Danielle glared at her. “As if. That man is nothing but trouble. We shouldn’t have let the Sheriff’s job go to an outsider.”
“I don’t know. I think he’s doing a really good job.”
“Not the point I was making.”
Lila tried to suppress her smile, but Danielle noticed. “What? What was that smirk for?”
“Nothing!” she sang in response. “I just think that you two have a very interesting dynamic.”
“Whatever.” She smoothed her hair down and grabbed her hat before settling in her usual seat.
“Where’s Mason?” Mrs. Francis asked, calling her over. “He knows how I like my carrots.”
“He’ll be in shortly, but he got them ready for you last night.” She ducked back to the kitchen, grabbed the carrots, and returned to Mrs. Francis.
“That boy is something special. I feel it in my old bones.”
“Old? Who? You? No! You’re not a day over a hundred.”
Mrs. Francis laughed. “If only that were true.”
The two women exchanged a laugh, but Lila stopped when the kitchen door opened wide. Mason walked up to the counter and nodded to Mrs. Francis. “How are you doing today?”
Mrs. Francis waved him off. “I’m not here. Don’t say hi to me. Talk to her. She’s why you’re here.”
Mason smiled at her. “You see right through me, Mrs. Francis.” He turned toward Lila, his smile widening as he did. “Hi,” he whispered. He leaned into her and kissed her softly. It was barely a few seconds, but Lila felt it everywhere. She almost wished that they weren’t in the diner with patrons watching them.
But that’s exactly where they were. And now that Mason had kissed her in front of everyone, all of Half Moon Key would know Lila and Mason were dating. It would get back to Nana, and that was fine.
That wasn’t the hard part. Would the town remember that she had fallen with another outsider who had left her heartbroken not so long ago? Would they whisper about her? Probably.
Did she care?
Only if Mason ended up leaving. If he stayed, her mistakes wouldn’t matter anymore because they would have been leading her right to Mason.
The rest of the day was more of the same. Every time Lila was in the kitchen or Mason was in the dining room, he took a second to kiss her. It was always quick and sweet, but Lila was starting to be scared that she would get addicted to his kisses.
The man even came to kiss her when he had no business in the dining room!
Lila didn’t mind so much that everyone would know by the end of the day. What did it matter if she was kissing Mason? It made her happy.Masonmade her happy. Why shouldn’t she bask in it?
It was very late when the diner was all clean and ready for the morning. The song playing over the speaker was soft and romantic. Lila hummed along, but Mason had her in his arms before the song hit the second chorus. With his hands on her hips and hers locked around his neck, they swayed to the music.
“I had a really good day working with you, darling.”
She smiled up at him. “I did too. It’s nice to have you around giving me all of the kisses I could possibly want.”
He chuckled. “There’s plenty more where that came from.” He leaned over and brushed his lips against hers.
“Think we’ve had enough teasing for one day. Kiss me like you mean it, Mason Pierce.”
“Oh, when it comes to you, darling, I’ll always mean it.” He sealed his mouth to hers again, this time letting his tongue delve into her mouth. He held her closer and closer until there was no doubt in her mind that he was aroused. His erection pressed into her, and she was so tempted to reach out and touch it.
What would it be like to hear Mason moan under her touch? What would it be like to feel his hands all over her?
“Mason,” she moaned against his mouth.
“Lila?” he said between swipes of her mouth.