Page 36 of Starfish and Coffee
“I’m solving a problem,” Matt told her simply, leaving it unsaid that he was an expert at dealing with this particular problem.
Matt walked up to his mother, who had watched him make his way to the dining room. Her eyes were wide and stunned as her gaze flitted over him in his jeans and T-shirt with a faded black apron tied around his waist. She hadn’t expected him to show his face in front of her friends, which just proved Alex knew him better than his own mother did. Matt never had a problem with honesty, and he certainly wasn’t ashamed to be spending the year working at Frank’s. He couldn’t give a shit what his mother’s friends thought of him.
He placed the plate in front of her with a glare. “Send it back one more time, and there’ll beadded ingredients.”
The entire table gasped, and his mother’s light eyes narrowed to furious slits. “Matthew,” she snapped. “You’re being rude in front of my friends. Apologize.”
“Right after you go apologize to my friends. You were rude first,” he reminded her before he turned around and held up the other plate. “Who else had a problem with my cooking?”
That part was a lie. Alex had made it, but Matt did it for dramatic effect. If there was one thing his mother had taught him in spades, it was how to use dramatic effect to his advantage.
Laura Hastings raised her hand, her cheeks coloring in embarrassment. “I didn’t know you learned to cook.”
“Not very well, apparently,” Matt said as he walked around the table and put the plate in front of the young debutant who’d been trying for four years to get Matt’s attention. “You sent it back, remember?”
“I’m sure it was good the first time. I hadn’t tasted it.” She gave him a wan smile as she nervously tucked some stray long blonde strands behind her ears. “Your mama assured me it needed to go back, and I listened.”
“A blind follower.” Matt was wholly unimpressed. “Charming, Laura.”
“Well, I never.” Laura’s mother huffed next to her. “These vagrants are teaching you bad manners, Matthew.”
Matt turned to Bethany Hastings with narrowed eyes. “Vagrants are beggars who depend on the hard work of others to sustain them. Seems to me like the only vagrants in here are ya’ll—unless one of you has gotten a real job, and I hadn’t heard about it.”
Every woman at the table made a sound of shocked disgust as Matt walked back over to his mother.
“I’d recommend against bringing your ladies in here to do your dirty work next time,” he told his mother and then bent down to speak low enough so only she could hear him. “And I suggest you leave a sizeable tip for the trouble you caused, or I’m going to start voicing my opinions on a whole host of topics you don’t like to talk about. Trust me, Mama, you really don’t want that to happen.”
Matt turned around and left his mother stuttering and huffing in fury. When he walked into the kitchen, Frank followed him, his broad chest puffed out indignantly.
“What the hell were you thinking going to the front of the house, Tarrington?” Frank barked in disbelief. “You can’t just go off and run your mouth to the customers. Especially those kind of customers.”
“It’s his mother,” Alex said with a stunned look. “Don’t you know who Cecilia Tarrington is?”
“Oh.” Frank’s shoulders slumped, as if he’d forgotten exactly who Matt was and where he’d come from at some point over the past month. “Was it your idea for them to meet up here?”
“No.” Matt laughed at the idea. “She came in here to fuck with me.”
“Well, damn.” Frank seemed to deflate a little. “We could’ve used the steady business. You don’t think they’d be interested in using us as meeting place?”
Matt shook his head, feeling a pang of pity for Frank. Even if he was an asshole, he was in way over his head with the restaurant, and the stress of it was obviously getting to him. The entire place was mismanaged to the point that Matt had considered sitting down with him and offering some business advice, but he knew it wouldn’t be welcomed.
When Frank went back to work the register, Matt shared a long look with Alex. The two of them stood there in silence for the span of several seconds before Alex turned back to the flattop and said, “You scare me, Matty.”
“Why?” Matt asked, not expecting that sort of reaction.
“You’re just too bold.” Alex turned back to give him another long look of concern. “I worry one day you’re gonna open your mouth to the wrong person and ruin both our lives.”
“I wouldn’t say anything without talking to you first,” Matt said with a glare. “I know you’re private. I wouldn’t betray you like that.”
“I hope not.” Alex sighed. “For both our sakes.”
* * * *
The shift from hell was over, and Alex was still working. This time he was straddled over Holly on the couch, rubbing oily hands over her bare back, trying to work out the knots.
“Mmm, God, right there.” She let out a low groan of pained pleasure. “I think I love you.”
“You betterknowyou love me,” Alex countered as he rubbed his thumb along the curve of her shoulder blade. “I’m tired too. I haven’t been this fucking tense in ages.”
