Usually, by the one-month marker, he would have revamped the menu and had an affair with one of the staff members.
Nothing like that had happened. Even Cohen was surprised that Mason was still in town and loving it. Of course, Mason was also shocked that his brother met him every week to fish and drink some beers out by the lake.
They hadn’t bonded this much since they were kids, and Mason loved it. He’d worried about his big brother since the wedding that never was. At least now, Mason could see that Cohen looked as happy as he could be in Half Moon Key. Cohen wasn’t the kind of man who ever truly was happy to the point of smiling or laughing. There were other signs that his brother was happy. The amount of grunting instead of using full sentences was usually a good indicator, and that was pretty low.
All in all, Mason was grateful that life had turned to shit, chasing him to the last place he thought he would end up…right there in Half Moon Key.
He was finding his groove and loving his routine.
Now, if he could only convince Lila to open up to him, that would be the cherry on top of the sundae. Unfortunately, the woman was tight-lipped about herself and her life. Whatever little tidbit Mason discovered usually came from Mrs. Francis or Bobbie. Every now and again, even Danielle would drop a little something, but that was rare.
Usually, Danielle was too busy making Cohen insane to do much talking.
For his part, Mason was getting pretty desperate to get closer to Lila.
That was new, too…wanting to get to know a woman so profoundly. It was shocking, but he also didn’t know how else to make it stop but to get close to her. The little he did know only served to make him hunger for more.
“Good morning,” Mason greeted Lila when she walked into the diner.
“Morning,” Lila responded, making her way behind the counter. “Can you tell me how you can manage to stay so damn chipper after almost four weeks of waking up early?”
“It’s a secret,” he answered, pressing his fingers to his lips.
“Then share it.”
“Nope, but Idothink that I did something that will help you. It might even make you smile.”
“Oh?” she tied her apron around her waist. “Tell me.”
“Not a chance. It’s a surprise.”
Lila sighed. “Ah, shit. What have you done? Did you buy another expensive piece of equipment we don’t need?” she pointed toward the shiny espresso machine he purchased to celebrate his second week on the job. Of course, it had taken Lila a full week and a handful of talking-tos by Bobbie to accept the gift.
“No, no. This won’t costmea thing.”
“You?” she repeated. “What did you do?”
“You have to wait and see.”
Lila rolled her eyes, but if she was going to say something sassy, Mason didn’t give her a chance. He handed her a cup of coffee just how she liked it. Strong and drowned in milk and sugar.
“Thanks.”
“You got it.” He winked at her. “I’ll go get the grill going and start on the prep.”
She nodded. “Thanks. I’ll help you given that you’ve done everything I could possibly do on this end of things.”
He grinned. He knew. Of course, he knew. A few times a week, Mason came in early and did all the tasks that Lila usually did to get the diner opened. He kept up the hope that one morning, Lila would join him in the kitchen. There, he would be able to ask her all kinds of questions about herself and her life.
Why that was still important to him, he had no clue. All hedidknow was that Lila was a cool person, and he liked what he knew of her.
Did he want to use the information he learned to seduce her? Yes. Absolutely.
It was just turning out to be a bit more of a long-term plan than he had originally thought.
“I’m gonna get started on the shredded carrots for Mrs. Francis,” Lila announced. “Then I’ll help you with the potatoes.”
“You’ve got it, boss.”