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“That’s what I always say,” Tammy agreed. “You two are cute together.”
I had no fucking clue what to say. I was busy trying to decide if this was even real.
Thankfully, Tammy didn’t compliment us much more. I wasn’t sure if I could handle it if she did. Instead, she took our orders and walked away to help other customers.
Mollie nudged me with her foot. “You should ask her.”
“Ask her about what?”
She pointedly looked at Eric.
My entire back tensed. “I don’t know if she’ll say yes.”
“You’ve come in here with him before, and she seems to like you.”
“Just say please,” Eric said, looking up from his coloring page. “It always works for me.”
I blew out a breath. Saying please sounded so easy, but nothing worked like that for me.
Mollie reached out and grabbed my hand. “You’ve got this.”
Nodding, I stood before I could talk myself out of it. Tammy was by the front, checking her phone in a rare moment of quiet.
“Hey,” I said. “Can I talk to you about something?”
“Did I forget straws again?” she asked with a sigh. “They’re normally in my apron, but I keep running out?—”
“No, it’s not that. It’s ... something else.”
She crossed her arms. “You look like you’re about to give me bad news.”
“Hopefully not. It’s not bad for you. Probably. I, uh, need something.”
Both of her eyebrows rose.
God, I hated this. I hated every second of it.
“There’s ... something going on. And I need people who have seen me with Eric to write a letter talking about what they’ve seen.”
“For a custody battle or something?”
I closed my eyes. “Yeah.”
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay?”
“I’ll write it.”
“You will?”
“You’re many things, Cain Smith, but bad with kids is not one of them. I may not know the whole story, but I do know you dropped everything for that child sitting in the booth over there. I’m happy to help.”
My shoulders slumped in relief. “Thank God.”
“And I’ll keep this between us,” she added with a wink. “I know how you like your secrets.”
“I wasn’t aware anyone else kept secrets,” I said.