He doesn’t smile back. “Right.”
We’re silently studying each other, a new tension crackling between us, when the door to my left swings open and Nico steps out of the kitchen with a grin. “Hey, Wyatt. How’d you like the pie today?”
As Nico approaches, I wander away, trying to look busy but always keeping Wyatt in view just out of the corner of my eye.
“Damn good,” Wyatt says, straight white teeth glinting with his smile. “New secret ingredient? It went from amazing to addictive.”
I pause my wiping.
Nico, the fifty-year-old, dark-haired and brown-eyed beta, laughs. “I guess you could call it a secret ingredient. Except this one’s a secret I’m happy to share.”
Wyatt cocks his head. “Yeah?”
“Maisie,” Nico says, pointing at me. “I let her loose in my kitchen, and the girl went and out-baked me with barely any effort.”
Wyatt snaps his head toward me. “Youmade the pie?”
I stop pretending to wipe the counter. “Nico was out sick one morning, and Lina couldn’t leave her son with her husband away for work. My grandma used to make pie. It’s how I learned.”
He shakes his head at me. “And you weren’t gonna tell me you did this baking?”
I shrug. “It’s just pie.”
Wyatt looks at Nico. “That girl can bake. You should have her make all your pies.”
Blushing at Wyatt’s compliment, my muscles stiffen as I tense up, nearly jerking away when Nico pats my shoulder.
Don’t freak out. It’s just your boss. Don’t freak out.
“She already is. Why do you think all the pies have been flying out the door?” Nico asks, giving me another friendly pat on the arm.
It’s taking everything I have not to rip my arm from his and retreat to a safe distance.
Wyatt glances at me. His tawny brown eyes sharpen, and he turns to point at the glass cabinet. “Can I get another slice to go, Nico?” he asks casually.
Nico takes his hand off my shoulder, and I release a quiet sigh of relief when he moves away from me. Wyatt glances at me again. Quick. Assessing. Then relieved.
“Here you go.” Nico slides the pie box toward him as a loud beeping in the kitchen pulls Nico’s attention from Wyatt. Flashing Wyatt an apologetic smile, he tilts his head to the back. “I’d better go deal with that.”
“See you around, Nico.”
I watch Nico go.
“You should mention it to Nico,” Wyatt says quietly.
I turn to look at him, pretending I don’t know what he means. “Mention what?”
“The arm thing. He does it to everyone, but if you tell him you don’t like it, he’ll stop. He’s a good man.”
“I know.” I consider it. “And I’ll tell him if he does it again.”
A bell over the door chimes, and our quiet morning ends with Lucy’s arrival in her nurse’s uniform. She stops in to grab coffee for herself and the doctor before her early start at the clinic down the road.
The town is awake, and I’ll have a steady flow of customers until my shift ends at 3, though I’ll stay for another two hours to make more pies for Nico to fill the glass cabinet tomorrow morning.
Wyatt pushes himself to his feet as Lucy approaches the counter with a friendly smile that I return. “I’d better get to work. Keep the change, darlin’.”
I’m so distracted by his smile I don’t notice the two twenty-dollar bills on the counter until it’s too late to call him back and tell him it’s too much for a $10 order.
