Page 40 of Moonlight Hearts

“Isn’t the peace and quiet just lovely?”Soyer said after the two of them were gone.

“Elias isn’t so bad.”

Soyer tried a bite of his pie.“Whatever you say, Amory.”He put his fork aside.“I’ll finish this, and then we’ll head home.How does that sound?”

“But—”

“Ben would be able to take the rest of the evening off.”

I bit the inside of my cheek.I was feeling bad about him having to spend every night here when I knew he was in the process of getting his relationship with the writer off the ground.

“Hmm, but Thaeros is new.”

“So they are.Thaeros?”He beckoned them over.I’d expected them to cower more, to go out of their way to show respect, but Thaeros kept his chin up.

“Mr.Bennet?”

“Any problems finishing up Amory’s shift for today?”

Thaeros looked at me, but I wasn’t sure what to read in his beautiful face.

“Not at all.Like you said, it’s straightforward.I’ll just need to know how to close up, where the keys are, all of that.”He inclined his head in my direction.“And if there’s anything else that needs doing, Amory.”

I scratched my head.“Well, the saltshakers—”

“I refilled them earlier.”They said that casually, not at all in a smug way, but at the same time, I was pretty sure I hadn’t misread that demonstrative look at the near-empty saltshaker back when we’d sat at the writer’s table earlier.

“Right.Thank you.”

Soyer’s dark eyes settled on me.“Thaeros, Amory will write out a list for you to go through, and Rae should be able to answer any questions.Leave us.”

With a nod, Thaeros retreated, and Soyer patted the chair next to his, the one Elias had abandoned.“Come sit with me.And don’t say you can’t.It’s an order, strictly boss to employee.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed Elias’s dishes.“All right.I’ll just put these away in the dishwasher.”

“You are aware that Rae could do that?Fuck, even Ben knows where the fucking dishwasher is.”

Which, of course, got Ben to slide off his chair.“Of course, Mr.Bennet.Let me take care of this.”

“But—”

Ben whisked the milkshake glass and Elias’s extra cream saucer out of my hands in short order and hurried back to put them away, leaving me standing there.I turned to stare at Soyer, who looked very pleased with himself, licking the tines of his fork and pulling out the chair for me.

“Wasn’t that nice of him?”

I sighed.“You’re the worst, you know that?”

“I don’t care as long as I have you.”

Which…I got a little melty then.A little emotional too.It was the aftereffects of what the witch had done all over again, but it wasn’t bad, not when Soyer was here, when he was patiently waiting for me to sit down next to him, when he put an arm around my shoulders and fed me some of his cherry pie.

I really had missed him.

Chapter Thirteen

Soyerhadmewriteout a list for Thaeros.It was a pretty short list, containing most of what I did on the regular without thinking about it, like cleaning the menus with a wet sponge or rag after they’d been used, making sure the tables were clean for the morning shift, making sure all the condiments were refilled and the dishwasher was running before he left.

After he was done with his cherry pie and coffee, Soyer grabbed Thaeros to give them an overview of what needed to be locked.Since he didn’t ask for my keys, I was pretty sure he’d had an extra set made already, which meant he’d planned all of this, had planned to take me home early.