Page 99 of Lavender Lake
“I’m not jealous.”
“Yeah, right.”
He began walking toward The Diner, forcing me to either stand on the sidewalk or follow him.
“Don’t walk away from me!” I yelled.
He looked at me over his shoulder. “We don’t have a lot of time for this, Salem. Your dad will be home soon and I need to pick up the order. You can yell at me later, if you want.”
“Oh, I’ll yell at you later,” I huffed.
He stalked toward me and said quietly, “Preferably while my tongue is buried inside you.”
My cheeks flamed. “Cas!”
“This fight will keep, right?”
“When did you give Amber a ride home?” I demanded.
He didn’t reply. Instead, he opened the front door of The Diner and held it for me. I went in and took a deep breath of grease and gravy.
Eloise and Lucy were sitting at the counter while Mr. Bixby was putting to-go containers into bags.
“Hey, Bowman,” Eloise chirped.
“Ma’am,” he greeted with a dip of his hat.
I couldn’t stop my eye roll.
“You okay, honey?” Lucy asked me.
I forced a smile. “Fine, thanks.”
Cas handed cash over to Mr. Bixby who tried to refuse, but Cas insisted.
“You let us know what we can do to help,” Lucy said.
“You already did so much,” I said. “You cooked and froze meals for us. And put them in the freezer when we were out of the house.”
“You never lock the door,” Eloise said with a smile. “You make it easy.”
“Seriously. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it. Especially the poutine.”
Lucy frowned. “We didn’t make poutine.”
“You didn’t?” I asked. “Then where did it . . .”
My eyes darted to Cas who took the bags.
He looked at me. “Ready?”
Nodding, I waved to Lucy and Eloise, and then got the door for Cas.
“You ordered all that?” I asked once we were on the sidewalk.
“No, I ordered about half this much. Mr. Bixby added extra. Good thing you drove the truck.”
He followed me to my father’s truck and set the bags down on the passenger floor.
