“Without her we might not be together.” I cupped his cheek, and he leaned in to my touch before shaking me off.
“Do not tell her that! She will be awful forever and consider it a green light to all future meddling projects. You’ll cause chaos in the entire city.”
I laughed and kissed him as excitement stampeded through my stomach. “I want to take you out.”
“Fine.” He pouted while he texted her back and it was cute.
Not that I was attempting to be nosy, but when I was finished with my food, I noticed Maurice had left half of his on the plate. I stared at the leftovers, and he drank his coffee and kept shooting glances at the biscuits as if he would’ve rather eaten them.Should I say something?I arranged my silverware on my plate to give myself time to think, but the war between silence and my opinions battled it out until finally I blurted, “Do you have health issues I don’t know about? High blood pressure? Cholesterol? Diabetes?”
He frowned. “No, why do you ask?”
“You like food, and I don’t want to.... I’ve had food issues in the past. I tend to overeat when I’m stressed. High school was a nightmare. My father was a lot of my problem because he put too much pressure on me. My mother was ill. I don’t want to assume anything, especially since you told me that your ex made you uncomfortable about the topic of food.”
“But?” His lips thinned into an unhappy line that let me know I needed to tread lightly.
I rested my hand on his thigh and gave it a squeeze. “But eat your breakfast.” I grinned. “You like it. We’ll eat healthy for lunch and get off our asses for real this weekend, I promise. I’m not running some campaign to destroy whatever health goals you have.”
“Healthy dinner, too,” he said, snapping up his fork with enthusiasm. “And no beer tonight.”
“You like the beer.”
He sighed and nodded. “I do.”
Leaning over, I brushed a kiss to his cheek. “Enjoy yourself. I’ll tell Mrs. Riggins to go greener.”
His bottom lip jutted a little and I couldn’t hold in my grin. He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Maybe stuff like this on the weekends?”
I shrugged. “Sure. This was my fault. I told her to cook your favorites and gave her a list of everything I’d ever seen you eat and like.”
His mouth fell open, and then he laughed. “I guess I didn’t realize my top ten foods were so filling.”
He grabbed his phone out of his pocket when it vibrated again and poked at the screen. “We’re on the hook with Lacey tonight.”
“Great.”
That morning Bern Evangelos messed up part of the job he was doing for the post office, and I had to meet him to fix it, which wasn’t terrible for his first time working in the field, but it needed me personally to smooth things over. One thing after another kept us busy all day.
Maurice and I couldn’t even share lunch.
Near quitting time, I was heading in to my office and Maurice was bent over the keyboard at his desk muttering about something, when the outer door burst open and Celestine stumbled into the room, making a beeline directly for Maurice. I pointed at him, and he stopped, nearly falling over. His blond curls were a frizzy, everywhere mess, as if he’d been tugging at them.
“Can I ask you a question about Lacey?” He turned morose eyes on Maurice, who glanced up as his eyebrows lowered in a way I’d never seen.
“Why? What did you do to her?”
Celestine groaned and cupped his hands behind his neck, staring at the floor. “She wanted me to adopt a dog we found while we were out hiking. I said I’m not in a good spot with my life for a pet. She already has—”
“Four dogs she treats like princes?” Maurice slid his chair back and stood, crossing his arms. “She refers to them as her babies.”
He flinched as if Maurice had punched him in the eye. “Yeah, but I really wasn’t comfortable taking a dog right now. How do I get her to forgive me?”
“She’s a sucker for rubies,” Maurice said, without missing a beat. “But only natural ones. Don’t buy anything synthetic because she’ll be able to tell the difference.”
Celestine’s entire face lit up with his grateful smile. “Thank you, Maurice. You’re a good guy.” He turned and bolted out the door.
“So, Miss Lacey likes jewelry,” I said, filing that away for the holidays.
Maurice looked at me from the corner of his eye, and a sly smile took over his face that had me hungry to touch him all over. “No, but rubies are more expensive than diamonds, and he deserves this for tricking us.”
