“Miss me?”
“Hardly.”
He drummed his hands on the counter and helped himself to a menu from the stack close to me. While he scanned the menu, he said, “Someone accused me of being a stalker. Didn’t want to press my luck.” Setting the menu down, his head tilted to the side. His eyes still had that hint of sadness but his mouth was smiling. “Thought I’d give you space to get settled.”
“Oh. Okay.”
That was… nice of him. About as nice as his bare arms, with those veins that wrapped around his forearms and stuck out at the backs of his hands. Nice hands, with strong fingers, well-groomed. It matched the rest of him, broad shoulders and chiseled jaw.
Dear God. I was turning into Angie.
“So are you?”
“Huh?” Had he still been talking?
“Settled.”
Oh. Right. No. He hadn’t talked, I’d just drifted off, probably to an awkward silence while I admired his body. Awesome.
“Well, the move was long and difficult and strenuous, so it took a while and required lots of rest afterward.”
“Have you always been a smartass?” He shook his head, chuckling.
“No.” I was too busy staying out of the way or hiding Josh’s transgressions. “It must be a recently acquired skill.”
Three men stumbled in, greeted by the broken and loud-pitched squawk from our bell. On busy nights, it took all my self-control not to rip it off its perilous perch. But the annoying sound was better and safer than being surprised.
“Excuse me.”
I took menus to the group of men who made themselves comfortable at a booth near the front door. They were loud, perhaps slightly drunk by some of their breaths as they laughed. Not obnoxiously so. Mostly high on an easy life and the excitement of weekend revelry in front of them.
Angie’s words about the strip clubs being a rite of passage for her brother and his friends came to mind as I greeted them, took their drink orders.
One of them with dark brown, wavy hair leaned back in the booth and slid a lazy smile in my direction, draping his arm along the back and behind one of the drunker guys.
“Thank you and ignore these idiots. That guy there” —he pointed to the one kitty-corner from him— “is twenty-one tonight.”
“Not a problem. I’ll be back for your orders soon.”
Back behind the counter, I filled their drinks and set them on a tray, all while Hudson kept his eyes on them.
“They’re harmless,” I told him. Why I felt the need to assure him didn’t sit well with me.
Although, neither did having someone looking out for me.
“They’re drunk.”
“Most customers who come in here are.”
I ignored him, and his narrowed glare he kept on the table, delivering their drinks.
Birthday boy slurred his order, earning a shove from the guy next to him. “Damn, Matt. Stop being such a lightweight or you won’t even make it to the main event.”
“I’m not a lightweight,” he slurred back. “Just happy.” He clapped twice and I smirked.
Yeah. These guys were idiots, but harmless.
“You know,” he said, head dropping forward and glazed over eyes meeting mine. “The song. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.”
His entire sentence came out in one long word.
“I know it.” My lips fought against a smile. These guys were the kind of guys I grew up with. Same kind of boys even if they weren’t as polished, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t been drinking their weight in keg beer since the first of one of their older siblings started buying it for them when they were barely teenagers.
The guy who thanked me earlier handed the menus to me. “Sorry. He’ll shut up once he gets his food.”
“I’ll make sure Chaz hurries then.” I slid the menus into my arms. “But he wouldn’t be the first customer I had to break out in a song and dance, either.”
A round of laughter burst from all of them, making the rest of the volume in the diner rise along with them.
Seemed everyone was in a great mood tonight, and mine was still up there as long as the drunken table didn’t spill their drinks or leave a huge mess.
Being drunk didn’t excuse a lack of manners.
After I put in their order, I made my rounds through the rest of the tables and rang up Johnny’s bill.
Once done, I was back behind the counter, trying to ignore the way my stomach curled when I was in close proximity to Hudson.
“Are you going to stay here all night again?”
“You want me to?”
“No. Your company is obnoxious.”
“Because I’m quiet?” His shoulders shook when he laughed. “We were interrupted before. You getting settled in the apartment?”
“It’s nicer than anything I imagined I could have had again,” I admitted, and watched that entertained smile on Hudson’s face fall away. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what.”
“Look at me like you feel sorry for me every time you’re reminded I’ve had a shit life. It makes me uneasy.”
He rolled his lips together. “I’ll work on it,” he said, sighing. “Hard not to care, though.”
“Why?” I asked, before I could stop myself. This was my stumbling block. Why did they care so much? Especially about me.
Hudson smirked. That stupid smirk. I could never quite decide if I wanted to smack it away with my hand or melt it away with my mouth.
He was growing on me, like a forbidden fruit I had no business reaching for but couldn’t stop wistfully admiring. That was dangerous.
“Order up!” Chaz shouted through the small cook’s window.
“I need to get that.” Perfect timing. I trayed the meals—burgers and fries for the table of birthday drunks—and grabbed an extra bottle of ketchup. Once delivered and they were taken care of, drinks refreshed, and the birthday boy happily humming his song to himself while his friends laughed at him, Hudson was no longer smiling when I returned to the counter.
In fact, he was head bent on his phone, thumbs wildly tapping on it, so I left him to it and rolled clean silverware, sliding them into the paper napkin wraps.
“I can help with that,” Hudson offered.
“I’ve got it.”
“Don’t have anything else to do either,” he said, and grabbed a pile of napkins.
“You do it wrong and I’m telling Judith. She might really kick you out of here and not allow you back.”
“Pretty sure I can sweet talk her into it.”
I laughed. It clawed from my throat before I knew it was coming, so foreign to my ears, and when I stopped, Hudson was grinning at me from ear to ear.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Because Judith is hard as nails and scarier than the meanest inmates I ever met. No one can sweet talk her into anything.”
“We’ll see. I’ve got a way with women. They love me.” He winked at me.
I looked down at my napkin pile to hide the heat rising on my cheeks. I’m sure women did love him. When I Googled him, I saw pictures. Plenty of them. Of Hudson in suits and tuxes and swim trunks with nothing else. I wasn’t sure which image I dreamed of more since then, but both had made an appearance late at night.