Jade knew she could also ask Parker what he had meant, but didn’t that have its own risk? Couldn’t he turn around and make things very awkward for them?
Yup. Better keep all of this to yourself. He didn’t mean it likethat. What do you want him to mean, anyway?
Jade didn’t want to answer that question, even if it was just in her own head where only she would know the answer.
“Are you okay there?” Parker asked, cutting through her intense ruminations.
She blinked and looked up, dazed. “Yup!” she answered a little too loudly.
He grinned at her, one of his brows going up into his hairline. “If you say so. What did you think of the bacon and cheese sliders? Would the locals like them?”
Without really paying attention to what she was doing, Jade grabbed one of the little balls of cooked ground meat on the plate in front of her and stuffed it in her mouth.
Big. Fucking. Mistake.
The spiciest explosion took over her mouth as soon as her teeth bit down on the slider. She had no choice but to keep on chewing despite the tears building in her eyes. She coughed and swallowed the mouthful before reaching for her glass of iced tea. She nearly downed the whole thing.
Parker watched her with an amused smile. “That wasn’t the bacon and cheese slider. That was a jalapeno stuffed slider.” Smoothly, like the most graceful animal in the world, he got up and took a seat beside her in the booth. He placed his large and warm palm on her back and began stroking up and down, stopping every now and again to give her cheerful little taps. “I haven’t tried it yet. Did you not hear Mason tell us that these things were murder?”
She coughed and took another sip of her drink. “That’s not just spicy. It’s next level! We can’t serve that. It could kill a kid or Mrs. Francis.”
Parker took a little card on the plate with the rest of the spicy burgers. “This. See? Eat at your own peril. Five flames.” He pointed to the little flicks of fire. “There is a warning. You didn’t see it because you’re distracted.”
“I’m not distracted,” she argued.
“Yes, you are. You’ve been a bit of a zombie since we walked in here. Can I take a guess why?”
“I’m just stressed out that we won’t get everything done in time.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think that’s it. I think you’ve been sitting there obsessing over what I said a little while ago.”
“Did you say something?” Jade wanted to kick herself. Her voice went all high and squeaky like some kind of possessed cartoon mouse.
Parker chuckled. “Yeah, I did say something. It went a little something like … I’m happy I met you. Should I not have said that to you?”
“No, no. It’s fine. That’s not why I’m all weird.”
“Jade.” His hand moved from her back and settled on her thigh under the table. “If I was too forward, I apologize.”
“You’re fine,” she assured him. “Honestly. We’re lucky that Mason was able to get this all down even though the electricity went out, huh? That bodes well. It means that he and Lila would keep on cooking for our gathering even if the Half Moon Key grid goes down.”
Parker was quiet for a long while, studying her carefully. “Sure. That is good. He said they used a barbecue grill out back. He wanted to have a backup plan in case things went wrong. And let’s be honest, when you have volatile power like Half Moon Key, you probably do need a few backups. That actually reminds me … I want to talk to you about the bank.”
Jade took a fry from a little red plastic basket and shoved it in her mouth, still trying to put out the fire in her mouth. “I swear, I have a pretty high tolerance for spicy foods. I don’t know why that jalapeno got me so good.”
Parker smiled. “Because there’s not just a jalapeno. You really weren’t listening to Mason.” He put up his hands defensively when she shot him a warning glance. “Okay, okay. You’re stressed that we won’t succeed in our mission to plan the same party you’ve been planning since you were a kid. Let’s pretend I believe you. Mason did say that these were spiced with all kinds of stuff to give the most adventurous Half Moon Key residents. But back to the bank. I would really like to talk to the manager or the owner. I have some ideas to help protect it.”
“What happened to your retirement?”
He shrugged. “I can do this tiny little project in my sleep. This would be nothing to the kinds of job I’ve done in the past.”
“Well, I’m the manager of the bank, and I don’t think we need anything more.”
Parker popped one of the spicy jalapeno sliders into his mouth. He chewed, swallowed, and then nodded with satisfaction. “Huh. Those are actually really fucking good.” He took another.
Jade’s mouth dropped down. “How can you do that? Isn’t it super hot?”
He shook his head. “Nope. It’s got just the right amount of spice to make it interesting. You, my dear, are heat-adverse.”