Page 8 of Luck Be a Genie

He set his menu down, and as we waited for the waitress to come and take our orders, we chatted about some cases he had just finished up. He wasn’t supposed to talk about them with others, but technically I had a higher level of clearance than he did. I had to, because Finn was my boss, and I saw everything that came across his desk and then some.

The waitress came and took our orders. I ordered a side of marinara to dip my grilled chicken sandwich in, and Nick, weirdly, ordered a second marinara, even though he was getting a steak and side salad. Nick took pretty good care of himself, even down to eating fairly decently.

I didn’t.

Back in December, when I was staying with Nick because coyotes were after Dice, Nick discovered I ate like a teenager. Instead of teasing me, or trying to change me, he'd simply refilled my designated cupboard with Hot Cheetos and chocolate Hostess doughnuts every week.

Life was hard enough. I shuddered to think how bad it would be without my Cheetos and doughnuts.

“Here comes our food.” Our server delivered Nick’s plate first, then set my plate down in front of me, but before I could properly blink and process, I was wearing red marinara sauce down the front of my dress.

The server gasped.

The whole area around our table went suddenly quiet, probably waiting for me to explode. I didn’t though. I couldn’t even count the amount of times this had happened to me.

“It’s okay,” I said, taking the extra napkins from the center of the table, and dabbing at the sauce. “It’s not your fault.”

“I’m so, sooo sorry,” the young woman said in a panicked voice. “I don’t know what happened. It was suddenly just flying out of my hands.”

Nick pulled his man bag to the front of him, and one by one handed me things. First, a wet wipe to clean the sticky off my chin and neck. Then, a stain remover wipe to dab at the stain on my dress. Then he slid the marinara he’d ordered to my side of the table, all without saying a thing.

I was getting choked up again, a perilously common thing around Nick.

Was his whole man bag for me?

And the marinara? He’d ordered it as a backup for me, just in case.

I had to clamp down tightly on my emotions or I was going to either cry or jump across the table and passionately make out with him. Since neither was appropriate in our current location, and one of those was dangerous to my heart, I closed my eyes until I had control, then opened them to find that Nick’s gaze had never left me.

“You okay?” he asked softly.

After I’d failed to blow up, people had gone back to their own meals, but I still appreciated that he tried to keep his question quiet. It was never fun being in the spotlight because of my mishaps.

I nodded. It was all I could do. If I spoke, I’d lose the tenuous control I had over myself.

“Can I get you a free dessert when you’re finished with your meal?” our waitress asked meekly.

Nick focused on the distressed waitress. “It’s okay, really. We don’t need a free dessert. But thank you. We will take one of every dessert, though.”

She blinked in surprise, but wrote it up on her tablet, and, after another apology to me for the mess, scooted off to make our desserts happen.

“One of everything?”

He grinned. “I’m in the mood for something sweet, and I can’t have you because you keep turning me down.”

I could feel my face flush as people looked over at us again. A couple women a few tables over looked at Nick, then me, then back to Nick, then back to me with expressions that clearly doubted my sanity.

I sometimes doubted my sanity too.

“I can handle the chaos, Lucky,” Nick said softly. “I wish you’d give me a chance. I know you’re worried you’ll ruin my life, but all I want is a life with you.”

I shook my head. “You can’t know that, Nick. You’ve spent months around me. You don’t know what it’s like to be around me day after day, year after year.”

He sighed. “You’re right. I don’t. But I do know that if you give me a chance, I wouldn’t sit around moping when life gets a little chaotic at times. I’d count my lucky stars and spend every minute loving you to the best of my ability every day for the rest of our lives.”

I sniffed a hiccuping laugh, then gave up trying to eat my grilled chicken, and instead picked at my fries. “Your lucky stars?”

He laughed, and gently reached for my hand. He could probably feel that it was trembling, but gallantly didn’t comment on it. “Please give me a chance. Save my brothers from my whining. I promise to spoil you for the rest of your life, and I’ll never regret being with you.”