He turned toward her and smiled warmly at her, but he kept on flipping the food on the grill. He wasthatgood at his job, the infuriating, sexy jerk.
Of course, his eyes sparkled, leaving Lila a little breathless. Her body’s reaction to him totally took the wind out of her anger.
“Hey! What are you doing here? You’re way too early.” He pointed his spatula at her. “You should still be sleeping and resting that beautiful brain of yours.”
“How the hell did you get into my house?” she snapped, completely ignoring the way her belly flipped and flopped at Mason’s presence.
“Bobbie gave me her key,” he answered with a shrug.
Lila growled in the back of her throat. “I am so angry at her for doing that, but I am livid with you for actuallyusingmy key. This is such a…”
“Shh,” Mason said, going to her and placing a finger to her lips. “Don’t say anything for a second, and let me explain. You have been running this place for a long time with barely any help. You’re up at the ass crack of dawn, and you work until the moon is high in the sky. You needed a break, Lila. I made sure you got the break and the rest you needed.”
Lila opened her mouth and then closed it again. She repeated this a few times as she tried to find the right thing to respond to Mason. She couldn’t be angry at him, could she? Not now that she knew that he had done such a sweet thing for her.
Had he crossed a line by basically breaking into her house and messing with her alarm clock? Yes. Did she care? Lila didn’t know. She was so well rested that she couldn’t even muster any kind of lasting anger. Not now. Now, she knew why Mason had done it. Her heart was doing all kinds of dancing and fluttering in her chest, making a deep breath impossible.
Mason continued to grin at her. “You work really hard, Lila. And no one has really been around to help you. No one has really taken care of you in a long time.”
She licked her lips. “And what makes you think that you should be the person who is there for me?”
He chuckled and stepped closer to her. “Because I wanna be.” The man was bold as hell because he cupped her cheek in the palm of his hand. “You deserve rest, Lila. You deserve to have someone on your side. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a diner to run. You go back home and enjoy your morning off. I’ll see you later.”
“But…“
“Nope,” he interrupted before kissing her forehead. “Go on. I’ve got this covered.” He took her by the shoulders and turned her toward the exit. “Don’t let me catch you here until after lunch.”
* * *
Lila hadn’t hada morning off in so long that she had no clue what to do to relax like Mason recommended, or more accurately, what Masonorderedher to do. In the end, Lila decided to be productive with her time because she really didn’t know what else to do.
First, she checked on her grandmother and spent a bit of time with her, then she cleaned her place and ran a couple of errands. By the time she returned to the diner, she was feeling a little bit like a rebel teenager out after curfew.
Mason greeted her as soon as she walked in. “Hey there, boss lady. How’s it going?”
“Good. How are things here?” She immediately went behind the counter, grabbed her apron, and tied it around her waist.
Mason came up behind her and pushed her hands out of the way. He tied the strands, and unless she was losing her mind, Mason took his sweet ass time tying up her apron. His fingers grazed her hips, and then he smoothed his hands down her back. “There,” he said. “All ready.”
“Thanks.” The word rushed out of her breathlessly. Her face was flushed with the intensity of the moment. Just what was it about Mason that made her a little bit loopy in the head? Oh.Everything. It ain’t no one thing.
“Are you gonna go back to the kitchen? I’m back now.”
“Bobbie is back there. I can help you out here. Or maybe there are some things you need to do around the diner while I take care of the patrons.”
Lila’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “I could do some of the accounting,” she said under her breath. She was desperately behind, and her accountant was definitely going to chew her ass out if she didn’t stay on top of her spending.
“Good. You go and sit down. I’ll bring you something to eat.”
Lila was just about to tell him that it wasn’t necessary, but she hadn’t eaten today yet. She was so used to rushing around and forgetting to eat that she hadn’t actually had her usual protein bar and coffee in between the morning and lunch rushes.
She took the ledger and receipts from the back of the counter…where she usually did the accounting standing at the counter and getting some work done intermittently while also taking care of her patrons. Today, she could sit and actually focus on her administrative work.
She opened up her ledger and began. A few moments later, Mason slid into the booth, placing a huge glass of lemonade in front of her with a plate loaded down with chicken tenders and fries. There was even a garden salad in a small bowl.
“Oh, wow. Thanks. I didn’t know chicken tenders were on the menu.”
He chuckled. “They’re not, but I put it as today’s special. I saw that you had a whole bunch of chicken, and some of the bread was about to go stale, so I made my own breading mix. Go on. Try it.”