“Sometimes it’s nice when someone else cooks breakfast,” he said, gesturing to the booth in the back.
“How was it then?”
“Probably should’ve cooked it myself.”
I giggled, even though I tried to bury it. I smiled, even though I tried to hide it. A broad smile trickled across Gray’s cheeks, accenting his devastatingly handsome face. It made me forget for a second that getting close to him again was a bad idea.
“When do you get off today?” he asked.
“I’m off at two.”
“Want me to pick you up?”
“What for?”
“I don’t know. We could go for a drive. You looked very nice with the wind blowing through your hair last night.”
I blushed at his compliment as I tossed the damp rag over my shoulder.
“You don’t have to,” I said. “I was just going to walk home.”
“I want to,” Gray said. “So I’ll see you then.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he did the only thing he knew how to do in that moment. He slid from the barstool and strode away before I could protest.
Great.
Gray was picking me up at two. Which meant I didn’t have a way to hide to him that I was staying in an even more rundown motel almost two miles away from my work. Yet another thing he could pity me over.
Damn it.
“What’s your deal with Grayson?”
I looked over at Cecily after I finished watching him walk out the double doors of the diner.
“Nothing,” I said with a shrug. “We just bonded over Anton’s death.”
“An odd thing to have in common,” she said, as her eyes raked up and down my body.
“We were kind to one another during the bulk of our grieving. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Uh huh. Are you going to take back up with him again?”
I didn’t like the tone of the voice she was using to address me. It made me uneasy and unwilling to answer her questions. I knew Gray was leaving soon. After Anton’s house was sold, in fact. So it wasn’t like it would be smart to start anything serious with him.
“Be careful with that one. He isn’t what he seems,” Cecily said.
Then she walked away from me and left me to my thoughts.
For the rest of my shift, she ignored me. Stuck me with the shittiest patrons alive and made my shift a living nightmare. What the hell was her problem? What in the world was behind her accusatory statements? I sighed with relief when Brad yelled out for me to go home. I picked up my tips and cashed them out, then checked out my remaining customers before I took off my half-apron. I saw Cecily eye me from the corner of the diner as I walked out, and in my swirling state of trying to figure out why my friend was being such a bitch, I’d forgotten about Gray’s promise.
I found him leaning against his convertible with his leg cocked back and his arms crossed over his chest.
He looked phenomenal in his tight black shirt and his fitted jeans.
“Your ride is here,” he said, as I approached the car. “Where do you want to have lunch?”
I giggled at him and shook my head as he opened my car door for me.