“You look like you could use a cookie.” Lauren’s voice broke into his thoughts.
He turned his head and she was there, her dark hair slipping its messy bundle, the stud on the side of her nose winking at him like a tiny exclamation point:Here I am!
Something inside him contracted like a fist and then relaxed. “You sound like my mother.”
Her brows rose in question.
“Ma believes most of the world’s problems can be solved with food.”
Comprehension lit her eyes like laughter. “Well, it’s a place to start.”
He met her gaze. Held it. Today she wore a cuff shaped like a snake with jeweled eyes, coiling under her hair, whispering in her ear. Tempting her. Tempting him. Where else was she pierced?
A rush of heat washed through him. He wanted a lot more from her than a cookie.
He took a deep breath.Slow down. Think twice.She wasn’t some shiny image on his television anymore, the one bright spot in his boozy, miserable world.
He forced himself to step back, to remember their surroundings. And saw her hands full of dirty glasses, the apron around her neck.
“What are you doing?” he asked. Rookie question.
She shrugged. “Working.”
“Bussing tables.” Not a question this time.
“Among other things,” she said lightly. “I also make coffee. Don’t judge.”
She had it all wrong. He admired her, her courage, her willingness to put herself out there.Hostage Girl.
“Coffee’s good,” he said. “I wish we had somebody around the office who could brew a decent pot of coffee.”
“Then you wouldn’t have an excuse to drop by here anymore.”
He went still. She’d heard him say he didn’t come by for the coffee. Did she think he came by to see Jane? He didn’t want her to think that, for reasons he wasn’t prepared to examine. “I don’t need an excuse. It’s my town.”
She smiled suddenly. “I thought maybe you were going to ask why I’m not working on my book.”
He shook his head. “It’s not my job to rag on you about how you spend your time.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Her droll tone made his lips twitch. “I’ll leave that to Meg.”
Her smile lost some of its shine. “She doesn’t know yet.”
He frowned. “You haven’t told her?”
She regarded him thoughtfully, her pupils wide, like she was trying to see inside the darkness in his head. “I’m not hiding anything. I just haven’t had a chance to talk to her.”
“I only offered Lauren the job half an hour ago,” Jane said. “She hasn’t even filled out the paperwork yet.”
Not hiding, Jack thought with relief. Not lying.
Not that it was any of his business.
“You might want to mention it,” he said. “Unless you want Meg to hear about it from somebody else.”
“Who’s going to tell her? Nobody even knows who I am. That’s why I came down here.”
