“Yeah.”
“No,” Gina said at the same time.
Katie looked at them both, confused.
Matt cozied up to her. “You came to my house and brought me food, didn’t you?”
“I delivered a pizza,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
Nodding toward the espresso machine, Katie giggled. “I’ll just be over here finishing up your lattes.”
Sweat trickled down the back of Gina’s neck. Her teeth raking over her lip, she glanced in every direction but his.
With a husky chuckle, warm breath ghosted past her ear. “Catch you later, bunny.”
What?
She turned around, but he was gone.
Katie stood there, grinning. “He’s got his sights set on you, girl.”
“Yeah, sure.” Grabbing the coffee, Gina shook her head. “I have to get back. Thanks, Katie. See you.”
And hours later, after frying and filling three hundred and forty-two pastry shells, she was cleaning up the prep area with her mom when Sara poked her head in. “Some guy is out front asking for you.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know, but damn, Gina, he’s cute,” she said, nearly squealing.
He held a bottle of pop and a white Rossi’s bag in his hand. Italian beef with sweet peppers and giardiniera. She could smell it.
“Just picked up my dinner.” Swiping his tongue across his lip, Matt grinned. “Thought you could help me with dessert.”
“Did you now?”
He sauntered closer to the glass case. And her. “Yeah, I did.”
“How about the cannoli?” Sara gushed, her grin so wide it looked like her lips might split open. “Gina made them. They’re so good.”
“Exactly what I had in mind.” He spoke to Sara, but his gaze was on her. “Can’t wait to taste it.”
“Which kind would you like?”
“I’ll take one of each.”
Sara went to box up his cannoli.
Gina leaned across the counter. “Hope you’re hungry. That’s a lot, you know.”
“Dessert’s my favorite thing in the world, pizza girl.” Matt winked. Then, leaning into her ear, he whispered, “And I’m starving.”
Astroke of luck put him inside Beanie’s early on a Thursday morning. Most days, he didn’t roll out of bed until ten, but Matt woke with the sun on that particular day, startled by a dream he couldn’t remember. Unable to go back to sleep, and finding the coffee canister empty, he cut through the park to get his caffeine fix from Katie.
He saw her the moment she walked in.
Sipping on a cup of French pressed in an overstuffed chair in the corner, Matt took in every detail of her. His pizza girl waited in line, one arm dangling, the other draped across her front, fingers at her waist. She was thinking about something. Her features, beautiful and expressive, told him she was a feisty one. He liked that.
She tucked a strand of glossy dark hair that had escaped from its tie behind her pierced ear. Matt counted four. A diamond stud and two dainty hoops dangled from Gina’s lobe, another from its helix. He wondered if she had piercings in places he couldn’t yet see. His dick twitched at the thought.
