“Wemade it clear,” Elias cuts in with a pointed look at me.
I roll my eyes. “Wemade it clear that if he feels the need to go to the diner, he should collect his order from the counter and take his food to go.”
“Surprised he didn’t go to the sheriff,” Hunter mutters, picking up his BLT.
“The sheriff will care more about his grabbing habit than the fact we warned him to keep his hands to himself,” Wyatt says,lifting his mug to his lips. “And he’d have made the same visit as you did.”
I lift my brow.
Wyatt adds, “Maybe without the threat of violence if he doesn’t learn to keep his hands to himself.”
Elias chuckles. “Love that you added the maybe. Anyway, the guy has bounced.”
None of us had seen him around town since he tried to grab Maisie, and her confirming she hadn’t seen him either had been about what we’d expected. But we’re working on-site all day. Just because we scared him out of town doesn’t mean he can’t or won’t come back to hassle Maisie some more.
“She nearly called us the hot guys at table five.” Hunter grins.
Our table isn’tthatclose to the counter, but there have been times over the last month when the radio station changes songs at the perfect time to catch fragments of conversation between Lina and Maisie. One of the nuggets we’ve picked up is that Maisie is as attracted to us as we are to her, even if she’s determined to hide it.
“That means nothing if she doesn’t trust us,” Wyatt says, having cleared half his plate while the rest of us talked.
Hunter loses his smile.
Elias makes a face. “Way to kill the mood, Comeaux,” he mutters.
“Just being realistic,” Wyatt says. “I don’t just want her to find us hot. I want her to know she can trust us.”
We all want her, but we’re four big men, and Maisie is petite and skittish. He’s right to be concerned. She might never trust us.
As we all dig into our lunch, my eyes slide to Maisie, smiling shyly at Lina when the other waitress nudges her. She’s beautiful. Too beautiful not to catch a guy’s eye everywhere shegoes. As if she feels me staring, she glances toward me. I look away.
We’ve all been taking it slow with her, getting her used to seeing us. Occasionally, we drop bits about ourselves into our small talk when she tops up our coffee, brings us our meals, or clears our plates. Slowly, she’s started revealing bits about herself to us. Slower than we’d like, but she’s worth waiting for.
The bell over the door chimes as it swings open, letting in a cool gust of air into the diner. I nod at Sheriff Watson, and he nods back as he walks in on his way to the counter.
“What’s happening with the sheriff?” I ask Wyatt who’s pushed his empty plate forward and is sipping on his coffee.
Wyatt likes to make sure Maisie gets to work safely in the morning, since she walks from her apartment to the diner. It’s only a ten-minute walk, but if anyone is going to get to her, it’ll be on her way to work or home again.
During the day, the rest of us take turns walking up from the construction site to check on Maisie during our breaks. That had been the reason I’d been standing outside the diner when a guy tried to grab her.
After work, one of us makes sure she gets back to her apartment safely. Only when she’s in her apartment, with the door closed and the light on, do I relax enough to go home.
She’s our main topic of conversation. Namely, how we can convince this shy, skittish but gorgeous omega that we’d burn down the world to protect her.
Wyatt puts down his cup with a thud. “Sheriff’s not willing to do anything.”
I scowl. “But she’s in trouble. He saw her bruises, right?”
Wyatt nods. “He asked her if she needed help, and that’s all he can do. There’s nothing else I can say to him to get him to do more.”
Hunter frowns. “So we’re just supposed to wait until whoever hurt her tracks her down?”
“She’s been here a month, and there’s been no sign of any trouble except that prick who tried to put his hand on her,” I say. “If anything was going to happen, it would’ve happened already, right?”
No one says a word because none of us is willing to let our guard down. The one time we do could be the one time Maisie needs us.
My eyes slide back to the pretty waitress moving around the tables with a smile as she tops up coffees and removes empty plates.
