Nodding, Katie placed Harv’s food on the serving tray, then grabbed an order pad and pencil. “Jeremiah usually asks for the day’s special.”
“Jeremiah?” Helen cocked an eyebrow and stopped spooning green beans onto a plate to stare at Katie. “Did I miss somethin’? When did you get to be so friendly with him?”
“I’m not,” Katie insisted, careful to keep her voice low. “But he’s been coming here nearly every day for the past two months. It just doesn’t seem right to keep calling him Silent Sam.”
“Why Katie Andrews, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were sweet on him,” Helen said, her hazel eyes twinkling merrily.
“Oh good heavens, Helen,” Katie said impatiently. Why did she suddenly feel so uncharacteristically flustered? “I’m too old to have a crush on anyone.”
Grinning, Helen whispered, “You’re a woman and you’re still breathin’ ain’t you?” Before Katie could respond, she added, “Shoot, if I wasn’t married to Jim, I might even be tempted to set my sights on that one. As my daughter and her friends always say, he’s hotter than a firecracker on the Fourth of July.”
Katie gave her friend a wan smile. “We don’t have time for this, Helen. We have a café full of people waiting for their food.”
“Hittin’ a little too close to home for you, Katie?” Helen asked, laughing.
“You’re not even in the same ball park.” Turning, Katie started around the counter to serve Harv his fried steak. “Now, get back to work, Helen.”
Katie cringed as Helen’s delighted cackle followed her across the café. The woman wasn’t buying her disinterest in Jeremiah Gunn for a minute. But what disturbed her more than anything was the fact that she was having a hard time believing it herself.
Harv Jenkins droned on about the advantages of fly-fishing the smaller streams over one of the larger tributaries like Piney River, but Jeremiah wasn’t listening to a word the old guy said. He was too busy wondering what the hell had gotten into him.
For the past two months, he’d ridden his Harley down the mountain each weekday at noon to have lunch in the Blue Bird Café. And every day the waitress everyone called Katie had taken his order.
But today, when he held the door for her to enter the café, it was as if he’d seen her for the first time. Watching her move around behind the counter as she talked to the cook and prepared to serve someone’s food, he had to admit that she was a damn fine-looking woman.
But why hadn’t he noticed that before? How could he have missed how pretty her aquamarine eyes were or that her long, dark brown hair looked like strands of shiny chestnut-colored silk?
“Did you hear what I just said, boy?” Harv asked, sounding impatient. “Piney River is good for cat fishin’, but if I’m wantin’ to do some serious trout fishin’, I like streams like that one behind your cabin.”
“It’s not my cabin,” Jeremiah answered, turning his attention back to the older gentleman sitting across the worn Formica table from him. “I’m just renting it for a few months.”
Harv grinned. “You know, Ray Applegate’s been lookin’ to sell his grandma’s old place.”
Jeremiah figured he knew where the conversation was headed. “That’s what Ray told me when I rented it from him.”
“You decided how long you’re gonna stay here on Piney Knob?” Harv asked.
Harv had been asking that question for the past month. And just as he had each time Harv asked, Jeremiah shook his head and gave him the same answer. “Nope. I’m just taking it one day at a time and getting used to my new status as a civilian.”
“How long was it you said you were in the Marine Corps?” Harv asked.
“Nineteen years.”
Jeremiah still felt a keen sense of regret that his military career had come to a premature end. If he hadn’t ended up with a bum knee after being injured in that mission a few months ago, he’d still be barking orders to his men and wouldn’t be faced with having to decide what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.
“Here you go, Harv,” Katie said, setting down a plate of country fried-steak and mashed potatoes covered in enough white gravy to clog every artery in Harv’s entire body. Turning her attention to Jeremiah, she smiled. “What can I get for you today…Jeremiah?”
Feeling as if he’d been punched right square in the gut, Jeremiah swallowed hard. She had one of the prettiest smiles he’d ever seen, and the sound of her soft voice saying his name caused a warm feeling to spread throughout his chest.
Clearing his suddenly dry throat, he finally managed to push words past his paralyzed lips. “I’ll have whatever the special is for the day.”
“One plate of chicken and dumplings, green beans and sliced tomatoes coming right up,” she said, jotting his order on the pad of paper in her hand. “And what would you like to drink with that?”
“Iced tea.” He didn’t bother telling her he wanted the sweetened tea. In Dixie Ridge they didn’t serve it any other way.
“Your order will be ready in just a few minutes.” She tucked the pad of paper in the front pocket of her apron. “And I’ll be right back with your tea.”
When she turned to walk over to the lunch counter, Jeremiah noticed the two men sitting at the next table were about to get up. But before he could warn Katie to watch out, the guy closest to her shoved his chair backward and right into her. She staggered and Jeremiah instinctively reached to keep her from falling. Before he knew quite how it happened, he found Katie sitting on his lap.
They stared at each other for endless seconds as several things about her began to register in his startled brain. Katie smelled like peaches and sunshine, and her perfectly shaped lips were parted as if begging for his kiss. But those weren’t the only things he noticed. Her body was soft in the way only a woman’s could be, and her lush curves pressing against him were causing certain parts of his anatomy to respond in a very male way.
“Sorry about that, Katie,” the man who had bumped into her apologized, breaking the spell. “I was braggin’ about my new baby girl and wasn’t payin’ attention to what I was doin’.”
“It’s all right, Jeff,” Katie said, sounding breathless. “How are Freddie and the baby doing?”
“Just fine.” Offering his hand to help her to her feet, the man laughed. “But Nick isn’t sure he’s going to like being a big brother.”
Jeremiah wasn’t sure why, but when Katie started to accept the man’s help, he tightened his arm around her waist, effectively holding her in place. If the startled look she gave him was any indication, she was as surprised by his action as he was.
Glaring at the man she’d called Jeff, Jeremiah watched the guy raise an eyebrow, then wisely move on toward the check-out counter. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
Her cheeks colored a pretty pink. “The question is, are you all right?”
“Of course.” He frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I sat down pretty hard and…I’m not exactly a lightweight.” The blush on her pretty face deepened. Before he could respond, she wiggled out of his grasp, stood up and looked around as if trying to find an escape. “I need to…ring up Jeff’s lunch ticket.”
Jeremiah