Resigning himself to the hour of bullshit ahead, he turned to follow her and couldn’t help but smile when he spotted his delectable neighbor sitting in the booth by the back window, glaring at her daughter and his new BFF, who were sitting separately several booths away, looking at menus, and pointedly ignoring her.
Feeling his lips pull up into a predatory grin, he gestured to Mikey. “You boys remember Mikey, right?”
“Dad won’t let us play catch with her,” Johnny said, looking excited.
“For good reason,” he said, absently touching the damaged side of his face.
Nodding, Sebastian said, “I’d give anything to throw like her.”
“Maybe she can give you some tips,” he said, already shoving the boys in that direction.
“But-” the waitress said, gesturing towards an empty booth near the hostess station.
“We’ll be joining our friends. Give both checks to me, please,” he said, not really caring that the glaring woman probably wouldn’t be happy with his company.
“Mikey, you remember the boys, right?” he asked, shifting his attention from the woman, who he couldn’t wait to torment, and smiled at the little girl that was nodding.
“Eric,” he said, noting the man’s glower before shifting his attention back to the woman that was no longer glaring, but openly panicking as she wrestled with a menu, trying to open it as she did a piss poor job of hiding behind it.
So. Fucking. Adorable, he thought with a heartfelt sigh as he shifted his attention back to Mikey and Eric. “Would you mind a little company this morning? I wanted to talk to your mom about the renovations,” he said, already shoving the boys towards the booth.
With a shrug, the boys sat down and helped themselves to menus as Mikey absently nodded and returned her attention to her menu all while Eric watched him with a curious expression that he didn’t really care about, not when he had an adorable little thing blushing behind him.
“Excellent,” he murmured, making his way to the woman that was trying to hide behind an upside down menu and most likely praying that he went away, but since that really wouldn’t work for him, he swiped a menu off a nearby table and sat down across from her.
“What would you recommend?” he asked, as though she wasn’t currently trying to inch her way towards the end of the bench and make her escape.
When it became obvious that he wasn’t going away, she grumbled something as she dropped her menu on the table and glared at him.
“Everything here is delicious,” she said with a glare as he sat there, watching her and murmured, “It definitely is.”
*-*-*-*
Oh. God, she thought, sitting there staring at the man that was devouring her with his eyes as she struggled to come up with a suitable response only to sigh with relief when Mary, their waitress who incidentally hated her, walked over.
“Good morning. I’m Mary and I’ll be taking care of you today,” she said, pointedly ignoring Kasey as she glanced at Reese and-
Frowned?
“Good morning, Mary,” Reese said, thankfully shifting his attention to their waitress and giving her a chance to clear her head and think of something, anything, to get out of this before she did something mortifying.
“What are you in the mood for?” Mary asked after a slight hesitation and a quick look over her shoulder towards Pam and Jenny, who were standing by the cash register, watching them, which had Kasey rolling her eyes even as she shifted closer to the edge, deciding that hiding in the bathroom for an hour was the only sensible solution when the bastard answered.
“I don’t think it’s on the menu,” Reese said, shooting her a wink that had her blushing, damn him!
Deciding that they needed to clear a few things up, meaning that she was going to make a bigger ass out of herself, she said, “Mary, could you give us a few minutes?”
“Sure thing,” Mary said in a daze, throwing Reese a curious look as she walked away.
“Desperate to have me all to yourself?” he murmured with a knowing look that was going to get him kicked.
Deciding not to take the bait, she cleared her throat and said, “Reese-”
“I thought I was Yummy,” he said, cutting her off with a smoldering look that left her flustered, that is, until she saw it.
His lips twitched.
She narrowed her eyes on him as a sinking suspicion crawled up her spine.
He was playing with her.
The bastard was actually playing with her!
Oh, thank God! she thought just as quickly, nearly sagging with relief, because she honestly wasn’t sure what she would have done if he’d been serious. This she could handle, she thought with a sigh as she returned his smile, more than ready to play this game as she signaled for Mary.
“I think we’re ready to order.”
Chapter 14
“Look, Yummy, I know you want me and I really can’t blame you, but I’m not interested,” she said with a heartfelt sigh as soon as their waitress walked away, making his lips twitch, but not for the reason that she thought.
She was full of shit, but since it was more than obvious that he made her nervous he was going to have to play along.
“Are you trying to tell me that you’re not madly in love with me?” he asked, drumming his fingers against the table as he watched her, noting that the woman who blushed and hid from him was gone and in her place was the woman who loved to tease him and called him “Yummy.” As he watched her, he couldn’t help but wonder which one was the real Kasey.
“Yes,” she said solemnly with a nod, “I’m afraid that’s the problem.”
“Really?” he said, blinking, “Because I’ve already named all ten of our children.”
“What are their names?” she asked, playing along.
“Thomas, Scott, Dennis, Andrew, Patrick, Jennifer, Melissa, Tobias, and Zachary,” he said without hesitation.
“That’s only nine.”
“Did I forget little Nathaniel?” he asked with a rueful shake of his head.
“I believe you did,” she said with a smile.
“It’s an unforgiveable oversight,” he said, making her laugh, which pleased him.
“I’m sure he’ll forgive you,” she said, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
“We’ll never know,” he said with a heavy sigh.
“No,” she agreed, “I guess we never will.”
“Unless you’re ready to admit that you want me?” he asked, earning another smile.
“And give you false hope? No, no I couldn’t do that to you,” she said with a sad shake of her head that had him chuckling as he glanced over his shoulder to check on the boys only to find Eric glaring in their direction.
“What did you do to piss them off?” he asked, shifting his attention back to the woman who intrigued him more than she should.
She shrugged. “I wouldn’t let him call in sick so that he could help with the renovations.”
“And Mikey?”
“I’m making her go to summer camp so that she doesn’t waste the entire summer sitting on the bench,” she said with a yawn as she leaned back when their waitress appeared with their food.
“Ah,” he said, accepting a plate from the waitress and moving it aside so that she could put the rest of his order on the table.
“Can I get you anything else?” their waitress asked, shifting nervously as she shot another glance over her shoulder at her entourage that was waiting for her, which normally would have caught his attention, but right now his attention was focused solely on the woman sitting across from him.