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As she turned to go, his voice stopped her. “Will you join me?”
“I don’t . . .”
“Please? I won’t bite. I promise.”
Beth chuckled. “I thought you preferred being the bite-e.”
Almost instantly, she started to blush. Why in the world had she said that?
Drew glanced down, and then back up to meet her gaze. “Touché.”
Their eyes locked for several moments before Beth lowered herself into the chair beside Drew. “Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have—”
“It’s all right. Besides, it’s the truth. At least, I think it is.”
Drew picked up the blueberry muffin and took a large bite. While he chewed, Beth was drawn to how his throat moved as he swallowed. His skin was smooth. He’d shaved before he came.
She lowered her gaze to the T-shirt he was wearing where it was pulled tight against his muscles. For some reason, Beth was having trouble looking away.
“Wow. This is amazing.” His exclamation roused her from her thoughts.
Beth felt the blood rushing to her cheeks again. “Thank you.”
He took another bite, chewed, and then took a drink of his coffee. “Do you mind if I ask you something?”
She had no idea what he wanted to know, but given the gratitude she was feeling, Beth figured she’d take a chance. “All right.”
“Is it me, personally, that you don’t want to date, or is it men in general? Because of what happened, I mean.”
Looking down at where she had her hands clasped on the table, Beth thought about how she should answer. If she told him it was only him, she was fairly positive he would go on his way and not bother her anymore. But could she do that? As much as she didn’t want to date anyone at the moment, Drew had revived something in her she thought was dead.
Taking a deep breath, Beth glanced up. “It’s not just you.”
He nodded and took another bite.
As Drew was tearing into his second muffin, the timer she had attached to her apron went off. “I need to go check on something in the kitchen.”
“I’ll let Tommy know if I need anything. Thank you again for breakfast.”
“You’re welcome.” As she stood to go, Beth felt reluctant to leave. It made no sense, and it certainly wasn’t what she wanted. Too bad her mind and body weren’t on the same page.
Forcing her legs to move, she hurried into the kitchen, and leaned back against the wall. She needed to get a hold of herself. He was only a man, and other than him being a firefighter and a sub, she knew very little about him. Getting too involved could land her in a world of hurt. Again. She couldn’t let that happen.
Her secondary timer went off on the oven, and Beth rushed over to remove the bread before it burned. She didn’t know what she was going to do about Drew. She really didn’t.
A little after noon the next day, things became even more complicated when a man showed up with a bouquet of spring flowers for her. The flowers were beautiful. Simple, yet lovely.
“Who are they from?” Tommy asked as he followed her into the back.
“I don’t know.” It was true. She didn’t know. She hadn’t dared look at the card yet. That didn’t mean she wasn’t ninety-nine percent sure.
Tommy huffed. “Well, open the card already. The suspense is killing me.”
She laughed. “It’s killing you?”
“Yes.”
Beth shook her head and plucked the card from where it was nestled in some baby’s breath. “Well, I don’t want you falling dead on my kitchen floor, so . . .”
