Page 40 of Scar

Scar couldn’t seemto take his eyes off Tally. He stood in the corner between her hallway and her kitchen, just staring. She was such a phenomenon. Unique and so easy to watch. She moved with such grace and confidence that Scar completely believed her when she said that she could seein her way.

Her voice was like a siren’s song. Even when she was yelling or being bossy, her words were music to his ears. He was torn between closing his eyes just to listen to her and never blinking again so he didn’t miss a moment of what she was doing.

They had arrived late to the restaurant. Scar didn’t know if the little boy he’d left a pair of sneakers for the day before had tried to show up or not. Scar had tracked him down to an alley two blocks down and left the food Tally had made for him there. He’d been distracted by trying on his new sneakers and hadn’t noticed Scar’s presence, but Scar stayed to watch him find and collect the food.

Scar was loath to let the boy run off after that. He was far too young to be alone on the streets, but if the boy was as skittish as Tally claimed, Scar knew it would take time to get him to trust Scar.

Bringing him more food would help.

Before Tally got things ready for her staff’s arrival, she made another to-go container. Without her needing to ask him, Scar had taken the box and gone searching for the boy. The restaurant had been opening for lunch by the time he found him down by the river. Scar had not approached him. Instead, he’d caught the boy’s eye, placed the food on the cement bleachers facing the Chattahoochee River, and then backed away. He stayed as the boy cautiously approached the food.

As soon as he had it in his hands, he’d run off. Scar hoped he didn’t throw away the napkin inside the box where Scar had hid a twenty dollar bill and had written Tally’s cell phone number.

Since being back at the restaurant, Scar had been in his shadowed corner…just watching Tally. He didn’t know how she did it in all the hustle and bustle, but every so often she would change the tenor of how she clicked her tongue, as if making it louder broadened her range, and she would find him still in the corner.

That little smile… Fuck, it was the same one that had appeared on her face that morning when he’d taken a bite of the omelet she’d made for him.

Scar hadn’t planned on sitting at her kitchen table, eating breakfast with her. He hadn’t even realized she was makinghimthe omelet until she’d placed the plate on the island next to the cup of coffee she’d also offered Scar. He’d caught the worry on her face as she looked away and the way she bit the inside of her bottom lip. It brought back the look of sadness he’d seen on her face the day before in her office after she’d discovered he hadn’t eaten the sandwich she’d made for him.

In that moment, Scar knew he would do anything and everything toneversee her that sad again. Then, when he’d taken his first bite of her omelet, and he’d seen that small smile on her lips, the way she tried and failed to hide it… Fuck, Scar would kill for that smile.

To see it across her kitchen now, knowing that she wassearchingfor him… Scar couldn’t describe it. He was entranced. He remained exactly where he was, just waiting for the next time she found him and her lips curved upward minutely.

When the other workers went on break, Tally made two plates with pasta and chicken with a light brown sauce. She headed towards him without hesitation. Scar stepped to the side, pressing himself back against the wall, to let her pass.

“Can you grab me a sparkling water and whatever it is you want? Oh, also we need two utensil sets please.”

He watched her continue down the hallway to her open office door. Once she was inside, he stepped into the kitchen to grab the utensil sets and then walked over to the reach-in fridge to grab her bottle of sparkling water. After a moment’s hesitation, Scar also grabbed himself a water bottle.

Since he’d eaten breakfast that morning with her, he wasn’t sure how much he’d be able to eat now. He didn’t want to disappoint her, but he also wasn’t used to eating so much or such rich food. He was still full from her two-egg omelet.

He didn’t know how to communicate that to her. Per Sissy, Scar had very expressive eyebrows, but that certainly didn’t help him now.

Entering her office, he saw Tally sitting behind her desk. “I swear, this place hasneverbeen this organized. I should hire you on as an office manager.”

Scar put her sparkling water on the desk. He thought about tapping the desk to show her where the bottle was, but Tally reached for it without hesitation. She truly was incredible. He put her utensil set down too.

Grabbing his plate that she’d made for him, Scar went to the wall next to the filing cabinet and sat on the floor.

“There’s a chair right there,” Tally pointed out to him. “Why are you sitting all the way over there on the floor?”

Scar looked down at the plate she’d prepared for him. It did smell good. The chicken was diced up in a thick and creamy sauce. He caught the scents of chili pepper, thyme, and oregano. Definitely garlic and basil too. The pasta was spaghettoni, which he knew from Jenna was a thicker version of the standard spaghetti noodle.

How did he get her to understand that simply being in the room with her, allowing her to acknowledge his presence, was like accomplishing a huge milestone for him?

Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Tally’s chef shirt was unbuttoned, revealing a white tank top underneath. She had her right hand across her chest, playing with the left shoulder strap of her tank. Was it itching her?

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk to me. I have a feeling my dad told younotto talk to me. He should have known better than to think you could sneak around without me noticing you were there. To be honest, you weren’t that hard to detect.” She winked at him and Scar nearly dropped his fork. “I know my dad worries and I hope you are tellinghim,at least, that I don’t need anyone’s help.”

The reminder about her father, who he was and the reason Scar was supposed to be in Atlanta, soured his stomach. He did put his fork down without having eaten any of the food. If only one of the VDMC dogs was here to eat it so Tally didn’t realize he hadn’t touched his plate. Sitting forward, Scar opened the water bottle he’d taken from her reach-in fridge and took a small sip of the cool liquid.

Tally was Alpha’s daughter. What the hell was he even doing in her office, trying to share a meal with her? He knew Alpha had gotten his message and was not making a move on Mount Grove, but that was a temporary solution. Alpha still wanted Scar and eventually his patience would run out.

Yet rather than getting more leverage on the man, Scar was sitting in his daughter’s office with a plate of pasta and chicken.

“Something changed just now. It’s like you’re worried about something. I won’t tell my dad I caught you sneaking around. I promise.”

Scar closed his eyes, looking away from her. Was this why she’d changed her attitude towards him? She thought that he was a, what, bodyguard sent by her father? She couldn’t be further from the truth. At least she didn’t think he was there to kill her anymore or that he worked for Gordon Tremont.

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