Page 5 of Dining for Love

Laughing to myself, I lean for my beer and take a deep swallow. If half-naked neighbors are part of the scenery, maybe it won’t be so bad around here, after all.

Chapter 3

Willa

ISLAM THE masher into the potatoes like a mad woman.

This entire town is obsessed, and I hate every second of it. Every customer for the past three days is all Officer Reid this and Officer Reid that, and comeonalready. Can they just let it go?

No. No, they cannot.

Which means he stays in my head, as well. I can’t shake thoughts of him. The way his muscles filled out that T-shirt. The way he smiled. The way he looked at me.

Ugh.

And it’s pointless. Someone like that won’t ever go for someone like me, and I’m flat-out pissed at myself for even thinking about him. There’s no use to it, so why,why, can’t I get him out of my head?

My potato mashing gets more and more insistent until Dad says he thinks I’m going to pull a muscle. “It’s food, Dad. It’s not like I’m deadlifting weights over here.”

Dad snorts and flips the burgers on the grill behind me.

Over at the counter, Tom raises his coffee, and Goldie movessmoothly to pour him some. “Have you seen our new officer yet, Goldie?”

Goldie shakes her head. “Sorry to say that I haven’t, Tom. More for you, Jerry?”

I keep my eyes on my work, grabbing a handful of cheddar cheese to fold into the mix.

“Thanks, Goldie,” comes Jerry’s voice. “What are we calling him? Officer Hubba-Hubba?”

I roll my eyes.

“Officer Mac?” offers Goldie.

“Not to be confused with Chief Mac,” Tom says.

I tune them out. I can’t believe the guy is my new neighbor. Worse: He saw me practicallynaked, in my absoluteworstunderwear. Not that I even really have good underwear, but still. These were the very worst.

The only bright spot is that he’s here for a short time. I won’t be facing an entire lifetime of mortification. Just…three months.

Three very,verylong months.

“Order in!” Goldie calls out and lays the new ticket in the window, then swivels away to continue working.

I grab the order. “Chicken club, grilled cheese, drop two fries.”

Dad repeats it back to me, and I shove the ticket into the wheeled holder above the window.

The amount of hijinks I have pulled in these last few days to hide from Reid is absolutely ridiculous. Yes: Hide. Because, of course, he’s been sprinting out of the house to go on a run when I’ve been trying to leave to open up the diner, leaving me to do a one-eighty to crouch behind Agatha’s car in the driveway. And, okay, maybe it’s fine to see him when I’m totally clothed, but I’m not great at making small talk. Especially when the person I’m supposed to be talking to is brain-meltingly hot and my stupid self can’t help but get all giddy every time I see him, like I’m a pitiful grade schooler.

And then, when I come home at night, there he is, not evenfifty feet from me, sipping on a beer like some…somepersonenjoying their backyard. Forcing me to speed walk past him with my face buried in my phone, pretending I don’t see him or hear him, when all I want to do is get inside and shower to get the diner smell off me immediately. Only now I’ve got to make sure the blinds are closed before stripping in my house like a normal human being.

Honestly, the least the man could do is be ugly. Is that too much to ask?

Apparently.

Goldie reappears in the window and hisses, “He’s here!”

“Who?” I know who. But for some reason, I need to pretend I don’t.

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