“Fine, but I have to be able to keep my job.”
“Macie,” he said, growling her name.
“No. I will not do this. I love my job, and Carl has been incredible and sweet.”
“He won’t give you clean uniforms.”
“There is a reason for that. Not everyone is made of money. We have to make do the best way we can. I won’t come with you, not without keeping my job.”
She had no idea he could just take her.
No one but Carl would miss her.
He’d be able to make sure no one knew she was missing.
“Fine. You can keep your job.” Wilson didn’t want her afraid of him. Not now. Not ever.
Macie pressed her lips together and frowned.
“Unless you don’t want your job.”
“I do want it. I do.” She nodded her head, looking around her apartment. “It’s just … this place has been home for so long. I never thought I’d leave it.”
“A home is not a home until you have someone to share it with.” He opened the door and grabbed her bags, along with his woman.
There was no way he was leaving her.
****
Macie smiled at the sweet family who’d snuck in from the cold to eat their dinner. She didn’t recognize them, but with how amazed they were at the food, she knew they were going to have returning customers.
Carl had stepped out from the kitchen as she returned to the main counter. His gaze was outside at the very expensive car that sat waiting.
Wilson hadn’t wanted her to come to work. He’d wanted to inform Carl that she was leaving and never going back.
“I recognize that car, don’t I?” Carl asked.
She hummed her agreement.
“It’s that smart-ass, rich guy, isn’t it?”
“Wilson, yes.”
“He’s made his move then, has he?”
Macie glanced up at her boss. There was a smile on Carl’s face, and she knew hers was giving the game away as it heated. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb with me.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not playing dumb, not completely.”
Carl chuckled. “I knew it. From the moment he stepped foot into this place, there was no way he could say no to you. That guy was eating out of your hand, hundred percent.”
Macie shook her head. “That’s not true.”
“I’ve watched the way men are. Some are here for a good time, Macie. I’m not a fool. I keep an eye on my girls. In the kitchen, I can see everything.”
She knew he had several security cameras set up in the main diner, and he often kept an eye on things from where he was cooking.
“My girls mean a lot to me, and I’m not going to see any of you hurt. This can be a rough business, and I’ve got no time for assholes. I’ve seen the men as they pretend to slap your ass, or they do. You should slap them back when they touch you.”
“They’re customers,” she said.
“No customer needs to be touching a woman in any way. My late wife taught me that,” Carl said.
She stepped close to him, putting a hand on his arm.
Carl’s wife had passed away before she came to work for him. He’d never been with another woman, but he respected women, and he certainly helped her out in so many different ways.
“Rich boy was different. He watched you, but he didn’t touch. I knew what he was thinking.”
“It’s nothing.”
“No. I know the way he looked at you. It’s the same way I looked at my wife. I did so all my life. He hated other men looking at you, touching you. I felt that way.” Carl smiled. “My wife loved it.”
“I wish I could have known her.”
“She’d have adored you,” Carl said. “Now, go and take him some soup, or tell him to come on in. I don’t want him to die of the cold.”
Macie laughed. She moved into the kitchen, pouring out some soup before heading outside to his car.
The cold bit into her flesh, and she had to control her shaking as she got to the car.
Wilson wound the window down and she bent down.
“Carl said to have some soup or to come inside,” she said.
He turned the car off, and she moved out of the way as he opened the door. Wilson took the soup from her, placed it on top of the car, removed his long coat, and wrapped it around her.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said.
“Enough with your arguing. You’re enough to give a man a complex.” He picked up the soup, wrapping an arm around her waist, and together, they walked into the diner.
Once inside, she removed his jacket, and Wilson took a place at the counter, drinking his soup. She noticed Carl had come out of the kitchen, and a customer chose that moment to hold up his mug.
With the coffee in hand, she took a step back and had no choice but to leave Wilson and Carl alone, which didn’t feel like the right thing to do, but she did it anyway.