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CHAPTER FOUR

GRIZ

“Well, if it isn’t my handsome nephew. You coming to see me, darlin’?”

Grinning at my aunt, I make my way in her direction. But it wasn’t because of her that I was walking that way. It was the woman sitting in the booth. Regardless, I greet the old woman.

“Hey, Deloris,” I greet and give her a hug. “You doin’ okay?”

“Same as always, Griz, same as always. You need something, or you here to eat?”

“Here to eat,” I answer and step back, going ahead and sliding into the seat across from the woman who has caught my eye.

Deloris looks between the two of us and cocks a brow. “You wanna beer?”

“That’d be great, Deloris,” I tell her and nod toward the woman. I learned her name was Marley. “I’ll have whatever Marley’s havin’ for dinner.”

One of Marley’s brows cocks as she watches me closely.

“Gotcha, darlin’, and I’ll let the old coot know you’re here for dinner. He’ll wanna see ya,” Deloris says as she walks off.

I don’t bother giving her a response. Instead, I stare at the woman in front of me.

“See you figured my name out, did you?”

God damn, her voice is like sin all in itself.

“I have my ways.” I grin, shrugging my shoulders slightly. “So, what are we getting for dinner?”

“The hamburger steak burger,” she answers and lifts the tea in front of her to her lips. “There’s also an order of loaded fries coming.”

“Gonna be a good meal, and you were gonna eat all by your lonesome. It’s a good thing I stopped in.”

Marley scans the diner, and I know a few of my brothers are in here. We all had stopped in together, but I saw her car in the lot and told them they’d have to eat without me.

“How come you’re not sitting with your friends?” she asks, eyes coming back to me.

“‘Cause I’m sitting here with you.”

I don’t know what it is about her. I hadn’t been able to get the vision of her out of my head. After one damn meeting with her, and I wouldn’t even call it that, she worked her under my skin. To make matters worse, she hadn’t even tried to do that, it just fucking happened.

“You don’t have to sit with me. I’m perfectly capable of eating alone,” she says, taking another sip from the straw.

“I’m sure you are, Marley. However, this evening, I’m having dinner with you.”

Keys had gotten back to me last night with her name. Marley Keys. New to the area and was a freelance process server and skip tracer—interesting choice in the line of work. My brother had made a joke about how she and him had something in common, and he hadn’t even met the woman. He’d thought it was hilarious his road name was her last.

“I’d love to know how exactly you found out my name,” she says, setting the glass to the side as my aunt comes to the table. Without a word, she sets my beer in front of me before walking away.

“I’ve got connections.” I shrug.

“I see, but that doesn’t explain things,” she points out, her fingers clasping in front of her with her elbows out, and her body leaning in just the slightest.

“I suppose not.” Grinning, I lift the beer to my lips and take a long draw from it before lowering it back to the table and leaning back in the booth. My legs stretch in front, caging hers in. “Tell me, Marley, what’s a girl like you doing moving out here?”

I was all kinds of curious about her. The way I see it, if I get her in my bed, I could work her out of my system and move the fuck on. It’s bad enough she’s got me on the edge, and I want to know all that I can about her.

If I’m honest with myself, it pisses me off that she intrigues me so damn much. I mean, with the bullshit Hattie pulled and now being served those papers, I shouldn’t want anything to do with any woman. Period.

“I decided on a change.” She shrugs. “Want to tell me why I was serving you papers yesterday?”

“You didn’t look?” This woman can’t be for real.

Marley shakes her head and leans back, hands unclasping, and she places them flat against the table. “I don’t make a point to look at what’s in the envelopes I serve. I just deliver them and move onto the next. If there’s something I need to know, then the clerks at the courthouse will let me know.”

I can’t tell if she’s being honest or not.

Before I can ask my next question, Deloris is back with Marley’s loaded fries.

“Here ya go, suga.” Setting them down, she glances between the two of us before locking in on Marley with a grin. “The ol’ coot back there even gave you extra ranch to dip ‘em in.”

“Tell him thank you and that it won’t go to waste.” If Marley’s face could brighten any more with the smile she gives my aunt, I swear she’d light up the damn diner blinding everyone.

“Sure will,” Deloris says, stepping back. “I’ll let him know once I check on my nephew here’s friends. Gotta get their orders. Your food should be coming up here shortly.”

“Take your time, Deloris.” I give her a wink and shift forward to grab one of the cheese and bacon-coated fries, only to have Marley swat my hand away. “What’s that for?” I ask, surprised she’s gone and smacked my hand.

“Get your own fries.” She glares and plops one of the fries in her mouth and chews before finishing. “These are mine.”

“There’s more than enough to share.” The plate was piled higher than what they normally serve to customers. This means the old man in the back likes Marley.

“So? They’re mine, and I don’t share when it comes to my food.” She stares at me for a moment before shocking the hell out of me as she mutters, “Or anything else.”

“Didn’t your momma and daddy teach you to share?” I chuckle.

“They did, but I also have a brother and sister. I’m the middle child. I learned quickly if I wanted something to stay just mine, I didn’t share. As much as I love them, they were pains in my ass.”

“Let me get this right, because of your brother and sister, you don’t like to share?”

“Because of them and other reasons.” She shrugs. “Let’s just say I learned quick what happens when it comes to sharing, and I don’t do so well.”

My cock thickens more than it already was as I read between the lines. She’s not one for sharing or being shared.

Damn this woman, why couldn’t I have met her before being burned by Hattie?

I follow her movements as she plucks another fry into the ranch and plops it into her mouth. Thoughts of other things she could be doing with her mouth filter through my mind, and I have to readjust my jeans.

“You going to answer my question about the envelope?” she asks, going for another fry.

“I’ll tell you if I can have one.” The response is out of my mouth before I can stop it. What the fuck is up with this woman that I’m saying shit I shouldn’t.

“Fine, you can have one,” she says, scooting the plate marginally.

Grinning, I take one, dip it into the ranch, and toss it in my mouth. Once I finish the fry, I give her the answer. “It was a protective order. Complete bullshit if you ask me, considering that it’s for a woman I ain’t seen in a while.”

“How long is a while?” she asks, cocking a brow.

“About three months now, I suppose.”

“Let me guess. She’s scorned and didn’t want to end things.”

“Something like that.”

Marley shakes her head. “Women who put out bullshit protective orders get on my nerves. They make it even harder for the ones who actually do need them to be granted.”

“You actually believe me when I say it’s bullshit?” You’d think she’d be running for the hills to get away from me, that she’d believe the woman.

“Do you know how many times I’ve seen men accused of something they didn’t do? What a woman will do when scorned is more vindictive than any man could think up. I mean, women are tedious when conniving to get what they want. Granted, there are men who do the same thing, but I’ve learned to tell the liars from the real thing.” Marley points a fry in my direction. “You’re not lying to me.”

“How do you know I ain’t lying?”

How the hell is this woman sitting across from me?

“It’s your eyes,” she says simply and shrugs, putting that damn fry in her mouth.

“What do my eyes have to do anything?”

“Your eyes didn’t shift one way or another. They didn’t dilate, flicker, or anything. They were still as they are now, but the difference in them now is they’ve darkened ever so slightly.”

“You’re very observant, aren’t you?” This woman is something else, and my cock is throbbing to get inside her.

“In my line of work, I’ve had to be.”

Nodding, I take another fry and grin, earning a glare from Marley.

“Now that I’ve told you something, you gonna answer my question that I asked you first, by the way?”

“I moved here ‘cause my grandma is here, and someone needed to move to be near her since she refused to move closer to my mom.”

“She didn’t want to uproot her life.” I get that. When your life is in one place, it’s hard to change things up.

Deloris comes by and drops our plates off in front of us, and shuffles away without a word. Guess she didn’t want to interrupt.

“Exactly, my grandma says she’s lived here all her life and wasn’t going to go anywhere else.” Marley glances at the plate in front of her, and her eyes widen. “Whoa, this thing looks amazing, but there’s no way I’ll be able to finish it and my fries.”

“Should’ve shared the fries.” Snorting, I pluck the pickle off the side of my plate and take a bite. Like most things in the back of the diner, my uncle makes his own pickles as well. Everything he does comes from the garden he keeps year-round. Thankfully, he’s gotten over the fact he can’t do everything by himself anymore and got some help. Some kid that he knew. He took him under his wing and has him helping on weekends and evenings.

“Don’t start.” The glare she shoots me is near comical, but it has the same effect her smile has on my cock.

“Yo, Griz,” Surge calls out from across the room.

I twist to look in his direction and see him, Scorn, and Flash getting to their feet. “What?”

“Gotta roll, Blow needs us at the clubhouse,” he grunts and waves his phone.

Fuck.

Nodding, I look down at the burger and sigh. Deloris is there a moment later.

“I’ll take care of this, Griz, I know you gotta go. Give me a minute, and I’ll get it boxed up for you.”

“Thanks, Deloris, appreciate it.”

“It’s no problem, darlin’.” She takes the plate and looks at the others. “I’ll get y’all’s orders to go as well.”

“You’re a rockstar,” Flash shouts.

“Appreciate it, Deloris,” Scorn adds in.

“Guess you have to go then,” Marley remarks.

“Yeah.” I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay right here while the two of us talked. Sliding out my side of the booth, I hold her gaze. “Any chance you want to give me your number?”

Marley looks at me closely, like she’s weighing her decision before smirking. “You found my name easily enough. I’m sure you can figure out what my number is just as well.”

Well, fuck me.

Placing a hand on the table, I lower my head until we’re nearly nose to nose. “Challenge accepted, sweets.”