Page 48 of Scoop Me Up
“Thanks,” Sam mumbled, tone skeptical.
“That’s a compliment. Trust me.”
They wrapped up their conversation, the mayor encouraging Sam to keep her updated on the progress of the shop before leaving. A few moments later, Sage arrived with our food. As we began to dig in, Sam pulled out their phone and glanced at the screen.
“It’s Cooper.” A moment later, they rolled their eyes and sighed deeply.
“Everything okay?”
Sam glanced around before looking back at me. “It seems like we’re being watched.” They turned the phone around so I could read the screen.
Cooper: You and Gabe? Having dinner in public?
It was accompanied by the eyes emoji. Sam shook their head. “I’m sure Coop’s not the only one.”
I laughed a little, uncomfortable at the thought of being watched. “You really think so?”
“You think the mayor stopping by is coincidence? This is a small town. Everyone notices everything.”
Heat flared up my neck and ears. I hadn’t thought of it like that, and to be honest I didn’t know what to do with the idea that the whole town had their eyes on us—especially considering we’d not an hour ago promised to keep things discreet.
Sam must’ve noticed my internal panic. “Eat your waffles. There’s nothing we can do about it now.”
I picked up my fork and just then, the doors to the diner opened and Jennifer walked in with Ellie. I dropped my fork and it clattered loudly onto the plate.“Shit,”I hissed.
Sam glanced around and spotted the two of them at the same moment that Ellie noticed us.
“Daddy! Mix!” She barreled over to say hi, climbing into my side of the booth and throwing her arms around me.
“Hi, Bug,” I murmured into her hair, reluctantly removing my foot from Sam’s proximity, breaking the contact.
“I didn’t expect to find you two here.” Jennifer looked at us each in turn.
Ellie slid down, sitting next to me in the booth and picked up my fork to take a bite of my waffle.
“We just…” Sam started, shifting in their seat uncomfortably.
I cleared my throat. “Dinner. We were hungry and neither of us felt like cooking.” It was the truth, in its most basic version.
“Can we eat with you, Daddy?” Ellie asked around a mouthful of my dinner.
I laughed and ruffled her hair, ready to agree, but before I could answer, Jennifer interjected.
“Let’s let them have a grown-up dinner tonight, huh, El? You and I can sit over there and get a piece of pie for dessert. How does that sound?”
Ellie sighed and slipped out of the booth. “Okay. Bye, Daddy! Bye, Mix!”
Jennifer turned to usher Ellie away, but before she did, she glanced in my direction and gave me a knowing look, raising her eyebrows a couple of times. Again, heat burned on my face and I prayed Sam wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
As we ate, I tried hard to ignore the glances from other tables, thelookswe were getting. Sam sparked up a conversation, asking me about city life, and it seemed like they were trying to distract me from paying attention to what felt like the rest of the town watching us eat.
“So, what’s it like, living in a city?”
I shrugged and swallowed a bite of waffle. “Burlington’s great. It’s just too far away from here.”
They nodded slowly. “Probably more business opportunities there.”
“That’s true. There are definitely more businesses that need work up there. And I can branch out to nearby areas. Montpelier isn’t far from where I am, for example.”
