Page 7 of Honey Bee Library (Sweet Tea and a Southern Gentleman #7)

WILLOW

The air in the diner was tense as I tried to move on from the events of this morning.

Everything had taken place in such a short amount of time, and I was struggling to process my feelings about what had happened.

It didn’t help that the source of all of my confusion was currently occupying the same space as me.

Shivers raced across my skin when he accidentally bumped into me as I was attempting to enter the kitchen and he was trying to leave.

My body betrayed me again when his arm brushed mine as I sat the Anderson family in the dining room.

One touch from him, and I was instantly transported back to his bedroom, staring at him as he leaned against the doorframe of his bathroom with shaving cream on his face while my son snuggled on his bed watching TV.

There was a level of intimacy in that scene that made my heart ache. A feeling of family that I’d resigned myself to accept wasn’t going to happen for Jasper and me.

And then the memory of his extremely muscular, tanned, and tattooed chest would wiggle its way to the forefront of that memory, overpowering everything. It rooted itself in my mind, causing parts of my body that I thought were dead and buried to roar to life.

My inability to control my thoughts around the man who had taken half the diner from me left me with one conclusion: staying at Cole’s place had been a mistake.

A huge, colossal mistake, and one that I was determined never to make again.

Desperate to keep that man out of my thoughts, I made a point to avoid running into Cole during the brunch rush. I kept to the far side of the diner and made sure to count to five before I pushed through the door to the kitchen, just in case he was on his way out.

By the time the dining room cleared out, I was exhausted and needed a nap, which was ironic since these last two nights had been the first time I’d slept well in what felt like forever. The bed had been so soft and so warm, and as soon as my head hit the pillow each night, I was out.

Apparently, I’d been so dead to the world that I never heard Jasper leave.

“You okay?” Breia asked.

I startled and turned to see her tucking her order pad and pen into her apron. I was standing in front of the kitchen door on my tiptoes so I could peer through the small window at the top. “What?” I asked as I dropped down and forced my brain to process the correct response to her question.

She raised an eyebrow. “You okay?” she asked again, this time slower and more drawn out. “You look like you’re hiding from a serial killer.”

I blew out my breath and attempted to relax the muscles in my face. “I do?” I asked as I rolled my shoulders and stepped away from the door.

Breia nodded as she followed me. “Yeah, you do.”

I reached up and massaged my cheeks. “I’m just stressed,” I finally said as I dropped my hands to my side. “Cole being here stresses me out.”

Breia glanced over to the kitchen door and rose up onto her tiptoes before she returned her heels to the ground. “I get that. He stresses me out, too.” She fiddled with the bottom corner of her apron. “Has he told you how long he’s expecting to stay?”

I shook my head. “No.” There was so much about Cole that he kept hidden from me, and I hated it.

Especially since he knew so much about me.

He got to see me when I was at my most vulnerable.

And in those moments, he’d taken care of me.

He made me chicken noodle soup and he’d brought me back to his home when I had nowhere else to go.

But then he would snap at me when I asked him questions about his life and had waved a contract in my face, demanding that I give up half my diner.

Cole Watkins was the male embodiment of hot and cold. And I never knew what temperature he would be.

“If you’re going to hide from him for the foreseeable future, can I join you?”

I gave her an exasperated look. “No.” I sighed. “I just…need a few moments away from him.”

Suddenly a knowing look passed over her face. “Ah. I think I know what’s wrong.”

“What?” I narrowed my eyes as I drew the word out.

“You like him.” She started nodding.

“No.”

She kept nodding. “Yes, you do.”

“No, no, no,” I repeated as I reached out and grabbed her arm in an attempt to get her to stop nodding. “I do not like him. He’s just…hard to read.”

Breia stopped nodding, but her lips were pursed in a knowing expression. “Sure.”

“Breia,” I said, my voice desperate. The last thing I needed was for her to entertain this theory and run wild with it.

She wasn’t the best at keeping secrets, which meant it was only a matter of time before she shared her theory with anyone who would listen.

With the way my luck was going, that moment would happen when Cole was in earshot. “I don’t like him.”

She studied me. I knew I was going to have to give her something more.

“I spent last night at his house.”

“What?” Breia yelled before she slapped her hand across her mouth. Her eyes were wide. “You did what?” she whisper-yelled at me.

“Listen, I’ve been…homeless the last few nights. Cole found out and offered his place to Jasper and me.”

“You’ve been homeless?” she asked.

“Yes.” That wasn’t the point of this conversation.

“What happened?”

I sucked in my breath before I blew it out. “The place I was renting burned down.”

Her eyes were wide again. “Why am I just hearing about this right now?”

I moved to lean my back against the nearby wall. I rested my left elbow on my right hand so I could pinch the bridge of my nose. “I didn’t want to stress you out. Plus, I was certain I would hear back from Uncle Doug.”

“Have you heard from him?”

I shook my head. “No.”

She took a step toward me, her gaze meeting mine. “Next time, tell me.” Her voice was low. “Your friends should know.”

I met her gaze and held it. Friends . It had been so long since I had true friends.

Harold did all he could to isolate me from other people.

When I finally had the strength to leave, my life consisted of Jasper and trying to survive.

It felt good to hear her say we were friends.

Harmony had truly saved me in so many ways.

“Okay.” I wanted to explain why I didn’t tell her, but I didn’t want to admit that if she had offered, and I’d accepted, I knew staying at her place would’ve stressed her out. On the flip side, I hadn’t wanted her to feel guilt-tripped into helping me, either.

After Harold, I’d learned that I had to pick and choose when I asked for help. It was only a matter of time before people would start to resent me, and that was the last thing I wanted from the people who were already helping me keep the diner afloat.

“So, what’s the plan for tonight?”

Her question pulled me from my thoughts. I glanced over at her.

“Are you going back to his place?”

My first instinct was to say, hell, no . There was so much about Cole that made me want to stay away from him. I didn’t like how much Jasper adored him. I didn’t like that he was the kind of male figure to my son that I could only dream Harold would be. And I didn’t like how Cole made me feel.

If I had half a brain cell, I would stay far, far away from that man.

But for some reason, I couldn’t answer her. And then the kitchen door opened and Cole appeared, taking the opportunity.

“There you are,” he said.

There was a depth to his voice and a look in his eyes that made my skin warm and my heart pick up speed. I was ridiculous to react this way. He was looking for me, that was all. Those words didn’t mean what my body wanted them to.

Breia caught my gaze as she slunk back into the dining room. She mouthed, we’ll talk about this later , before she disappeared. I straightened and cleared my throat as I turned my attention back to Cole.

“Here I am,” I said in my best professional voice. “What’s up?”

“I have to…” His voice drifted off like he was weighing his words. I raised my eyebrows while I waited. “I have to leave during lunch for a few hours. Are you going to be okay here without me?”

That was the best news I’d heard all day. I wanted to tell him to take the rest of the day off, but I knew that might tip him off. And the last thing I wanted was for him to suspect something that I didn’t even understand.

“That’s fine. We can handle things here,” I said as I nodded, making sure I didn’t look too enthusiastic.

He eyed me and then blew out his breath. “Great. I’ll be back for the dinner rush.”

“Great,” I said.

He studied me for a moment more before he turned and headed deeper into the kitchen.

Now alone, I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes.

I took in a few cleansing breaths, gathered my wits, and straightened once more.

Cole was leaving, which meant things were going to get easier around here. And that was exactly what I needed.