“Good morning, gorgeous.” He hugged her from behind and kissed her neck, breathing in the flowery scent of her shampoo.
“Good morning, yourself. You hungry?”
“Starving. I had a long night of glorious sex with a beautiful woman, and it left me famished.”
“Yes, you certainly did work hard.” She wiggled her eyebrows comically. “And since I appreciate the effort, I shall reward you with sustenance. Sit.” She pointed to one of the stools at his kitchen island.
“Can I help?” he asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
“Nah. It’s done.” She finished buttering the toast and scooped the eggs onto two plates. Sitting down next to him, they dug in.
“Too bad we can’t open the blinds. It looks like a nice day,” she mused.
“Soon. Hopefully. One place I thought we could go is to my cabin upstate. You’d love it up there.” Would she love it there? He didn’t know her all that well, but it seemed like something she’d enjoy. Unlike any of the other women he’d dated, she seemed outdoorsy.
“A cabin in the woods? That sounds awesome.” Good, he’d been right. Wanting to please her was suddenly becoming important to him. Another foreign concept, but one that was not entirely unwelcome.
“We’ll see how things go today. Adam should be here soon.”
They’d just finished eating when the doorbell rang. Mitch grabbed the nine-millimeter he’d left sitting on the entryway table and asked who was there.
When Adam answered, Mitch put the gun back on the table after letting him in. He was holding a grocery bag in one hand and a file folder in the other.
“Did you bring us something?” Maggie took the bag and hugged him.
“Yeah. Mitch asked if I could get my hands on somehomemadecookies, and it just so happened Jenny had some. I grabbed a pint of milk, too.”
“You did that for me?” She turned to Mitch in surprise.
He shrugged, uncomfortable with the attention.
She wrapped an arm around his waist and gave him a side hug. “Thank you. That was really thoughtful.”
Adam shot Mitch a questioning look, clearly suspicious about what was going on between them.
Maggie poured a glass of milk and was in ecstasy with a cookie. She took a bite, closed her eyes, and moaned with pleasure. She licked some chocolate off her finger, and the expression on Mitch’s face must have been clear.
“Should I give you guys a minute?” Adam rolled his eyes, and Mitch chuckled.
“What?” Maggie’s look of innocence and bewilderment made him laugh even harder.
“God, way to muck things up, man,” Adam said to Mitch. “You ready to work or what?” He held up the file folder and waved it.
“Yes. Totally. Let’s go to my office.” He grabbed a cookie and turned down the hall, assuming Adam would follow him.
“You coming, Mags?” Adam asked as he too snagged a cookie.
“Yeah. I’ll be there in a sec,” she said. “I need to take care of getting the store closed first.”
***
After the shooting yesterday, Maggie had decided to close the store until further notice. Before then, she thought Manuel was only trying to scare her and wasn’t really a danger to her employees. Now that his intentions were clear, she needed to think of the safety of everyone around her.
She called Stephanie, and together they made a list of everything that would need to be done.
“Okay,” Steph said. “I’ll give all the animals extra food and water, make a sign for the front door, grab the boarding schedule so I can work out other arrangements for anyone scheduled to board with us soon, and let all the employees know not to come in until further notice. Anything else?”
“What about the dogs that are there now?”
