Chapter One
HECTOR
“New order at table two for you,” Atlas said. He shot me a wink as he slid the ticket into the organizer.
I wasn’t proud to admit that I was still dazed and staring at his figure long after he’d turned back to the front of the house to take care of another table.
Atlas had that effect on me. He was like a ray of sunshine after a long, cold winter, and I had no resistance to his warmth. He was cute in a way I’d never expected to feel about a man. Blond hair, green eyes, and a smile that seemed permanently pasted on his face.
Just looking at him did funny things to my chest.
This wasn’t what I imagined my chance encounter with Atlas at the start of the year would lead to. When he came into my diner carrying a cloud of troubles, I just couldn’t leave him alone, so I offered him a place to stay. What was supposed to be temporary had turned into a more permanent roommate situation.
Not that I was complaining. I never thought I’d one day have a roommate who was eighteen years my junior, but it wasn’t too bad.
I would be lying through my balls if all I could use to describe living with Atlas was thatit wasn’t bad.
I wasvastlyunderplaying just how much I liked having Atlas around. In the span of just a few short weeks, he’d wiggled his way into every aspect of my life. He’d practically ambushed me into giving him a job at my diner, and now I was around the guy more than I was apart from him.
It was hard not to see him as a permanent fixture in my life. Which was dangerous. Much too dangerous.
What was even more risky was the blatant affection he constantly showered me with. It’d gotten to the point that most people in town thought there was something going on between us.
Atlas never corrected them, and I wasn’t going to start talking about my personal life. I’d kept quiet all through all the badgering questions about my wife’s—ex-wife’s—sudden disappearance, so why would I start opening up now?
Besides, the town would find out the truth eventually. That was inevitable in a small town like ours, where most secrets were just a challenge to the residents of how quickly they could uncover what was hidden.
It didn’t take long for them to figure out that my wife had walked out on me. Though with my reputation, I was sure some might have suspected I’d done somethingto her, and they might have continued to think that if not for her showing back up at the beginning of the year to pick up the rest of her stuff and drop off the divorce papers.
Twenty-two years of marriage gone in the blink of an eye. And before I could stop reeling from my new reality, the world placed Atlas in front of me.
Maybe the sudden emptiness in my life was the reason I’d invited a random stranger into my home. Oh, who was I kidding? I could never leave a person in need alone. Perhaps my life would look entirely different if I had been able to…
“Something on your mind, boss?”
The peppy-sounding voice right behind me had me throwing the spatula onto the griddle. I winced when oil splattered on the back of my hand.
“Shit, are you okay? I didn’t mean to scare you like that,” Atlas fretted and grabbed my arm. He turned off the griddle with a flick of his wrist and dragged me to the sink, hand first, and placed the burn spot under running water.
It didn’t even sting anymore. I’d grown a thick enough skin over the years of cooking that the wincing was a shock reaction more than anything else. But with Atlas gently rubbing the back of my hand with care, my mouth wouldn’t move to tell him that.
Maybe I’d been lonely for too long, and now I craved the intimacy…but it was more likely that I was reacting this way because it was Atlas. Sweet, gentle Atlas, who lit me up whenever he shot his sunny smile my way or had my heart warming at the show of concern.
“I really didn’t mean to startle you like that. You’re usually a hard man to sneak up on,” he said softly.
“Was thinking about something.”
Atlas peered up at me through his long lashes and flashed a smile that did something to my chest. It was a feeling I hadn’t felt in a long time. So long that I thought my days of heart flutters were long behind me. Maybe it was the way his green eyes always seemed to sparkle when he looked at me? It was something I wasn’t used to, but it wasn’t bad either.
“I could tell.” He smiled and gently wiped my hand with a towel.
“I can do it myself. I should get back to cooking anyway.”
“It’s only Russell out there with his grandson, and you know Junior will keep him plenty entertained. He won’t care if we take a few minutes to bandage you up.”
Glancing through the service window, I confirmed that there really was only Russell Monroe out in the dining area with his grandson. Junior was babbling something to his grandpa, and the happiness on the older man’s face was palpable.
I heard the kid was turning one in a few days. It really showed just how old I was getting. It felt like just yesterday that Junior’s mom was twelve and sitting in that exact booth.
