Relocation - Part Two

[churbooseanon]

And we finally get the entrance of our third main character, and a whole swath of side characters. I hope they entertain you as much while you’re reading as they did me while I was writing.

Relocation - Part Two

“I’m gonna do it.”

“I do not believe it would be the best idea for you to…”

“I’m gonna do it.”

“Shaun, please, for once I would like to have my coffee without…”

“I’m doing it.”

“For the love of…”

“Good morning, Rebecca!” Shaun sang out as he pushed through the door of the cafe, and he immediately ducked as the usual dishtowel wrapped around a chunk of something heavy went sailing through the air and over his head. And, as usual, there was a pointed sigh as Daniel snatched the cloth out of the air before it could sail past them through the open door and land on the ground.

“One of these days,” the feisty brunette store owner snarled menacingly from behind the display.

Shaun just smiled and winked as the woman who vastly preferred to be referred to as Connie sent him the same evil look she shot him every morning, and Connie rolled her eyes with exaggerated care while Daniel strode over to the counter to pass the dishtowel back to her. There was just something about how easily he could get a rise out of the small woman that made the risk of her wrath something he had to test. Of course he agreed with Daniel’s belief that one of these days Connie was going to corner him in a dark alley and he would be bed ridden for a month, but until that point, he was going to enjoy poking at her every chance he got. But he was more comfortable poking her from the comfort of his usual booth, where he at least had the meager shield of being a paying customer to protect him from her. After all, Connie had a hard and fast rule that she wouldn’t berate customers, no matter how annoying.

“Must you always provoke her?” Daniel asked with a sigh as he joined Shaun at their usual booth, sliding into his seat, and not even bothering to pick up one of the menus resting by the wall.

“Come on, D, it wouldn’t be our morning tradition if we didn’t start it by poking at Connie,” Shaun chuckled, shaking his head as he stretched out on his bench, throwing his arms across the back to take up as much room as possible. That was just as much habit as harassing Connie and getting reprimanded by Daniel and having Tucker stride up to their table for their normal order just about now and say…

“I’ve got to agree with your friend. You really shouldn’t poke Connie like that.”

Wait. No. That was all wrong. Tucker came over just about now and said ‘you two again?’ and sighed as he pulled out the order pad that everyone knew he wasn’t going to use and…

Shaun looked up at the man standing patiently at the end of the booth in confusion, and found himself more than just pleasantly surprised at what he found there. This new employee—because that was clearly what this was—looked older than the usual sort, and a bit more competent. Or, at least, the way he carried himself was markedly more confident, patient, and customer friendly than the people Shaun had been forced to deal with before. He was, of course, in one of the polo shirts that Connie had all her employees wear, a steel gray one with the name 'David’ embroidered over the breast in yellow, and the apron that was the same shade of brown as the sign outside and silk screened with the name 'Connie’s Cafe.’ But the way he filled out the polo was far more impressive than any of the others who worked here—except Caboose, whose shirts were always clearly too tight because they were fitted wrong and Caboose insisted when Shaun asked that they felt like hugs—and Shaun was certain he could follow the line of this David’s honest to god well-defined pecs through the thick fabric. The gray and brown did wonders to bring out the green of his eyes and suited both the bottle black of his hair and the blond of his roots and damn this had to be the cutest guy he’d seen in this cafe in a while.

There was a sharp pain in his ankle, clearly originating in Daniel kicking him under the table for staring—more like ogling—at their waiter, and Shaun turned on his brightest smile for the new employee.

“I’ve never seen you around here, David,” Shaun observed. “I’m guessing you’re the new employee Connie has been saying she wanted to bring in. The name’s Shaun, and this here is Daniel, but you can call him D.”

“No,” Daniel grumbled, “he cannot. In fact, you cannot. I keep telling you…”

“You’ll also find there is nothing important that comes from D’s mouth. Ever. Except his order, which will never change. Every single day it’s black coffee, a banana nut muffin, and a second cup of coffee to go,” Shaun continued, ignoring the mumbled protests of Daniel across the way. “As for me, I’ll have a latte, with cinnamon sprinkled on top and… You know what, just tell Tucker to make a Shaun special and he’ll know what to do. Hell, he’s probably already making it. And, to go with that I’ll take a cinnamon roll and your number.”

“Oh god, here we go again,” Daniel groaned, burying his face in his hands across the table, but really, Shaun had his attention riveted to David and the beautiful shade of red his cheeks were turning. Even better, the red didn’t come with any shaking or tightening of his fists. Those were immediate signs of a very securely heterosexual man offended by the suggestion of Shaun being attracted to them. The red David was turning to enhance and pick out every last freckle from his nose and to all the way down his lovely neck was from embarrassment, which was a damn good step on the way to actually getting a number.

“Shaun, if you give David grief, I will have to poison your latte,” Connie shouted from the counter.

“Woah, now that’s something even I’ve never heard from her before,” Church observed from his place behind the register, sounding quite impressed. Honestly, so was Shaun. Connie’s threats were never that… forceful.

David, though, didn’t comment one way or another. Apparently over his embarrassment the man turned on his heel, jotting Shaun’s order down as he went, and strode off toward the safety of the counter.

“Sometimes, I don’t understand why I’m your friend,” Daniel groaned from between his hands.

“Because your life wouldn’t be half so interesting without me, D,” Shaun chuckled before twisting in his seat to get a better view of the new employee. And wasn’t he in luck, what with the way the man was leaning against a display case to talk to Connie, and how well it showed off the guy’s really fine ass.

“Idiot,” Daniel growled and kicked him under the table, jerking Shaun’s attention back to his friend. “You didn’t pay attention to a word Simmons said last night, did you?”

“What’s Simmons got to do with anything?” Shaun winced as he let bent slightly to rub at his ankle. Damn, Daniel had put more force into that than kick than he usually did. “All he was talking about last night was about how Connie’s old friend… from Seattle… was…”

Ah. Well, that explained a few things, now didn’t it?

* * * * * *

“I… Should have warned you about Shaun,” Connie sighed, her voice heavy with apology as David came to a stop on the customer side of the pastry display case and watched her start pulling pieces for the order from her side.

“You think?” David demanded, still trying to fight down the heat he could feel in his face. “That was…”

“Exactly how Shaun has treated pretty much every guy I’ve hired, and me, and any woman that will so much as glance his way,” Connie admitted, taking the separate plates with the muffin and cinnamon roll and placing them on a tray which she then passed over to Tucker, who had seemed to be waiting for it. “It’s just the way he is. All bark and no bite. Don’t worry about it. Just don’t play along and he’ll leave you alone quickly enough.”

“Or, yanno, don’t listen to her and continue to entertain us all,” Tucker suggested as he carefully handled a large mug as he poured milk into it with very deliberate motions. “I haven’t seen something quite the shade of pink you turned since the last time I pulled evening shift and had to work with Donut.”

David stood there for a moment, trying to figure out just what, or who, Donut was, and then spared Tucker one of his hardest glares. The younger man didn’t even look up from his work, but the smirk he wore told David that the man knew it was coming anyway.

“It’s okay, Tucker is just jealous that you are being such very good friends with Mister Shaun,” a voice drifted out from the kitchen, belonging to the towering blond who probably still had that bit of frosting on the tip of his nose—a blob that Church had stared at through the whole of introductions, amusing David by licking his lips unconsciously at the sight. That would be Caboose, a sweet enough kid but not nearly so bright as a college student should have been.

“Caboose, shut up,” Tucker snapped, looking up from the drink as he shouted. “Oh shit,” he mumbled then, turning his attention back to his work for half a moment before he ceased pouring milk altogether and he carefully set the drink down on the tray. David leaned in to look at the 'art’ that Connie said Tucker made of lattes, and wasn’t amused to find a rather well done hand flipping the bird in the middle of the drink. Real mature.

“Tucker and Shaun were never 'friends’ Caboose,” Church sighed and Shaun watched as the grouchy man jerked away from Tucker when he was kicked in the shin. “Geez, Tucker. Always willing to talk about your conquests of the ladies, but someone brings up the time you hooked up with Shaun and… OW!”

“You’re all insane,” David sighed as a mug of coffee moved to join the latte and pastries thanks to Connie. “You’re all completely and utterly insane.”

“Yeah,” Tucker agreed quite readily, a wide smirk on his face as he leaned over and sprinkled some cinnamon on his latte creation, “but if you want my advice…”

“And I don’t.”

“You should give him your number. There are worst ways to start out in a new town than some time with someone that looks and fucks like Shaun.”

“Shut up, Tucker,” David growled under his breath as he carefully hefted the tray and strode away from the relative safety that was Connie’s nearby presence and strode back over to the booth.

“Oh come on, you get to say it and I don’t?” Church protested behind him before there was another pained exclamation that clearly meant Tucker had kicked him again.

Well, if nothing else, Tucker was right about one thing, Shaun was easy on the eyes. No, more than easy, gorgeous. If Alex had been handsome in a classic sort of sense, Shaun was gorgeous in a more modern way. His nose was broad but relatively small, his face somewhat square but rounded enough to keep him from looking like he had edges, and his gray eyes were bright and flashed with amusement and complimented the smirk still on his lips. His brown hair was at least a few inches long and only seemed to keep itself swept forward into a faint point because of what was clearly copious amounts of gel or some other kind of product.

He contrasted very powerfully with the man who sat across the table from him. Daniel looked as well composed as Shaun looked artfully disheveled. His long black hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail at the base of his neck, his soft green eyes flashed with intelligence, and his face looked more sculpted than naturally formed. It was an angular face, coming to a point at his chin, and David couldn’t help but think of a stereotypical medieval scholar. His posture said he was a very serious man, and his clothes only furthered that idea with his green tailored shirt, darker green vest, lime green tie and green slacks. Okay, so maybe there was something weird about a guy that had dressed himself in a range of greens, but David still thought more effort had gone into Daniel’s outfit than Shaun’s, as the other man was in a simple t-shirt and jeans.

“A hot coffee, latte special order, banana nut muffin, and cinnamon roll,” David listed off as he took the items off his tray and arranged them before the pair. Daniel nodded in approval as he reached for the sugar and creamer rack on the table, whereas Shaun just smiled up at him with that grin that had nearly melted his legs earlier.

What could he say? David had always been a sucker for a good smile. Still, he steeled himself and took a deep breath before he spoke, calming his voice and schooling his expression before asking, “Is that all for now?”

Shaun raised a shapely eyebrow and his smile shifted slightly from the leg melting variety to a more amused sort. He made a show of searching around their order, even checking the napkins that came with pastries, and then turned his attention back to David, a sad smile on his face.

“You forgot something,” Shaun said, and David mentally ran over the order. No, he’d gotten it all. The only thing Shaun had mentioned that he hadn’t delivered was…

“Your number?”

That.

“It is typically best to ignore him,” Daniel observed as he emptied three packets of sugar into his coffee. “I have yet to effectively achieve such a heightened state of being myself, but I’m certain it will be worthwhile to try.”

“Thanks, D. You’re really a great friend. Seriously,” Shaun grumbled as he finally looked down at his latte and then snorted at it. “Any time you’re willing, Tucker,” he shouted back in the direction of the counter, and there was quickly another 'ow’ from Church.

“You’re incorrigible,” Daniel sighed and with that David decided he was no longer needed. Tray tucked under his arm he turned to go, and was surprised to find he didn’t even make it two steps before there was a hand gripping his wrist.

He might have shaken it off, or pulled Shaun out of the booth and twisted the arm behind his back, or maybe just slammed the tray down on it, were it not for how light the grip was. Clearly the other man was giving him the chance to break free, to walk away without another word, and it was that that stopped David more than anything else. When he turned to look back Shaun was leaning out of the booth rather precariously, stretched out between where he had been sitting and where David was standing, and maybe that would have been funny or pathetic in another set of circumstances.

As it was there was a seriousness on the man’s face, in his eyes, in the tightness of his pursed lips, that made David’s heart skip half a beat. He looked so much better like that.

“I didn’t mean to offend you or anything,” Shaun insisted, voice pitched lower and utterly serious. “I just…”

There was a chiming of a bell indicating someone had arrived, and when David looked in that direction he saw a group of five college aged women making for a booth. He looked back toward Shaun one last time before jerking his hand free and striding away.

* * * * * *

“I know that look,” Daniel sighed as Shaun righted himself on the bench and stared down at the latte sitting on the table in front of him.

“What look?” Shaun asked more out of habit than any actual interest as he poked at his cinnamon roll. Strange, he wasn’t as hungry now as he had been when they’d first arrived. When had that happened?

“The one you’re giving your cinnamon roll. It’s your 'I was just joking when I was hitting on them, but now that I’ve been rejected they’re far more interesting’ look.”

Shaun chuckled and shook his head as he looked at his best friend and business partner across the table. “I don’t have a look like that. You’re just making shit up, D.”

“On the contrary,” Daniel said, pausing long enough to sip his coffee, “I recognize that look from how frequently you aimed it at Charlotte.”

“I thought you promised never to bring that up again,” Shaun groaned, pushing his cinnamon roll aside so he could bury his face in the crock of his arm on the table. He closed his eyes as he did, and tried to listen for David’s voice, but all he could hear was the quiet gossip of the blue team—his and D’s term for this shift of workers, as opposed to the red team typically on evening shift—and the quiet giggling of the women who had entered and who were clearly smitten with David’s good looks.

“No, you promised never to bring it up again,” Daniel observed with a pitying sigh. “I never agreed to your suggestion. That being said, I have respected your desire previously, and bring it up now because you are clearly… intrigued by this friend of Connie’s. I find that when you are intrigued by someone in such a manner, you take twice as long to complete even simple tasks, which is harmful for our business.”

Shaun lifted his head and stared at his friend incredulously. “Wow, D. If I’m hearing you right, you actually only care about my interest in this guy because it affects productivity? That is cold, man, just plain cold.”

“Merely an observation,” Daniel returned immediately, taking another sip of his coffee.

“Sometimes I wonder why I deal with you,” Shaun sighed as he finally picked up his mug of latte. Leave it to Tucker to find new ways to insult him using it every day. Yesterday the guy had managed to make a believable trash can. Seriously, he was wasted in his physical therapy major at the college. He should have been an artist.

Okay, maybe not completely wasted on his line of stufy, because his hands were very talented, but that was beside the point.

Daniel’s cup clinked hard against the table as he set it down, and Shaun returned his attention to the other man. This was going to be interesting. D was just so prone to being quiet and withdrawn that he had this compulsion to make some louder noise before saying something very serious or proving a point. What that was going to be was beyond Shaun at the moment, but he was looking forward to it anyway.

“It has been my experience in life that some people do not prefer to be treated as… forwardly as is your usual habit. No, that isn’t the right way to word it. Ah, it would be better to say they prefer to set their own pace. This could be because of a difference of personality, experiences in their life making them more restrained, or a recent less than amicable separation with a significant other. Or something else entirely, of course. In those cases it might be better to… offer them a choice to approach you when they are more comfortable with the idea.”

It wasn’t often that something Daniel said regarding interpersonal relationships made sense. Those were moments that were so rare that Shaun had developed the habit of throwing little parties over them. In fact, the way D was holding his mug before him, staring down at it as if it owed him money, suggested that he was bracing himself for whatever Shaun was going to do to tease him.

“Give me a pen.”

“What?” D asked, looking up sharply with confusion plain on his face.

“Oh come on, I know you’ve got pens on you. At least three at any given moment. So would you just hand one over already?” Shaun asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

“Why would you…”

“You’re the one who suggested it, so just give me a damn pen.”

Daniel sighed and reached a hand into the coat he had laid out on the bench beside him when they’d sat down and extracted a single—thankfully black, because there was such a thing as too much green and Shaun practically lived on the cusp of that—pen which he calmly offered Shaun. Shaun, for what it was worth, actually managed not to pluck the thing from Daniel’s hand, merely calmly took it and pulled the napkin out from under his plate.

“That wasn’t… quite what I meant,” Daniel observed while Shaun quickly scratched his number on the napkin and added his name for good measure, just in case David somehow thought Daniel was trying to get his attention.

“Well, it’s not my only approach, but it’s a good first step,” Shaun sighed, covering the napkin with his plate to hide the scribbled note for now. Showing his hand too early might just make the whole thing awkward and find David discarding the idea out of hand. No, like D said, this had to be handled slowly and carefully.

“First step?”

Shaun chuckled and shook his head, “Oh come on, D, we’re in here every morning, and usually in the evenings as well. If Connie went so far as actually having a shirt made for the guy, he’s clearly meant to stick around. And it’s already clear he’s about twenty times more competent than anyone other than possibly Donut, who’s just… awkward.”

Daniel just raised a slender eyebrow at that comment and hid the smile he must have had behind his mug.

“I’m nothing like him,” Shaun sighed as he always had to when the topic of Donut came up. “I’ve got far better timing and way more subtlety…”

“You literally asked the new employee for his phone number, and implied far more than that, while ordering your breakfast,” Daniel pointed out with all his usual composure for all that his eyes were sparkling with amusement.

“…when it comes to double entendres,” Shaun finished, glaring at Daniel. “Sometimes, D, I hate you.”

“I am well aware of this, Shaun. You tell me at least once a week. That being said, you should eat. We should get moving soon. You’ve plenty of work to do and I need to go over your recent purchase orders and balance the books once more.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah…”

* * * * * *

Someone must have delivered the second coffee to Shaun and Daniel’s table, because by the time David had dealt with the sudden rush of morning customers, the booth the pair had been sitting in had been vacated. His final order delivered and refills of plain black coffee for the table of women who had first drawn him away from the strange pair were offered and refused David moved for the abandoned booth to clean up. Connie had made it pretty clear that when the counter was as backed up with take out orders as it was at that moment, it was his job to deal with tables as best he could. Apparently Caboose couldn’t be trusted to not break things at this point. With a sigh he stopped by the table and was thankful that the two at least had been neat eaters, leaving no crumbs behind. He’d only have to do a cursory wipe down once he got the dishes out of the way.

Then there was the tip, a five dollar bill and some change on a pretty simple order and David rolled his eyes. Clearly it was meant less as a reflection on his service than as a result of Shaun’s earlier behavior. He could only hope that the size was a result of Daniel apologizing for his friend’s behavior and not Shaun trying to…

When he reached for the tip to sweep it into the pocket of his apron to keep it safe until he could move it to the tip jar on the counter he saw the napkin. He’d thought it was only there because, well, because they hadn’t used it. But the name and digits looking up at him told another story.

“David!” Connie called his name from the counter, and there really wasn’t any time to think. The tip and napkin were swept into his pocket and the dishes hastily stacked on his tray before he was moving again, carefully making his way through the brief line that lead up to the counter and also trailed off to the side as people waited for their orders to be completed. The dishes went into a bin by the kitchen and the tray leaned against the wall as David strode to Connie’s side.

“Yeah, boss?” he asked, earning himself a little smirk from the smaller woman. If there was one thing he knew Connie liked, it was being reminded that she was in charge. She’d always had a thing for power, and he had grown used to feeding it since they were kids.

“No time to teach you drinks right now, but we’re pretty busy and I could use another set of hands. Think you could stand here and manage food orders while I help Lavernius with the drinks? Everything’s labeled on this side because sometimes Michael mixes up what does where…”

“Don’t worry,” he chuckled, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I know what I’m doing, Connie.”

The smile she gave him was a mixture of thankful and exasperated. Then she was gone further down the counter and joining the clank of cups and murmur of action that was drink making. David, well, he just let himself get caught up in the simpler motions of assisting the line, moving items into paper bags as Church repeated orders back to customers before ringing them up. It was a simple task, simple enough that David didn’t need to give himself over to thinking about it. He had already memorized where everything was in the case—his memory had always been better than normal—and to be honest, he didn’t want to think. Didn’t want to think about Alex with his eyes as blue as crystals and a smile that made him warm all over, or Shaun’s laughing gray eyes and grin that made his legs melt. Or Ethan who…

That line of thought was shut down almost before it started. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough, and there was a sick feeling in his stomach as David continued to fill orders without thinking about anything.

Then his hands were empty, no orders called out. Just Connie at his side smiling faintly at him as she tapped his shoulder and turned his attention fully to her.

“Just a good as I remembered,” she chuckled, clearly more for her benefit than his. “You know, I think I might ultimately get an assistant manager out of this, which would be all sorts of wonderful. What would you think about that?”

David just shrugged. “It’s my first day, Connie. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“Oh no, I’ll get to wherever I want. Anyway, we typically slow down about now, Michael has the morning batch of cupcakes already in and out of the oven and he’s frosting, so this seems as good a time for a break and a little talk as any. What do you say?”

“Connie…” David sighed, but the hard look in her eyes brooked no argument, so David just nodded. “But after I bus the…”

“Leonard, clear the tables. Lavernius, dishes,” Connie snapped. “When you’re done you can take your breaks. If anything comes up David and I will take care of it.”

The pair moved without a word to her, a sure sign that they’d gotten as used to obeying Connie as he had over the years. Connie just turned to the pastry case and loaded a plate up with a piece of coffee cake and a blueberry scone—leave it to her to remember how much he had loved those things when she’d visited Seattle the last time—and thrust the plate into his hands. “Go find us a place with a view of the door. I’ll get drinks.”

With a sigh David moved to a table a bit out of the way of the door but with a relatively unobstructed view through the window to give them a bit more warning of potential customers. The second the plate was on the table he was seated and taking a bite out of the scone. Damn, they were just as good as he remembered. Connie really had a gift for baking.

“We need to talk,” Connie’s voice, pitched low and in her very serious tone froze David before he could take another bite. She sat across from him and placed a steaming mug before him and he could smell the cinnamon and chocolate in the drink. Damn she remembered him better than he had thought. When was the last time he’d had a cup of her special cinnamon mocha?

Fuck talking. David lifted the cup up and reveled in the scent before taking a delicate sip, letting the tastes wash across his mouth while the liquid burned the tip of his tongue. Not that he cared in the slightest.

“You should… stay away from Shaun.”

Okay, so maybe talking had to happen first, because that line came so far from out of left field that David had to carefully put his drink back down on the table to keep from spilling it all over himself.

“You’re… kidding, right?” he asked, shaken, as Connie sighed and shook her head. “I honestly think I’m going to need a little more than that to figure out just why you would even think I’d do anything other than stay away from him.”

Connie moved to rest her chin on an uplifted arm and gave him the look—the one where she raised one eyebrow while lowering the other and pinching her lips together in that way that screamed incredulity. “I’m not an idiot, David. We’ve known each other for how long? No, don’t answer that. I know just as well as you do, and we both know it was a rhetorical question. What I mean to say is that I saw the look on your face when you glanced at the booth those two use and found them gone. I know that look, David, and just what kind of trouble it could get you into.”

“I’m really thankful that you’re concerned about me and all that,” David sighed, leaning forward to wrap his hands around the welcoming warmth of his drink, “but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You used to look at Ethan like that.”

He went rigid. Couldn’t help it, it was just reflex at this point. He even managed to shake it off quickly, not that it took any of the recognition from Connie’s eyes. Or the pity.

“I know there’s a lot more to what happened with Ethan back in Seattle than you were willing to tell me,” Connie said after a long moment and a sip of her tea, “but I also know it’s pointless to try and get what it was out of you. But, between you and me, David, you aren’t quite the same person you were when I saw you last. There’s something different… Something a bit frayed about your edges if that makes any sense.”

It did. That was why his hands had retreated from his drink, preferring instead to be tight fists in his lap, his nails starting to press painfully hard into the skin of his palms.

“Whatever he did to you, David, I want to throttle him for it. But that’s neither here nor there. What is important is that you should stay away from Shaun.”

“What, because he’s so much like Ethan?” David asked, his voice amused and bitter all at once. “I’m sorry Connie, but like you said, you don’t know everything, and I do, and I can flat out say that he’s nothing like Ethan.”

“That’s part of the problem, David,” Connie sighed, shaking her head at him. “Shaun isn’t like Ethan. He also isn’t a bad guy. The problem was that Ethan, before whatever happened, was boyfriend material. Shaun isn’t. I’ve seen him pull the same routine on more people than even you could count, and it’s always the same. A quick fling, lucky if it even makes it overnight. And before you ask, Daniel is an incurable gossip when Shaun isn’t around, so I’m pretty sure my sources on this are top notch. And the last thing you need right now is a guy that’s a 'use them and lose them’ type. You need time, you need peace, and when you finally get your feet under you again, you need someone who will care for you, worship you, and love you more than you think you’re worth.”

“Connie…” David sighed, and he stopped when she reached across the table to lay her hand on his arm.

“Please, David, promise me. I can’t bear to see you hurting like this. I miss my Dave. I don’t know what happened to him, or when he’s coming back, but I am certain that Shaun isn’t the kind of guy he needs.”

There was the brief chime of the door behind them, and Connie cursed under her breath before pushing away from the table.

“You sit here and think about that for a little. I’ll be back once I deal with the customers.”

She was gone so fast he didn’t have the chance to promise her anything.