Page 102 of Lorenzo & Lily

Her fingers toyed with the frayed edges of the menus she held. “Um, no. I hadn’t actually. I was just making a comment about how awful the booths are to sit in.”

Shit. He’d outed himself without meaning to.

Her brows furrowed. “I didn’t notice any disability. I’m sorry.”

“Usually, that’s the first thing people notice.” He wasn’t sure why he said it. Perhaps because he’d been defined by his disability for so long, he wasn’t sure how to act when it wasn’t the main topic of discussion.

Her face fell and he felt like an ass for making her feel bad. “I didn’t. I’m sorry. I can just be so clueless sometimes. I didn’t mean to offend you or anything. I mean, when you walked in I just saw your chest, which is really broad, like really, really broad. And then I saw your hips, and decided I should stop looking down, so then I started looking up, and then I saw your lips and your eyes and…shit!”

She squeaked – actually squeaked – and he found it fucking cute.

She clapped a hand over her mouth and he wasn’t sure she took a breath for several long seconds. Her hand fell away. “I’m just, um, oh, I’m sorry. I’ll shut up. And hide. Hiding’s good. Running away, also an option.”

It finally dawned on him. She was nervous around him, and not because he was disabled or Hispanic, but because she was attracted to him.

It may have been a while since he’d been on the dating scene, but he remembered how women had shown interest in him. Some came on strong and bold, some gave him furtive glances but never approached. Some – like her – might speak, but end up saying things that were embarrassing yet meant well.

Her fumbled words did more for his self-confidence that most anything else had the last few months. “It’s all right, don’t worry about it. I’m flattered, really. And I’m certainly not offended you didn’t notice my disability first.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

He heard a bottle thump on the bar and they both looked over. Hector saw a beefy man watching her and paying him little attention. She hugged the menus closer to her.

Hector gave him a once over and did not get a good vibe from him – it was possessive to an extreme, controlling.

Hector instantly hated him.

She turned quickly back to Hector. “I’m sorry. Really sorry. You won’t, um, mention to anyone I made an idiot of myself, will you?”

He crossed his arms over his chest and ignored her question. “Who is that guy?”

Her body drooped in resignation, and her voice was wooden when she spoke. “He’s my manager. Did you want to speak to him about what I said?”

“Fuck, no.”

She jerked back and her eyes went wide. “You don’t?”

“No. Though I do want to speak to him about why his employee is afraid of him.”

She sucked in a breath. “I’m not – We’re not – It’s fine. Everything’s fine.”

“Millie,” the jerk behind the bar yelled.

She jerked again. “Sorry, I’ve got to get back to work. Feel free to take the booth, or there’s an empty table over there, too. Captain won’t mind if you take a table, really.” She hurried over to the bar, and Hector noticed her ass may have been on the flat side, but it was still sexy as hell, especially in the jeans she wore.

He kept an eye on her as he ambled over to the booth. The asshole manager was talking to her, and the more he talked, the more she shrunk into herself. He could see it with his own fucking eyes and he hated it. No one deserved to be treated like shit. He watched her until she walked away balancing a tray laden with drinks and the menus tucked under her arm.

How many times had he had been demeaned because of his disability? Because of his heritage? Because of some dumbass reason someone made up? It didn’t matter that he was a veteran, that he’d made this country his home. People still thought he wasn’t worth much.

With some difficultly, he managed to slide into the booth. The booths were uncomfortably small; even if he’d had two fully working legs, he still would have had difficulty sitting down.

He saw her walking his way and noticed the manager kept an eye on her, too.

“Sorry, again.”

“Stop apologizing. I didn’t take offense, and you didn’t say anything hurtful.” Before his injury, he’d never paid much attention to the girls like her. He’d never known that awkward could be endearing.

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