AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I glanced around, not wanting to offend anyone in my new hometown any more than I might already have done. "This is a strange little place."
"Well, it's home now," April told me. "Guess you'd better develop a taste for Old Bay seasoning." She gazed around us, and I did the same, noticing for the first time that Old Bay was featured prominently in the décor of the little restaurant, with big spice box replicas swinging from the ceiling and old fashioned prints with Old Bay ads in them on the walls.
"Have I ever had Old Bay before?" I wondered aloud.
She shrugged. "I don't know if I have." She pulled her phone from her bag and tapped the screen a few times. "It's a blend. Paprika, chili powder, celery salt, mustard…"
"That's a lot of things," I said.
"That's only like half of what's in there."
"Howdy folks, I'm Jeff," said a voice from beside the table, interrupting the discussion of Maryland's favorite spice blend. "Can I bring you a punch bowl or a bucket of Old Bay fries to get started?" Jeff wore an apron with a crab on it that readGet Crabs at the Shackin bold letters. He had longish blond hair and bounced a bit as he spoke, as if he’d paused mid-run to help them.
We exchanged an amused look. "A punch bowl?" April asked, picking up her menu again, probably to see if she could figure out what that was.
"One punch bowl, coming right up." Jeff said.
"Better make it two," I told Jeff, wondering what we’d just ordered. "And the bucket sounds perfect."
"Bowls and bucket coming right up!" Jeff practically sang, and wandered away to the next table.
"Oh god, what did we just order?" April asked, still scanning the menu.
"I guess we'll find out."
And we did. A punch bowl, according to the menu, was intended to be shared among two or more people, and had every alcohol known to man (including the local distillery's famous moonshine) in it. The drinks were literal punch bowls, maybe a little smaller than what you'd find on the central table at a garden party, and Jeff set one in front of each of them, along with a very long straw.
“Okay then,” April said, shooting me a smile before she wrapped her pretty pink lips around the end of her long straw. My mind drifted as I watched, and I had a sudden urge to get April alone, to kiss her until that pretty pink gloss was gone. I sipped my own drink, trying to maintain control of my racing mind.
The fries did come in a bucket, and they were liberally doused in Old Bay, which I decided I liked. “Kind of spicy, kind of salty,” I said, narrowing my gaze at the long spice-covered fry I held. April wrinkled her nose after her first bite.
“Check Old Bay off the list of things I need to try in life,” she said.
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s too confused for a spice,” she said, still making that adorable face.
“It’s a blend,” I suggested.
“I’m a simple girl, I guess.” April said this innocently enough, but suddenly everything she said and did struck me as intensely suggestive. I was thankful when Jeff came back to take our crab cake order, breaking the odd sexual tension that I thought might be only in my mind.
"This might actually kill me," April said, after taking a long sip of her punch.
"Do you want something else?" I asked as April stared into the huge drink.
"I don't back down from a challenge," she told me, her voice taking on an indignant tone.
"That right?" I asked, liking the fire in her eyes and remembering her determination the first day she'd come to my house.
She paused, tilting her head to one side and looking at me through narrowed eyes. “It is,” she said. "So are we going to talk about the contract or not?"
The contract. The show. Right. That was why we’d come to dinner. "Yeah. We should." I already knew I was going to say yes. But I didn't want to give April a reason to say good night. Sitting here, across from this beautiful woman, was the first time in months that I’d felt like myself and not some shell of the guy I once was.
"Okay," she said.
"After dinner," I suggested.
April sighed and crossed her arms, but a tiny smile lifted one side of her mouth. "Which way are you leaning, Callan? Can you at least give me a hint?"
