Page 2 of Hers to Hold
The number of pickup orders was staggering. Kady could only imagine the hours Olivia had spent in the kitchen the night before and this morning. Not to mention the vast variety of pastries and other food items they sold. They not only catered breakfast, but a full lunch as well. Soups paired with specialty breads, sandwiches, salads, and an array of fruit among other dishes.This place has to be staffed twenty-four hours a day.
A child shrieked, causing Kady to jump. The box in her hand tumbled to the ground.Oh, no!
She thought she was getting ahead by moving a few of the early orders out front to be within hands reach.
And now one was on the ground.
She gingerly picked up the box and looked at the order number scribbled by the packer in the top right hand corner. Although equipped with the latest technology to handle orders, Kady thought it a nice touch to have the number and a couple of hearts doodled on the boxes. It gave a sense that the goods were made and boxed with care.
Care she completely demolished with the shout of a child likely experiencing the ecstasy of a well-made cupcake.
“Number thirteen,” she breathed.
“That’s unlucky.”
Kady raised her eyes to the man to whom the deep voice belonged. Despite the array of clatter in the shop, when his struck her clear, it dammed the others to a consider distance.
Her line of sight trailed up a body clothed in jeans and a black polo shirt with a company label on it. Her eyes traveled the corners of a scruffy square jaw to his straight nose, finally settling on the most beautiful pair of golden-brown eyes she’d ever seen.
“I think that was my order.”
Kady’s tongued moved awkwardly around her mouth, like a baby trying to speak for the first time. “I…”
The man smiled easily, further transfixing her. “You?”
Someone bumped her from behind, sending her into the counter in front. Warm hands gripped her upper arms, steadying her. Now she was inches from his mouth. It moved, but Kady didn’t hear a thing. In the next moment, it smiled relaxing Kady.
She could stare at it forever.
But then, she couldn’t stop the kid who darted past her, his mischievous laugh signaling his victory.
Chapter 2
“Hold that thought,” the woman said as she pulled herself from his grasp and sprinted after the kid.
If she only knew what thought she was asking him to hold. She might snatch it from him.
Wesley Solo had never seen her working in Kat’s shop before today. Was she new? Had to be because he was in here every other day to pick up orders for the guys at the worksite. Or maybe she usually worked on the days when Drew grabbed their order.
Either way, she looked completely overwhelmed by her duties. He couldn’t blame her. Today was more crowded than usual, now that Kat had introduced a few new items to the menu. He hadn’t expected the horde to descend on her shop. But it was Monday.
The server wrangled the kid, who protested and demanded to go to the back and see the baker. She ushered the kid from behind the counter and passed the child off to an apologetic mother, who promised to leash her kid the next time she came into the shop. Wes shook his head at the comment. Kids didn’t need to be leashed. He couldn’t imagine putting one on his daughter.
The little boy easily slipped from his mother’s grasp and maneuvered effortlessly through the crowd.
Well, maybe a leash was entirely appropriate for this child.
Wes turned his gaze back to the server whose generous brown eyes found his. Her face twisted in both shame and embarrassment. His heart sympathetically jumped in his chest. He didn’t care about the order. He knew the owner of the bakery. She probably had a secret stash somewhere in the kitchen especially made for her husband.
He opened his mouth when he heard it shatter.
Again he was in Afghanistan, surrounded by jagged mountain peaks, the wind assault his team by constantly whipping up loose dirt from the earthy terrain. Bullets rang in his ears, drowning out the shout of orders from his commanding officer. They were pinned down in an abandoned village; a trap they didn’t see coming. Their intel had been wrong. Their source compromised. They’d expected resistance from the group, but not the size of the group.
More than fifty men were holed up in the town, just waiting for a small, unexacting contingent of troops to arrive for the slaughter. Wes’s company had fought their way to a small house with a roof, giving them high-ground footing for their more accurate shooters. A mile from the village, their sharpshooters picked people off who foolishly broke cover, but it wouldn’t be enough. They needed aerial support, and that was still a few minutes out.
Who was this woman and what was she doing here? Aid worker? Missionary? Her large brown eyes spoke of desperation and need, awakening a desire in him unlike any he’d ever felt before.
He had to protect her. He was the only who could.
