“I amnotheat-adverse.” Her cheeks were flaming red.
“Maybe. Maybe not. How about this … If I can eat all these spicy sliders without tearing up or coughing, you will let me look into a backup for the Half Moon Key bank.”
Jade considered this for a moment. Really, what did she have to lose? If Parker was affected by the heat level, she would tease him until she ran out of breath. If he succeeded, all she had to do was let the elders know that Parker wanted to secure the bank. They wouldn’t argue much. Not if Parker was trying to be part of their small town.
“Fine. You’ve got a deal.”
His grin went from teasing to downright predatory. Not in a creepy way that had Jade itching to leave.
Nope.
It was the kind of predatory smirk a man gave when he was making a promise to make it oh-so-good.
Jade had to tamp down a shiver of need. Her face flushed again, and she would have loved to blame the jalapeno.
“Excellent,” he said and proceeded to pop not one buttwoof the spicy sliders into his delicious mouth. “Mmm,” he groaned. “So good.”
Jade watched in fascination as he continued to eat the rest of the spicy sliders like there was nothing to it.
“Now,” he chuckled. “You’re gonna have to let me into the bank and show me all of its secrets, so I can come up with a good security plan.”
“Stop by tomorrow morning,” she said. “We aren’t taking care of that right now. We still have a few things to do today.”
“You got it. You’re the boss.”
“That will be true with the bank too, you know. It’s not because you’re the fancy security expert that I’ll just give you free rein. You’re gonna have to convince me that we need your service so I can report back to the elders.”
He grinned. “Are you telling me that I need to make a presentation that will knock your socks off, Jade?”
“Yes. I’m a very serious bank teller. I enjoy my job, and I want to make sure you’re not taking us for a ride.”
Or takingmeon for a ride, her brain added.
Oh, her heart was fully ready to leap right into Parker, devil may care. But her head was a little more sober.
“I wouldn’t dare take advantage of you, Jade.”
“Good to know.” She picked up her fork and dug it into a pile of chili fries. She shoved a pretty big mouthful down her gullet.
Parker grabbed his fork, but he made no move to go back to his side of the booth. He also took a large bite of the chili fries.
“Wow. These are amazing. Do you think that many people would go for chili fries on Beach Day?”
Jade considered this. “I think the teens might like them quite a bit. The older crowd might just stay with corn dogs and regular fries.”
“Corn dogs,” Parker said, pointing to a plate loaded with a few of them.
“Yeah. Moony’s used to have corn dogs on the menu, but they were taken off a little while ago. Now, the only time they get made is for Beach Day. It’s kind of turned into its own kind of tradition for some of the older crowd.”
“Nice. Then we need to get some of these. And I still say the spicy sliders need to happen.”
She wanted to roll her eyes in exasperation, but it came out as a giggle. “You’re gonna be trouble for Half Moon Key,” she said. “I can feel it.”
“Well, I’ve never been accused ofthatbefore. Usually, I stop trouble.”
“I don’t see how that can even be true. You look like plenty of trouble to me.”
“Nah,” he shot back. “That’s because you don’t know me enough yet. But don’t worry. I intend on changing that.”