Which he didn’t.
She didn’t say anything. Neither did she move away. Instead she reached for a menu and opened it.
Doris, one of the waitresses whose names he actually did know, because it was written on her nametag, stopped in front of them. “What’s it gonna be, Flick?”
“I’ll take the vegetarian burger,” she said with a grin.
Doris just grunted. Seemingly as unimpressed by Flick’s cheerfulness as West was. “Mushrooms on toast it is.”
Flick sighed. It was the closest he’d ever heard her sound sad. He shifted his gaze over to her. She gave him a small smile. “There’s no vegetarian burger on the menu. Just a little joke between Doris and me.”
She lived in small-town Texas. They were surrounded by cattle ranches. This was a small diner. He wondered if she was really seriously surprised there was no vegetarian burger on the menu.
She leaned into him. “The thing is,” she whispered. “I can’t actually stand mushrooms.”
Don’t ask. Don’t ask. “So why don’t you tell Doris that?”
Her eyes sparkled with humor. Shit. Talking to her was a mistake. He should have learned that by now.
“Because mushrooms on toast isn’t actually on the menu, so I figure I’m already being enough of a nuisance. She’s trying to be nice. I just scrape off the mushrooms and eat the toast. No big deal.”
He still didn’t get it. Even though there was no such thing as a vegetarian burger on the menu, there were other things without mushrooms or meat she could eat. “You could ask for the grilled cheese.”
“I could. But I don’t want to hurt Doris’s feelings.”
He didn’t see that Doris had much in the way of feelings, considering he’d never seen her look anything but grumpy. He had no idea why Peggy, the diner’s owner, had hired her. It certainly wasn’t for her excellent customer service skills.
“I love animals. I would’ve liked a job working with them. And I just can’t bring myself to eat any animal products, you know?”
He was about to ask her why she didn’t go get a job like that when a plateful of thick toast covered in a huge glop of mushrooms landed in front of her. Jesus, it looked so bad it almost turned his stomach.
She reached for a knife and fork, ready to cut into it. Without thinking, he grabbed the plate and slid it away from her.
“Doris,” he barked.
“Yeah?” Doris snapped back. “What you want?”