Evie looked at their plates.
“Next time, we share my slice,” she said.
Sam nodded. “Right.” Then he glanced at Katie. “Do you want to share?”
Katie saw the look in his eyes and felt like he’d just hugged her.
“I love sharing,” she said.
Sam put a huge slice on his plate, cut it in two pieces, and slid one half on Katie’s plate.
“Thank you,” Katie said. “Next time, we share my slice.”
Sam winked, and then reached for red pepper flakes.
Frieda came back every few minutes and had something kind to say to the girls as she refilled their drinks.
Katie was getting full, and the girls had already quit eating and were talking to one of their school friends who was sitting at the neighboring table. Sam had just swallowed his last bite when he saw Justin Tiller walk in, then stop just inside the door.
Justin waved away the hostess and pointed at his wife.
Sam’s instinct for trouble began to amp up as he watched the hostess deliver a message to Frieda. He watched Frieda look at Justin and then turn her back on him and keep working. The hostess went back and said something to Justin that obviously made him furious. And after what Justin had done to his wife last night, he knew it wasn’t over.
Katie saw Sam go still, and then looked over her shoulder and saw Justin Tiller standing in the doorway. When she turned back around, Sam caught her gaze, glanced at the girls, then shook his head.
Katie got the message and patted Beth’s arm to get her attention.
“Girls, Daddy’s getting ready to pay. But I want to go to the bathroom and wash the pizza off my hands before we go. Can you both show me the way?”
“Yes, Miss Katie! We know where it is,” Evie said.
“We know,” Beth added, and when Katie got up, they each took her by the hand and led her through the dining area.
When his girls were out of sight, Sam breathed a sigh of relief. Justin Tiller was shifting from one foot to the other like a junkie in need of a fix, and then he shouted at his wife from across the room.
“Frieda! I need to talk to you!”
Frieda filled the glasses at one of her tables and then turned to go back into the kitchen, and that’s when Justin lost it.
He pushed his way past the hostess, knocking her down. Then he pushed past a busboy carrying a tray of dirty dishes and sent them flying to the floor. The crash ended the diners’ conversation, as the whole room went still.
And then all of a sudden, Sam was in front of Justin Tiller. He grabbed Tiller by the arm, twisting it behind his back, then turned him around and walked him toward the exit, with Justin cursing a blue streak all the way out the door.
With Tiller’s arm still in a twist, Sam shoved him facedown on the hood of the nearest car and called the station.
“Lucas, this is Sam. Dispatch an officer to the Hillbilly Pizza parking lot ASAP. No need for sirens.”
“Yes, sir,” the dispatcher said as Sam slipped his phone back in his pocket.
Tiller was furious. “Damn it, Chief. I got a right to talk to my wife if I want to.”
“From the looks of her face, you already said enough to her last night,” Sam said.
“That’s none of your business,” Tiller shouted, and then winced when Sam pushed Tiller’s arm a little higher up his back.
“But what you just did inside the pizza place is my business. You were disturbing the peace. You assaulted an employee. You caused property damage. And you frightened diners.”
“But—”
“Stop talking,” Sam said, and shoved the side of Tiller’s face against the hood of the car.
Within a couple of minutes, a patrol car pulled up and Ben got out.
Sam yanked Tiller upright.
“Cuff him and book him for assault, property damage, and disturbing the peace inside the Hillbilly Pizza.”
“Yes, Chief,” Ben said, and as soon as he had Tiller cuffed, he put him in the patrol car and took him off to jail.
Sam walked back inside just as Katie and the girls came out of the hall from the guest bathrooms.
The hostess was back on the job. The staff was cleaning up the tray of broken dishes. But Frieda was ashen and visibly shaken, while still serving tables.
Sam caught Frieda’s eye and gave her a thumbs-up.
She mouthed a quick thank-you and went back to pick up an order.
Sam felt bad for her and left a generous tip along with money for their tab.
“We’re ready to go,” Katie said.
Sam smiled, realizing Katie was wearing Evie’s red headband.
“Nice hairdo,” he said.
“We’re sharing, Daddy,” Evie said.
“Nobody’s sharing mine,” Beth said.
Sam didn’t blink an eye. He’d just kicked ass in the Hillbilly Pizza. Surely he could wear a headband without having his manhood questioned.
“You can share it with me,” Sam said.
Beth gasped. “You’ll wear my headband, Daddy?”
Sam leaned over. “Put it on me, sugar. I feel like sparklin’ today.”
She giggled, took off her headband, and carefully slid it into place on Sam’s head.
The room erupted into laughter. It was the perfect antidote for the bad taste Justin Tiller had left in this room.
“Are we going home now?” Beth asked.
“Lord, I hope so,” Sam said, then winked at Katie. “But we match.”
Katie nodded and grabbed Evie’s hand as Sam walked out with Beth.
She’d heard enough while they were in the bathroom to know there was a ruckus happening, and delaying their exit from the bathroom had been imperative, which was how trying on headbands became a thing.
But now, seeing how easily Sam had solved Beth’s feeling of being left out was the best. She’d never known a man this charming, who was this secure in his own sense of self. When they got into the car and headed home, Katie glanced at him, sitting behind the wheel, glittering like a Christmas ornament, and sighed.
Sam caught her staring.
“Just so you know…you’re quite beautiful, Miss Katie.”
Katie shivered inside. “So are you, sir. Inside and out.”
Chapter Sixteen
Sam pulled up into Katie’s drive.
“Thank you all for inviting me to pizza,” Katie said, and she pulled off the red headband and handed it to Evie.