Page 2 of Fragile Heart

“I can’t work his table. No way.” I shake my head.

“You have to, babe. He’s in your section.”

I peek back over the counter to confirm that he is, in fact, sitting in my section. Damn it.

“Oh, no. Can you take the table? Please, please, please?” I beg.

“Absolutely not. You can totally do this. Just take a deep breath and walk your cute butt over there to take his order. You’ve been working here for four years. You’ve taken a ridiculous amount of orders. This is nothing new. Just pretend he’s notTheHudson Porter.”

“How exactly do I pretend he’s not him?” I ask, my hands gesturing toward his general vicinity.

“He’s got a hat on,” she says like that helps anything.

“Uh, you recognized him as soon as he walked in the door.”

“Yeah, well, he’s kind of hard to miss.” She’s not wrong. He’s tall, well over half a foot taller than me, and I’m five foot four. He’s clearly trying to hide with his hat, but you can’t miss the defined jawline and pouty lips. It’s a shame I can’t see his eyes from here because I know from watching him in movies that they’re a beautiful shade of blue.

I take a breath. “Ok, I can do this. He’s just a person. It’s just an order. No big deal.”

“Exactly,” Holly confirms. We both stand up. I hope he didn’t see us duck behind the counter when he sat down. I’m going to assume he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary because he seems to be making it a point not to notice his surroundings. His head hasn’t lifted from the menu since he sat down.

I walk toward his table, only looking back at Holly once for assurance. She hits me with a smile and a double thumbs up.

I walk up to Hudson’s table, but he doesn’t look at me.

“Good morning,” I say cheerily. He still doesn’t respond, so I keep going. “What can I get you to drink?”

“Coffee.” His voice is rough, dark almost. Not at all what I was expecting.

“Sure. We’ve got lots of that.” Oh my God. Really, Quinn? This is a diner. I’m sure he knows we have a lot of coffee. “Are you ready to order, or do you need a minute?”

“Need a minute.” Ok, so he’s not a fan of full sentences. Maybe he’s not a morning person.

“Ok. No problem. I’ll get that coffee for ya. Let me know if you need any recommendations on the food. I know it’s a big menu.” He grunts, and I take that as my cue to leave.

I turn on my heels and immediately lock eyes with Holly. She bites her lip to hold back her laugh at seeing my bugged-out eyes. I just spoke to Hudson Porter. He spoke to me! Ok, he didn’t say much, but I’ll still take it.

I see the front door open and turn to greet one of our regulars. “Morning, Mr. Stevens.”

The older man smiles at me. “Good morning, Quinn. I always love when you work the breakfast shift.”

“You want your regular?” I ask him. Every morning except Sunday, Mr. Stevens comes into the diner and orders the same thing. During the week, he gets two eggs over easy, sausage, and toast. On Saturdays, he gets scrambled eggs and a short stack of pancakes. He’s a creature of habit and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

“Yes, please.”

“Coming right up.” He takes a seat at the counter, and Holly pours him a cup of coffee while I enter his order into the POS right after I add Hudson’s coffee.

I grab a mug and pour a steaming cup of coffee for Hudson. I walk back over to his booth, noticing he still hasn’t lifted his eyes from the menu. It’s a big menu, but notthatbig. I sit the cup down on the table. “You ready to order?”

His head moves only slightly, making me think he nodded in response to my question. But if I wasn’t intently staring at the hat on his head, I would’ve missed the movement altogether.

“Southwest omelet.” I have my notepad ready to take his order, but it’s so simple that I don’t even bother.

“Oh, good choice. It’s one of the best omelets on the menu.” I don’t know why I said that. He probably doesn’t care about my opinion. I’m just a friendly person. Holly always jokes that I can make a new friend everywhere we go, which is probably true. I don’t have it in me to be mean or stand-offish. I firmly believe that being friendly can turn someone’s day around completely.

Hudson slowly lifts his head to look at me. My smile almost falters when his baby blue eyes finally land on mine.Almost.But I keep it together, and my smile remains firmly planted on my face.

After a beat too long with neither of us saying anything, I finally give up on our staring contest. “Ok, I’ll get that ordered up for you. I’ll come check on you in a sec, and my name’s Quinn if you need anything.”

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