Page 38 of Flare Up
“You’re joking.”
He took a long swig of his coffee before launching into the story. “You can ask Marlene, the owner. Tommy and Fitzy have been eating breakfast here for decades, but they’re not allowed to have the buffet. Years ago, when they were both still on the job, they’d come in and Tommy would get the buffet. Fitzy would always claim he wasn’t very hungry and he’d get a coffee and an English muffin. Fitzy would just eat off Tommy’s plate, and Tommy would keep going back until they were both full. Then they’d split the total cost.”
“And they got caught?”
“Marlene didn’t believe a guy like Fitzy—and a firefighter, no less—was getting through to lunch on an English muffin, so she started paying attention. Legend has it she literally kicked Fitzy in the ass on the way out the door when she threw them out.”
“She must be tall,” Wren said, her skepticism obvious.
He shrugged. “Or flexible.”
“But she allowed them to come back?”
“The food is amazing and there aren’t many places with coffee this good, so Fitzy calculated how many times he’d eaten off Tommy’s plate and brought in a brown paper bag of cash to make it up to her.”
“No, he didn’t.” Her eyes widened when he nodded. “And it worked?”
“She let them come back, but they can never have the all-you-can-eat buffet again.” He pointed his fork at her. “So stop stealing my bacon.”
She laughed and dug into her mushroom omelet. They ate in silence for a few minutes, but he didn’t mind. His leg was rested against hers under the table and whenever their eyes met, she smiled.
He would have liked to keep her in his bed all day, but she had to work at the market. And because she hadn’t intended to spend the night at his place, she had to go home first. But he’d talked her into having breakfast. And then he’d talked her into letting him follow her to Patty’s so she could change and leave her car, and then he’d drive her to the market. Extra time with her.
She hadn’t budged on taking the bus home after work, though. That fell under the going slow thing, apparently. She wasn’t going to spend two nights in a row at his place, and she wasn’t going to have him driving all around the city just to drop her off and go home alone.
This was nice, though. As he went back to the buffet to get more of the good stuff, he marveled at how much his life had turned around since the night of the fire.
It had been grim when she left. He’d gone through a lot of stages—shock, denial, grief—but the most potent one had been anger. He’d been angry with everybody over everything at first. Then it had mellowed to just a shitty attitude in general. Some of the guys had suggested he try dating again, but he’d had no interest in letting another woman into his life.
He’d pretty much come to terms with the fact he was going to end up a lonely, angry old man who yelled at kids who hit baseballs into his yard. Someday, when he actually had a yard.
And now here he was, happier than he’d been in months, and sharing breakfast with the only woman he’d ever loved.
He was going to have to tell his parents. He’d put off mentioning Wren because he wasn’t sure what exactly to tell them about what was going on. But now that they’d defined their relationship and were going to work on building a future together again, that phone call needed to be made.
To say his mom wasn’t Wren’s biggest fan would be an understatement.
“You can’t be serious,” Wren said when he slid back into the booth.
“What? I didn’t get any more bacon.”
She stabbed one of the sausage links with her fork and transferred it to her plate, and then laughed when he made a big show out of looking over his shoulder for Marlene.
But if there was anybody he’d be willing to risk his all-you-can-eat buffet privileges for, it was Wren.
* * *
As she pulled into the driveway, Wren realized she had no idea what to say to Patty. She hadn’t gone home last night. Was that a problem?
Grant pulled up to the curb as she was getting out, so she waited for him. “Do you think I should have called Patty last night?”
“I think it would have been a little weird, considering what we were doing.”
She laughed and slapped his arm. “You know what I mean.”
“I... Crap. I don’t know. I mean, she’s not your mom. But she’s also not just a landlord.”
“She seems like the kind of woman who would worry when she didn’t hear me come in.”
