Page 50 of 7 Days and 7 Nights

JoBeth slipped her pencil back out from behind her ear and held it poised above her pad. “What’ll it be?”

“I guess I’ll have a small house salad to start. Oh, and some cornbread. I may order a meal a little later.”

“Fine.” JoBeth turned on her heel and left. He watched her work her tables, taking full advantage of the chance to observe her in action. She was small and compact with lots of interesting curves that he’d spent long hours exploring. He watched her flash her sassy smile at the elderly McCauleys and heard her laughter float back across the diner as she took someone else’s order. She had so much life and enthusiasm—but evidently no desire to share either with him at the moment.

Dawg took a long sip of his tea and reflected that his whole life had turned damned empty since she’d moved out. There wasn’t a thing he could think of that felt the same.

JoBeth placed his salad in front of him and slid the basket of cornbread onto the middle of the table. A bowl of butter pats clattered next to it. In a minute she’d be gone.

“Nicky and the other boys all asked me to say hello to you,” he got out in a rush.

“Oh.” She’d already turned to leave but stopped at the mention of the inner-city baseball team he coached. “Did you have practice?”

“Yeah. We had the batting cage for an hour and then we played a practice game against Ron Parker’s team yesterday afternoon.”

“How’d that turn out?”

“They creamed us. Stomped us into the dirt.”

JoBeth smiled. The fact that she so obviously didn’t want to made it that much sweeter. “Did Jamal get a hit?”

“Almost. I just can’t convince the kid to swing unless the pitch is exactly where he wants it."

She smiled again and her eyes warmed by several degrees. “Bet he’s sorry his coach played for the Falcons instead of the Braves. Did you take that knee pad I bought you so you could get down into his strike zone?”

Dawg congratulated himself on finding the one topic guaranteed to snag JoBeth’s interest. As unofficial team mom and number one fan, JoBeth had rarely missed a Fuller Park Tornadoes game.

“The boy has about a one-foot strike zone. He’s like you, JoBeth, small and scrappy. I like that in a woman.”

“Hmmph. You didn’t seem to have a problem with big and blonde the other night.” The thawing process screeched to a halt and JoBeth whirled to leave.

Dawg’s knees might have been shot, but there was nothing wrong with his reflexes. His hand snaked out to wrap around her wrist and twirl her back to face him.

“You know I was only trying to make you jealous.”

She cocked her head and waited for him to continue.

“Of course, I know you didn’t fall for it. You did leave both of us alive.”

JoBeth tapped a foot in a sign of impatience, but he knew he had her full attention.

“Aw hell, JoBeth. I’m not interested in Emmylou or anyone else. You do know that, don’t you?”

“Hmmph,” was all she said, but he could tell she was pleased. She snatched her hand away and headed for a nearby table, but her movements were noticeably looser and her shoulders didn’t seem so stiff.

He reached for a warm piece of cornbread, broke it open, and drenched it with butter. As he munched on his salad, he propped the menu in front of him and began to study the possibilities. It was a good thing he hadn’t eaten much today. If he was going to hold on to his table until closing time, he had a hell of a lot of food ahead of him.

???

Matt moved around the kitchen preparing for the birthday feast while Olivia lounged on the sofa. She’d grumped around for a good hour or so after her show, but finally joined him for two episodes ofThe Bachelorette,and of all things, Oprah’s special with Prince Harry and Meghan. Matt getting sucked into reality dating shows was one thing, but the fact that he was also a royal watcher was surprising, to say the least.

“I’ve always liked Oprah.”

“Hmm?” Matt looked up from the duck breast medallions he was preparing, to find Olivia contemplating him from the couch.

“I used to make fun of the TV talk shows. I never really had the time, and most of the talk show hosts are really just there to entertain, you know?”

“Which bothers you.”

---