Page 19 of The Princess and the Pizza Man

“Oh, you can leave those there, sugar,” she said when he stood with his dishes. “They’ll take care of it.” She waved to an invisible staff. He was fine taking care of his own plate, but he also understood the importance of his role as a guest, too. Let people do their jobs, and thank them graciously for it.

He put his plate down on the side table next to hers and nodded. “Thank you for the company, ma’am.”

“I look forward to the next time.” She air-kissed at him, and he chuckled. She reminded him of Bonnie Baker back home, an elderly flirt who made her way into his pizza shop every other Sunday just to offer up constructive criticism and compliment his butt every time he bent over.

He was almost to Bells when a sweet-looking brunette popped from outta nowhere and started talkin’ to him.

“You!” she said, and Will jolted back at the sheer volume that came out of such a small woman. “I haven’t spoken with you yet.”

He shook off his surprise. “No, I don’t believe you have.”

“Oh, a southern man. How in the world doyouknow the princess?” She blinked a set of small, dainty green eyes and held up a notepad, the pen poised and waiting for his response.

“Um, same as you, Miss.” His gaze flicked to the way her hand flew across the paper without her even looking at it. “I’m a guest here.”

“Hmmm,” she murmured. “Interesting. A few of you are posing as guests, huh? Trying to throw us off?” She stopped writing and yelled over her shoulder, “Hey, Garreth! He’s a”—she tucked her notepad under her arm and exaggerated air quotes—“guest.”

Garreth gave the girl a look like the light had just gone on upstairs while Bells shared a glance with Will like both their light bulbs had gone out.

“That’s my brother, there,” he heard Bells say from across the terrace.

Garreth gaped at her and took a step back. “You’re acting in this, too?”

Will let out a bolting laugh that caught the attention of every person still eating lunch. He peered at the notepad in the brunette’s hands, columns and rows and boxes drawn with each suspect and how they were connected to Winter scrawled in different colors. She really was taking this thing seriously.

“You think I’m part o’ the act, don’t you, Miss?”

She put a note next toWEIRD MAN AT DINNER.He had to laugh again at that one.

“Look, promise you, I’m just here to enjoy the show like everyone else.”

“Okay,” she said, but she wrote that down, too.REFUSES TO ADMIT TO ANY AFFILIATION TO THE PRINCESS.

He looked up at Bells, who seemed to be doing the exact same explaining to Garreth. He’d better get over there and set the record straight. His behavior last night probably looked completely scripted, when really, he’d been outta his dang mind.

The brunette started toward Ms. Vancouver, her pen still scribbling across the notepad as she looped through cushioned chairs and group conversations. Will’s eyes followed her until she passed Winter, and they stayed right on her as Winter pushed herself off the barstool and headed toward him, barefoot and urgent.

“Follow me,” she said as she passed, and he checked on Bells one more time before making his way to the other far corner of the terrace where there sat a wall-length waterfall.

“Okay,” she said when they were out of earshot, “if you’re doneflirting, I’ll give you a rundown of what I’ve got so far.”

“Flirting?”

“There’s Dave,” she said, pulling him down to sit beside her and pointing at a shorter guy wearing a baseball cap that Will would bet his life savings covered absolutely no hair. “He’s a dispatcher from a small town in Ohio,” she continued. “He loves it there, and he’s kinda quiet, keeps to himself. Sweet and kind; one of my kitchen staff dropped a tray filled with empty glasses, and he dove right in to make sure the server was all right and if he needed help cleaning up.”

“Any decent fella would do that,” Will said.

Winter gave him a look. “You’d be surprised.” A small wrinkle near her left eye appeared for just a split second before smoothing back into the paleness of her skin. “He’s also a self-proclaimed nerd. Plays D&D, cosplays, and is the founder of the singles group that was initially supposed to be a trivia team, but apparently it got so popular that they do all sorts of things now. Like murder mysteries.”

She cackled to herself, but Will wrinkled his nose.

“Next.”

She gasped and put a hand to her chest. “What’s wrong with nerds?”

“Nothing.” He honestly could give the guy major props, holding a decent job and doing so much with his spare time to not only benefit himself, but other people like him. “But Bells won’t go for it.”

“Not even after getting to know him?”

---