“No.” He placed the menu down in front of him, and when I glanced up, he tipped his head just a bit to hold my gaze. “Burger, double cheese, double onion, side of fries.”
The same thing he said he’d had last night.
“I thought you were an adventurous man, Mr. Bailey,” I said.
“Naw. A small-town boy like me? I know when to savor a good thing that’s right in front of me before it slips away.”
My lungs stopped working.
He was flirting with me. He was really, right here, in public and everything, flirting with me.
What happened to the friend thing we had going?
Was he just acting? Was this a joke to him? Something Myra and Jean had talked him into? If he saw me tongue-tied and flustered, would he laugh because I had mistakenly thought he was really flirting?
We were just friends. We both knew that.
Or did we?
“Burgers and fries are great,” I said, my voice too high. Stupid. Nervous. Jean covered her laugh with a cough.
Ryder might be messing with my concentration, but Jean was an easy, clear target. “What are you having, Jean?” I swung a boot her way, but she shifted sideways, easily avoiding the under-table war.
“Well, I hear the burgers are great. But you know I always go for the hot, dark, and delicious.”
Ryder’s eyebrows tucked down, but just the corner of his mouth slid up as he glanced over at her.
“Dark?”
“Chocolate,” she said with an innocence she hadn’t had a right to claim since she was sixteen. “Unlike Delaney, who is compelled to plan out every little thing in her life and then boss us around about doing the same, I’m more of a jump-in-all-the-way, dessert-first person.”
“I boss you around because I’m your boss. Order food that isn’t sugar,” I bossed.
Myra sighed and placed her menu down, her eyes scanning the room for the waitress just as a mortal named Molly walked over with our drinks.
Molly was a college student staying with her grandmother this term and saving up money for next term by working at Jump Off Jack’s.
“Hi, officers. Hi, Ryder,” she said with a quick smile as she set out our drinks. “Everyone ready to order?”
“Hey, Molly,” Myra said. “I’ll take the chef salad, blue cheese on the side.”
Jean pointed to the back of her menu. “Can I get the chocolate lava cake with a side of vanilla ice cream?”
I scowled at her. She rolled her eyes.
“And carrots?”
“Uh…steamed carrots?” Molly asked.
Jean made a face. “Do you have raw?”
“Sure. Do you want those on the side?”
“Yes, please.” Jean handed her menu over and took a nice long drink of her beer, daring me with her eyes to nag her about her food choices.
“Chief?” Molly asked.
“How’s the fish?”
