I’d considered how to handle this, whether to let her know who I was off the bat or not. After what I just saw, I figured she dealt with enough drama during a shift. She didn’t need more and I was going to be enough on my own.
“Your dad?” That same hardened look returned.
“David. I’m Hudson.”
With a sigh that made her shoulders fall, she asked, “Same decaf as Mr. Valentine, too?”
“No, thanks.”
Her eyes narrowed and darkened right before she thrummed her fingers on the countertop.
“There’s a sign on the door that allows me to refuse service anyone for any reason, you know that?”
“Does that mean there isn’t any pie left?” I smirked. Ladies loved it. Not that I cared what most liked.
She didn’t fall for it.
“Yeah, there’s pie, but I think I’m gonna decline your request. I don’t know why your dad keeps coming here and I sure as hell don’t know why you’re here, or care.”
If she wasn’t looking at me like she’d slip a steak knife from a bucket and slam it directly into my heart, I would have laughed.
“Dad told me about you.”
“Don’t care.” She spun and went to the back. Right before the door closed behind her, she dropped her forehead into her hand and rubbed along the width of it.
My hands fisted. The guys at the table had quieted now that they could stuff their mouths filled with food, but I knew those looks on their faces… the faces of guys who didn’t like being denied their fun and didn’t mind forcing it if they had to. Lilly probably learned how to handle herself in a scrap if she had to, but four guys against one?
No way in hell was I leaving.
She came back out a few minutes later, gaze sliding in my direction before those eyes of hers rolled high to the ceiling’s stained tiles. Ignoring me, she went straight to the tabletop, ripped off their checks and cleared empty dishes.
She didn’t say a word to them, and their dishes and silverware clattered into the bin she passed on the way back—straight to me.
“Didn’t I make myself clear?”
“You said you wouldn’t serve me, didn’t say I had to leave.” She opened her mouth, but I didn’t let her speak. “You don’t want to talk, fine. But I’m not leaving until those guys do.”
Her lips pressed together and her shoulders fell with a heavy breath. “Why do you care?”
“Because Dad likes you. Thinks you’re a good person. And because he’d fire me from my job if I let anything happen to you.”
Her lips twitched then. Just a small hint and it wasn’t exactly friendly or happy. “Couldn’t have that, could we?”
She dripped sarcasm as she spoke. I ignored it.
“It’d make Dad sad. He’s had enough of that.” I let her see the truth in my eyes. I could be an arrogant prick when called for and a stubborn ass when I needed to be. I could win any argument if it was important enough to me, but this wasn’t for me. Dad had lost enough.
“Fine. Stay.”
“Does that mean I can get some pie?”
She blinked at me, stone-faced, and then she cracked, a slight twitch at one corner of her lips. To some it was nothing, but for her, I figured it meant she found me hilarious.
I was pretty certain there was a grin on her face when she turned away from me. By the time she came back with a glass of water and slice of apple pie, any emotion was gone.
Lilly walked away and I caught again how perfectly that uniform fit her. Her hips, the fullness at her chest.
I glared into my water to erase the vision.
You’re turning into a total fucking perv.
She ignored me and went to the bar, flipped open her computer and typed for two seconds before she stared at the screen, unmoving.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
Dad was right.
She wasn’t lost.
She slapped the laptop closed, making me jump. I tried to hide it, but she was in front of me before I’d fully recovered from her quick actions. I was still staring at the fire in her expression and deadness in her eyes.
“Why are you here?”
“Dad asked me to come. Thought maybe you’d be more willing to see he wasn’t a creep or something if we met.” It was partially true. I was there because I couldn’t stay away any longer.
“But why. Why is your dad insisting on stalking me and helping me?” She crossed her arms. It pushed her breasts up, strained the buttons on her uniform.
Hopefully she wore a tank top beneath the ugly dress.
I yanked my gaze up only to get caught on her pursed lips. Chin jutted out. Beautiful, silky hair pulled back and draped over her shoulder.
“Dad’s heart is too big for his body. He gets off on helping people.”
“Does he now?” She drawled the words, venom spitting with every consonant. “Has it occurred to you, or him, that I don’t want or need help? Or that all this attention makes me uncomfortable?”
I honestly hadn’t considered that, and with the way she was looking at me, meaning every word, I felt like shit. Dad’s goal wasn’t to make her mad, or uncomfortable at all. He just knew she needed help, and more, he believed she deserved it.
“I think that came out wrong. He saw you, met you, came back because there was something in him he couldn’t let go—and no, it’s not nefarious, I swear it. He’s got a big heart, likes to help people and wants to help you. Why does it have to be more difficult than that?”
“Because some of us not born with golden spoons don’t get offers for help.”
It was a lie that rolled too smoothly off her tongue. My spoon might have been silver. Hers was golden. At least in all the ways that didn’t matter when life came to an end.
The guys at the table grew louder, interrupting us, and she stepped back, shaking out her arms. “I need to check on them.”
I leaned back in my chair and faced the table. The two guys who could see me smirked as she neared. One blinked first and then put that smirk on Lilly.
He said something I couldn’t hear, probably intentional, and then before I could warn her, lifted his glass, still filled with icy water, and tossed it at her chest.
Her nipples immediately pebbled through and I was on my feet like a shot as she brushed it off her uniform. She was soaked.
They were laughing.
A loud boom came from the side, doors slamming open. I barely paused to see a bear-sized black man with a bald head and fire in his eyes stomping their way.
“Get the fuck out before I rip off your head.”
Holy shit. Where’d he come from?
The cook. It made sense. But I hadn’t seen him at all the entire time I’d been here. How’d he know?
He shoved Lilly toward the counter, closer to me, in a gesture far too tender for his hugeness and fury.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She swiped more water droplets off her dress. “Not the first time, won’t be the last.”
She scurried to the back and I waited until the assholes at the table cleared out, the cook standing over them to ensure they paid their bills and left a tip.
“I’m gonna get trouble from you?” He growled at me when they were gone. I was still standing there. Proud of him. Happy she at least had this guy in her corner on nights she worked.