Up In Flames(17)
Author: Nicole Williams

I was dressed and down the stairs in under a minute. Dad wasn’t anywhere around when I got downstairs and I wasn’t going to stop to look for him. I was late, but I was more not eager to see him after last night’s not-so-constructive conversation.

By the time I pulled up to the diner, I had fifteen minutes to get the place ready. It was a good thing I had my comfy Keds on because I’d never moved so fast in my life. The breakfast cook, Sid, kept whistling at my impressive speed.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d bet my paycheck someone got lucky last night,” Sid called out as I went to unlock the front door. Thank goodness my back was to him so he couldn’t see the red draining into my face. “Because you have got a spring in your step I’ve never seen before, Elle.”

“It’s called waking up without a hangover, Sid,” I called back at him. “Unlike the way some people wake up every Saturday and Sunday morning.”

“Oooh, sassy too,” Sid replied. “You definitely got lucky.”

After unlocking the door, I was just heading into the break room to grab my phone and finally turn it on so I could text Cole. I’d fallen asleep so quickly last night I hadn’t had more than a few minutes to sort things out, but I still knew I cared for him. I liked him in a way that was shifting more from like to the other “l” word. I wanted him to know I was thinking about him this morning and my fleeing the scene last night wasn’t because I never wanted to see or hear from him again.

“You better get your lucky butt out here, Elle!” Sid yelled back at me. “The tables are filling up. And filling up fast.”

Of course they were. Sighing, I tightened my apron and headed back into the dining room. The first break I got, I’d call Cole. Texting was kind of weak anyways after what happened last night, and I was pretty much dying to hear his voice.

Sunday breakfast went out of the gates with a bang. We really should have had two servers on today, but with a little energy surge from me and some extra patience from the customers, everyone got their apple and vanilla bean crepes or Andouille sausage and caramelized onion crepes in a timely manner without me dropping a single order.

That almost changed when the door whooshed open and the next set of customers came lumbering in.

“Careful,” the first of the three young men in the front said with a smile my way. That was enough to snap me out of my stupor and right the tray of crepes before they toppled to the floor.

“Yeah,” the guy at the end with a familiar face, but an unfamiliar tone said. “You wouldn’t want to make an even bigger mess of things.” Cole waited for me to look him in the eyes, and when I did, I wished I hadn’t. Those green-blue eyes of his were dark and only darkened more as they stayed narrowed.

My stomach dropped. Cole was staring at me like he despised me, like what we’d shared last night meant nothing. It made me thankful I hadn’t eaten any breakfast yet.

He didn’t say anything else; he just moved by me and slid into the booth where the other two guys sat.

As I set the crepes down in front of a table of regulars, I racked my brain for what I could have done or said to make Cole so upset. Yeah, I’d snuck away from him last night, but that didn’t seem like that huge of a deal. Especially not warranting that look he’d just given me. It wasn’t like I snuck away because I never wanted to see him again. I needed to get home before life as I knew it came to an end.

There was Logan, of course. I knew Cole wasn’t thrilled with that whole concept, but it hadn’t seemed to stop him last night.

So what was it?

I mulled that over as I refilled coffee at the rest of my tables. I was stalling because I wasn’t looking forward to walking up to Cole and his friends’ table and acting like nothing had happened, pretending he hadn’t had his hands on places no other guy had before him, and imagining that look didn’t mean he would hate me until his dying breath.

Inhaling a dose of courage, I headed over to his table.

Cole wouldn’t look at me. I wouldn’t have thought he was even aware of me except his whole body went stiff when I spoke.

“Are you all ready to order?” Not exactly my friendliest greeting, but I was flustered.

“We don’t even have menus yet,” the guy sitting on the end of the booth said. He sat across from Cole and next to the other guy who . . . looked identical to him. Asking if they were twins would have been a wasted question.

“We don’t have menus. We serve two different crepes every day. Today’s sweet and savory are listed over there on the chalkboard.” I pointed to the opposite wall and tried to focus on the guy seething in silence in front of me. I swear you would have thought he was getting his toenails pulled out with pliers from the twisted look on his face.

“Hold up,” the other twin spoke up. “You’re a restaurant that only serves two things that change every day?”

Wasn’t that just what I’d said?

“Yep.”

“And what the hell’s a . . . crepe?” the first twin asked, studying the chalkboard with narrowed eyes.

“Like a thin French pancake that melts in your mouth,” I rattled off, having said it a million times before. Any kind of cuisine even slightly out of the ordinary took a little getting used to around these parts. Complete with a layman’s explanation.

The twin against the wall gave me a sly smile. “I’ve never heard food described in such a sexy ass way,”—he wagged his brows, as well—“coming from the mouth of a sexy ass waitress too.”

“Matt,” Cole finally spoke, “shut the f**k up.”

Matt’s face pinched with confusion. “You just keep getting pissier by the minute, Carson. Why don’t you find yourself a local to screw and get it out of your system?”

One corner of Cole’s mouth twitched. “The screwing or almost-screwing of locals is what made me ‘pissy’ in the first place,” he said, flicking a quick glance my way. It was all ice. “But I’m about to move from pissy to full-on pissed if you don’t shut your trap.”

“Forgive my friend . . .” Matt waved his hand, inspecting my dress. I assumed he was looking for a name tag, although his inspection wasn’t brief.

“Elle,” I said, crossing my arms. Matt continued to stare at my chest, making me every kind of uncomfortable.

Matt winked. “Forgive my friend, Elle,” he repeated. “It’s his time of the month. Just ignore him.”

That was in no way possible. Ignoring Cole was like trying to ignore a firework going off six inches from your face.

“But me,” his smile stretched, “I don’t think I could let you ignore me even if you tried.”

Cole made some sort of grunt under his breath. I had guests that needed refills, orders that needed run, and new orders to take. Every second I stayed here, I got ten seconds behind. Being near Cole when he was in this kind of a dark mood wasn’t what I’d describe as pleasant, but it was better than being away from him.

So I stayed and played along with Matt since the guy I wanted to talk to looked like he’d rather ignore me for the rest of time.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m really good at ignoring people.”

Matt chuckled, grinning wider that I’d taken the conversation bait.

“Yes, yes, you are.” I had to look to confirm that hard voice was coming from Cole. “Ignoring, avoiding, running away in the middle of the night . . .”

“Hey, Mr. PMS,” Matt said, swatting the air in Cole’s direction. “Stop interrupting with your mumbles. I’m trying to make an impression.”

If looks could kill, Matt would be gone in his next life too.

“My name’s Matt Johnson. And yes, the last name is an indicator of how impressive,”—his eyebrows filled in the blanks—“mine is. In case you’re wondering which twin’s better, let me break it down for you. I drive a nicer truck, I’m the better looking one,”—he appraised his identical twin brother and curled his nose—“obviously, and my dick’s bigger, too.”

Matt’s twin jabbed his elbow into his ribs. “That’s not what your last girlfriend said.”

Matt ignored his brother’s come back. “Oh yeah,” he said, smiling like the devil, “and I jump out of f**king planes to save sweet baby Bambis from going up in flames.”

This guy was entertaining. I gave him high marks for that, but he was in no way what I was attracted to.

As I glanced at who I was attracted to, glaring, clenched fists, anger rolling off of him in waves, I wondered if I needed to reevaluate what attracted me.

“Your point?” I asked, quirking my head to the side.

Matt tilted his head back at me. “You wanna f**k sometime? I’m free tonight.”

Cole’s arms flew across the table and grabbed Matt’s collar before I could shriek in surprise. Cole’s nose was all but billowing smoke, but Matt only looked marginally intimidated. This must have been a regular occurrence between these two.

“Dammit, Matt. Shut the hell up,” Cole said, shoving Matt back against the booth hard. “Or else I’ll slit your ‘chute while you’re asleep.”

“Touchy,” Matt muttered, adjusting his collar and tossing a sugar packet at Cole’s chest. “What’s got your jumpsuit in a bunch?”

Cole’s eyes flicked to me and that was all Matt needed.

“Holy shit! Well done, Carson. Why didn’t you just tell me you’ve staked your claim?” Matt’s meaty arm reached across the table and clapped down on Cole’s shoulder.

Cole brushed Matt’s hand away. “I haven’t staked a claim on her,” he said. “And I don’t want one either. I don’t want anything from her.” Those darkened eyes swept back to me, and the look in them, combined with the hurtful words, had me stepping away.

“Hey, just ignore these two. This one’s always an ass,” the quiet twin finally spoke up, hitching his thumb in his brother’s direction. “And this one’s been in an insanely bad mood all morning.” He smiled at me. Although he and Matt were twins, their faces looked totally different when they smiled. “Before you run away and don’t come back because of the douche sitting to my right and dumbass in front of me, would you take our orders?”

I nodded, but refused to look in Cole’s direction. The way he treated me was especially hurtful after last night.

“Could you bring us three coffees and three crepes? Whichever one you think’s the best?”

I nodded again, taking another step back. I could see, from the corner of my eye, Cole’s head turning my way.

“And I’m Liam, by the way. Dani said to tell you hi.” This time, his smile was paired with the faintest coloring on his cheeks. I wasn’t sure if that was because he was smitten with Dani or because of the nasty things she’d likely done to him, but I was impressed. For once, Dani had definitely chosen the better of two brothers.