She nodded.
“I learned yours a minute ago, Samantha. It’s good to officially meet you.”
Samantha smiled now. “It’s nice meeting you, too.”
They stayed like that for a few seconds, looking into one another’s eyes, something unspoken passing between them.
Finally, he shifted in his seat a little and said, “You always work the evening shift?”
He hoped she took the question the way he intended it—polite, get-to-know-you conversation and not a creepy guy prying into some woman’s personal life.
Thankfully, she seemed okay with it. “Yeah. Sometimes I work all the way to midnight or even one. But I get off at ten tonight. They just have me at part-time hours today.”
Kendrick looked down at his phone and noted the time. With his eyes back on Samantha, he said, “Man, only four hours. I hope you don’t live far. You know how this town can be—you might sit in traffic for an hour or more just coming here.”
“Yeah. I take the bus—or a couple of them—to get here. So it can definitely take a while. But traffic usually isn’t too thick. Especially going home.”
A look of regret registered in her eyes, but it faded just as quickly as it had appeared.
For a moment, Kendrick feared she was worried about divulging so much personal information to him. But then he realized it was something else.
She was embarrassed.
His heart broke. She didn’t need to feel that way with him. But it would take time for her to figure that out.
He tried reminding himself once again that he needed a Little. Yet he couldn’t explain why he felt more drawn to Samantha with each passing second. Did his Daddy intuition know something his brain hadn’t accepted yet?
Was she a Little?
He supposed time would tell that, too.
Right now, he just needed to get to know her a little more and see where things went. No reason to jump ahead of himself.
“So, what will it be tonight?"
“I think I’ll take a glass of water and then a slice of that apple pie, please.”
“You came all the way from your place to this diner for pie and water?” She was smirking a little, as if she found it endearing.
But then another glaringly obvious question screamed at him. He decided to ask her.
“Do you know where I live or something?”
MaybeI’mthe one who should thinkshe’screepy, he thought, fighting back a smile. She sure seemed to know a lot about him. He was at a loss when it came to her.
“Uh, you… mentioned the other night… that you were just in the area. So, I assume you don’t live close.”
Okay, that explanation was plausible. He did remember him and Isaiah telling her that were passing through that part of town and had just decided to stop. He’d give her that one.
Still, something seemed off. It appeared as if she clearly knew more about him than he did her.
What was up with that?
Or maybe it was just his imagination. Cops could be paranoid sometimes. They were trained to look for patterns and connect dots. Right now, he didn’t have anything concrete. It might add up to a whole lot of nothing.
Remembering her initial question, he said, “Hey, the pie is pretty good. But… I’ll admit… I wanted to see you again.”
Kendrick was taking a risk here. But he figured honesty was the best policy, instead of being hypocritical, worried she was hiding something, while he was lying about his true motives for being there.
