Page 10 (1/2)

"I don’t care"

Matt sighed and turned to Amy "Make it two of the usual"

"His usual," Aer, fries, non-stop refills of Dr Pepper, and a piece of pie And by piece, I mean a quarter of an entire pie You up for all that?"

Riley’s mouth had fallen open, but she nodded

Amy went back to the kitchen Jan was there with Henry, their cook Henry was ten years younger than Jan and born and bred in Lucky Harbor He’d been a trucker for two decades before going to culinary school in Seattle He clai had healed his soul It certainly had healed Eat Me, which had been floundering since they’d lost their last cook, Tara Daniels, to the Lucky Harbor B&B

Jan was at the pie case dividing the only re half of apple pie into three pieces Amy stuck Matt’s order into Henry’s order wheel, then reached in past Jan and snagged the biggest piece of pie

"Hey," Jan said "I was going to serve that piece"

"There’s still two left"

"Yeah, but you took the biggest one"

"It’s for Matt," Arabbed the second-to-last piece as well "And this is for the girl who’s with hiest one?"

"Because you cut it uneven"

"Yes, but why is his piece the biggest?"

"He tips the best," A her thigh in rare amusement Henry joined her

"Hey," Amy said, insulted, "it’s true" Well, at least partially true Matt did tip better than any of her customers "He likes the pie"

"Girl," Jan said, "he likes you"

Aht her a ridiculous shiver of pleasure This was immediately followed by denial Matt didn’t know her, not really Sure, he was attracted to her She got that, loud and clear And that was 100 percent reciprocated But as for hiht of her before, so it was disconcerting to suddenly realize she cared now She set the pieces of pie aside, pointed at Jan to leave them alone, then made two dinner salads

"There aren’t any salads on his order," Jan said

"What, you writing a book tonight?"

Jan cocked a brow

"The girl’s a runaway She needs greens," Amy said

"Hey, I don’t care if she’s the president of the United States So for those salads"

"You won’t be shorted," Aht the salads to Matt’s table

The expression on his face was priceless as he stared down at the plate, looking as ifsour "I don’t like salads," he finally said

"Why not?" Areen I don’t like anything green"

"Me either," Riley said, and pushed her plate away

Amy put her hands on her hps and faced Matt "Salads are healthy And," she added with a ful look and a hitch of her chin towards Riley, "for people who aren’t eating regular meals every day, they can be a critical addition to a diet"

Matt stared up at her, six feet plus of pure testosterone She knew that, in general, he did as he wanted, and she figured he’d been doing so for a da time But he’d asked for her help, and even if he hadn’t, she wanted this girl to eat a frigging salad The silent battle of wills lasted for about five seconds, and then Matt gave a sigh, picked up his fork, and stabbed at the lettuce with little enthusias open mouthed at Matt, clearly shocked that he’d caved, that he was going to eat the salad just because Amy had asked Or told

"You, too," Matt said to Riley, jabbing his fork in the direction of the girl’s salad

"But--"

"No buts," Matt said "A what she asks or it’s like beating your head against a brick wall"

Ao

Riley sized her up for a beat and then blew out an exaggerated breath that spoke volu told what to do Still, she began eating her salad

Satisfied, Arateful to take soht off her feet for athe salad like she hadn’t eaten in days And hell, maybe she hadn’t "So where are you froht helpful "You enjoy thebite of lettuce She was carefully avoiding the cucumbers as if they were poisonous snakes

So was Matt

"I’ to, since I don’t have to work until late afternoon," A did you say you were ca down "I didn’t say"

Aaze, which arm and fixed on her She didn’t want to think about why that made her feel warm in return, so she left them and went back to the kitchen When the food was ready, she brought out the order, setting down Riley’s plate first "You er and fries with vigor