the only one he spotted was in her area.
He waited a bit impatiently as she finished
taking an order and edged her way through the crowded café to the
front. “One menu or two?” she asked tersely as she picked up a
fresh roll of tableware.
“Just me,” Rory said, his voice equally
clipped. “And I don’t need a menu.”
Lisa shrugged and led him across the café.
She set his place while he stopped and spoke to several families,
including the Briscoes, his face lighting with a smile as he
chatted with old friends.
Damn his hide
anyway, Lisa thought as she remembered a time when she would
have gotten that smile or an even larger one from him. But those
days were long past, dead and buried on an early spring morning
nearly a year ago when, at least from her point of view, Rory had
done the unforgiveable, and now they were reduced to chilly
exchanges that were barely civil.
Rory finally made it across the café and
collapsed tiredly into the chair. In the past Lisa would have asked
him how his day was going and coaxed a laugh or two out of him
while she took his order, but today she waited silently.
“Double cheeseburger, sweet potato fries, and
coffee. Lots of coffee.”
“Coming right up,” Lisa murmured, staring
without meaning to at Rory’s broad shoulders stretching the fabric
of his winter uniform shirt and remembering what those broad
shoulders felt like hard and naked beneath her fingers as she
looped her arms around them. Or how his lean, wiry maleness felt
next to her, the soft hair on his chest gently tickling her bare
breasts as she arched beneath him; whimpering softly as he stroked
deftly into her body. Or how—
No, she wasn’t going there anymore, she
thought as she firmly pushed those thoughts away. Rory might be
dynamite in bed and as lust-worthy as they came, but he had other
attributes also, attributes that she abhorred in a man, attributes
she’d promised her mother on her mother’s deathbed that she would
never put up with in a partner.
“Promise me, Lisa,” Claudia Simmons had begged as she lay dying of cancer and a broken
heart. “Promise me that you’ll never marry a
jealous man. Promise me that you’ll never marry a man who doesn’t
trust you.”
And Rory had proven himself to be that man. “Damn it, Lisa, explain yourself!” he’d
roared into her face early that April morning. “What the hell were you doing here all night in that cabin
with him?”
Oh, she could have explained, she thought as
she hung Rory’s order up in the window and took another table their
meal. She could have told him that the situation was completely
innocent, that she and playboy Russ Riley had not been alone in the
cabin all night. But her mother’s words rang in her ear that
morning as she stared up into his fury, and she pictured herself
spending the rest of her life trying to placate Rory the way her
mother tried time and time again to placate Howard Simmons’s
jealousy and something inside her froze.
He should have trusted her and he hadn’t. So,
instead of explaining everything to him, she looked at him long and
hard and turned on her heel and walked away. But even though she
knew what she had done was right, when she walked away she’d left
Rory Keller with a piece of her heart.
Lisa yanked her thoughts back to the present
and continued her shift, ignoring Rory the best she could. The
lunch crowd gradually thinned. Much to Lisa’s annoyance Rory took
his time eating, and the café was almost empty when Judge Willis
Riley, ‘Wily Riley’ to friends and foes alike, came into the café
and rather than wait for a table made a beeline for Rory. The
wizened old judge was practically a legend in Verde County, both
for his unconventional rulings and occasional tirades from the
bench, and for his uncanny ability off the bench to persuade folks
to do the things he wanted.
Lisa hid an inward smirk at Rory’s uh-oh
expression as she took Judge Riley a menu, but her inward snicker
faded
He waited a bit impatiently as she finished
taking an order and edged her way through the crowded café to the
front. “One menu or two?” she asked tersely as she picked up a
fresh roll of tableware.
“Just me,” Rory said, his voice equally
clipped. “And I don’t need a menu.”
Lisa shrugged and led him across the café.
She set his place while he stopped and spoke to several families,
including the Briscoes, his face lighting with a smile as he
chatted with old friends.
Damn his hide
anyway, Lisa thought as she remembered a time when she would
have gotten that smile or an even larger one from him. But those
days were long past, dead and buried on an early spring morning
nearly a year ago when, at least from her point of view, Rory had
done the unforgiveable, and now they were reduced to chilly
exchanges that were barely civil.
Rory finally made it across the café and
collapsed tiredly into the chair. In the past Lisa would have asked
him how his day was going and coaxed a laugh or two out of him
while she took his order, but today she waited silently.
“Double cheeseburger, sweet potato fries, and
coffee. Lots of coffee.”
“Coming right up,” Lisa murmured, staring
without meaning to at Rory’s broad shoulders stretching the fabric
of his winter uniform shirt and remembering what those broad
shoulders felt like hard and naked beneath her fingers as she
looped her arms around them. Or how his lean, wiry maleness felt
next to her, the soft hair on his chest gently tickling her bare
breasts as she arched beneath him; whimpering softly as he stroked
deftly into her body. Or how—
No, she wasn’t going there anymore, she
thought as she firmly pushed those thoughts away. Rory might be
dynamite in bed and as lust-worthy as they came, but he had other
attributes also, attributes that she abhorred in a man, attributes
she’d promised her mother on her mother’s deathbed that she would
never put up with in a partner.
“Promise me, Lisa,” Claudia Simmons had begged as she lay dying of cancer and a broken
heart. “Promise me that you’ll never marry a
jealous man. Promise me that you’ll never marry a man who doesn’t
trust you.”
And Rory had proven himself to be that man. “Damn it, Lisa, explain yourself!” he’d
roared into her face early that April morning. “What the hell were you doing here all night in that cabin
with him?”
Oh, she could have explained, she thought as
she hung Rory’s order up in the window and took another table their
meal. She could have told him that the situation was completely
innocent, that she and playboy Russ Riley had not been alone in the
cabin all night. But her mother’s words rang in her ear that
morning as she stared up into his fury, and she pictured herself
spending the rest of her life trying to placate Rory the way her
mother tried time and time again to placate Howard Simmons’s
jealousy and something inside her froze.
He should have trusted her and he hadn’t. So,
instead of explaining everything to him, she looked at him long and
hard and turned on her heel and walked away. But even though she
knew what she had done was right, when she walked away she’d left
Rory Keller with a piece of her heart.
Lisa yanked her thoughts back to the present
and continued her shift, ignoring Rory the best she could. The
lunch crowd gradually thinned. Much to Lisa’s annoyance Rory took
his time eating, and the café was almost empty when Judge Willis
Riley, ‘Wily Riley’ to friends and foes alike, came into the café
and rather than wait for a table made a beeline for Rory. The
wizened old judge was practically a legend in Verde County, both
for his unconventional rulings and occasional tirades from the
bench, and for his uncanny ability off the bench to persuade folks
to do the things he wanted.
Lisa hid an inward smirk at Rory’s uh-oh
expression as she took Judge Riley a menu, but her inward snicker
faded
Similar Books
