Page 12 of Cheese Daddy

Giving himself a shake, he straightened up and found Daniel and several of his regulars watching him with obvious amusement.

“Ooooh,” Daniel said and started singing. “Owen and Bree, sitting in a tree—”

“Shut up,” Owen replied, grabbing a piece of bread and throwing it at him. “Get back to the stove.”

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”

“You know I write your paycheck, right?”

“Don’t worry Daniel, we’ll riot if he fires you,” Annie, one of Owen’s regulars, called out.

“Whose side are you on?”

“Yours, obviously. You’d be lost without Daniel.”

“You tell him, Annie.” Daniel winked at her, which made her laugh. There were no real flirtatious vibes there, considering Annie was happily married to her wife, who she’d brought by the truck on several occasions for lunch.

“How about you just tell me what you want to eat today, Annie,” Owen admonished.

Things got back to business pretty quickly, but his eyes kept straying over to where Bree, Rita, and Eden were sitting and eating, as close to the heat lamp as they could get. During the winter, a lot of people grabbed their lunch and took it back to the office, but those three didn't work at the same place.

Last year, they hadn’t had the heaters. Marcus had gotten them after he’d walked by earlier in the winter and seen the three women shivering and eating. They were stubborn enough to keep coming to the trucks. Despite the weather and Andres urging them to go to an indoor venue, they’d kept coming once a week. Now that there were heating lamps, a few more people stuck around to eat, and the women were coming more like twice a week.

As long as they were keeping warm, Owen was happy to see them.

* * *

Bree

“He gave me an extra pickle!” It was the first thing Bree saw when she opened her sandwich box. One of the things she really liked about Owen’s truck was the sandwiches always came with a pickle and the boxes he used had a separate space for them so the juice didn’t soak into the bread. Right next to her two pickles was the promised dipping sauce.

“Ooooh, think he’s giving you hints about tonight?” Eden asked, leaning over to look.

“Oh my God, stop,” Bree said, elbowing her friend away. She shivered as a cold blast of wind whipped through them.

The heating lamps did a great job, but it was still cold, and the wind always made its presence felt. Still, she was glad for the lamps. They probably would have had to give up on coming out to the food trucks by now. It was too far to come to just pick up food and go back to the office, and the whole point of coming out here was to see her both of her friends at the same time.

“You guys are going ice skating, right?”

“Yeah, at that temporary rink that set up in the town center.” In the summer, that area boasted a fountain pad kids could play on, but they covered it up and put an ice rink for the winter. She was excited. She hadn’t been skating since she was a kid. Hadn’t been very good at it then, but that was okay. Tonight was about getting to see Owen and doing something with him, not showing off.

“I don’t think he’s going to be giving her his pickle at an ice-skating rink,” Rita said. “Too cold.”

“Yeah, shrinkage is a buzzkill.” Eden laughed before shoving another bite of taco in her mouth.

Shaking her head, Bree dipped the corner of her sandwich into the gravy container and took a bite. Holy crap, that was good. She loved it when Owen had a new special. Sure, it was a few months past the time for Thanksgiving, but for some reason, that had made her want this particular one more. She hadn’t tried it in November, and now it felt like a special treat.

Making a happy noise, she found her gaze drifting back over to where he was talking to customers through the truck window. Eden followed her gaze.

“He is pretty hot, isn’t he?” she asked, elbowing Bree.

“He is. So is Andres. So is Marcus.” Bree gave Eden a look. “All three of them look like movie stars. It’s a little unsettling.”

“Oh, please, you’re gorgeous. Stop fishing for compliments.” No one could say Eden wasn’t direct.

“The most important thing is that Owen thinks you’re gorgeous. I’m so glad you two are going out. He’s been crushing on you forever,” Rita said.

Bree blinked in surprise. “Really?”

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