“It really does,” she murmured with a frown as she watched the hostess run across the diner, around tables, and finally shove her way through the kitchen’s swinging double doors.
“Is something going on?” Jodi asked, returning her attention to Danny to find him gazing around the diner, looking innocent…a little too innocent.
“He’s one of them!” somebody suddenly shouted.
“I’m not going out there!”
“Neither am I!”
“Oh, my God!” another scream came from the vicinity of the kitchen. “You promised us that they were never coming back!”
“He’s a Bradford!”
“Oh…shit,” the softly muttered oath drew her attention back to Danny to find him shaking his head in disgust as he pulled out his phone.
“What is going on?” Jodi asked, ending on a gasp when Danny suddenly yanked her back and out of the way as several women wearing matching uniforms suddenly came charging towards them. The panicked staff kept as far away from them as possible as they shoved each other out of the way in an attempt to get through the door first.
“I’m not serving him!” a short, elderly woman with curly gray hair yelled, grabbing a redhead by her ponytail and yanking her out of the way.
“Why don’t we go somewhere else? This place looks busy,” Danny said as she watched several more women and two men join the group desperately trying to escape the otherwise peaceful diner.
“How about the burger joint across the street,” Jodi suggested absently, unable to look away as the little old lady reached up and grabbed another woman by the back of her shirt and yanked her out of the way.
Danny cleared his throat. “That might not be a good idea.”
“What might be a bad idea?” Jodi asked, wincing in sympathy when the old lady kicked out one of the waitress’s legs.
“Going to the burger joint across the street.”
“Why’s that?” Jodi asked, watching as the little old lady managed to slam an elbow into the cook’s stomach and shoved her way to freedom.
Sighing heavily, Danny said, “Because I’m banned.”
Chapter 17
“You don’t need to do this,” Danny said, handing her the pot she’d asked for.
“It’s fine,” Jodi said as she took the pot from him with a smile.
No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t even close to being fine, but thanks to his asshole cousins and uncles, he’d discovered the extent of the damage those bastards had done over the years. Every restaurant they’d tried to go to had either turned them away, run screaming for the exit, or had a mental breakdown when he came walking through the door. When he’d tried to avoid a potentially embarrassing situation by calling ahead, it had ended with some hysterical manager sobbing as they threw around the words police, restraining order, and “Please, God, no!”
After coming to the conclusion that his asshole relatives had gotten the family banned from every restaurant within a ten-mile radius of the movie theatre, he’d given up and headed to the movies. He’d planned on ordering a few ten-dollar hot dogs and fifteen-dollar bags of popcorn from the concession stand to hold them over until later, but his little Tinkerbelle had taken one look at the prices and professed up and down that she wasn’t hungry.
When he’d told her not to worry about it, she’d offered to make him dinner instead. He’d tried talking her out of it, but the stubborn woman had simply shook her head, grabbed his hand and yanked him towards the exit, leaving him with no choice but to accept the fact that he’d failed at another attempt to woo her.
Now, as he stood in her kitchen watching her throw together a quick dinner, he decided that he was going to have to reevaluate his game plan. Originally, he’d planned on wooing her with casual dates, a romantic meal here and there and his natural charm, but so far, none of that was working for him.
Well, at least the romantic meal portion of his plan wasn’t working. The next time he took her out, and there would be a next time, he was going to have to do a little research in advance. He’d show up at her door with roses and chocolates and take her out to the most romantic restaurant that he could find. For now, he’d have to work with what he had, which admittedly wasn’t a hell of lot, but he’d make it work.
“Do you need any help?” Danny asked, running several possibilities through his head.
“No,” Tinkerbelle said with a shy smile that had him rethinking his plans to take this slowly.
But he had a plan and he was going to stick with it even if it killed him.
“How long before it’s done?” Danny asked offhandedly.
“About an hour,” Jodi said, shooting him another small smile over her shoulder as she filled a large pot with water.
