Cement Heart(13)

I hurried over and took her hand, leading her to my car. “How are you feeling today?”

“Better than you look.” She laughed as she climbed into my car.

“You tell me I look like shit every time you see me. It’s starting to give me a complex,” I joked as I closed the door and jogged around to my side.

“Oh, bull,” she scoffed. “You know you’re hot shit, and you don’t need my confirmation for that.”

“I was taught never to argue with my elders, so I’ll agree with you.” I wiggled my eyebrows up and down at her as she reached over and smacked my arm. “So, where we headed?”

She shrugged. “This was your idea. You choose.”

“Well, are you in the mood for breakfast or lunch?”

“I don’t care where we go or what we eat. Just make sure the place serves alcohol already.” She winked again as I pulled out of her driveway.



We’d only been driving a couple of minutes when I pulled into a nice restaurant just outside of downtown called The Raspberry Cafe.

“Here?” she exclaimed.

I parked my car and turned toward her, confused by her response. “Yeah, why?”

She glanced down at her turquoise sweat suit and back up at me with her brows pulled in tight. “I’m a little underdressed for this place. Come to think of it, so are you.”

“Who cares?” I waved her off. “Live a little. Besides, I’ve been here before—in sweats. They don’t care. They know me here.”

She sighed and picked her purse up off the floor of the car. “Fine, but you’re paying.”

I laughed and went around to her side of the car. She hooked her arm through mine as we slowly made our way into the restaurant. The smell of cinnamon smacked me in the face as I opened the big wooden doors and stepped back to let her go in ahead of me. The Raspberry Cafe was a contemporary yet rustic restaurant with real wooden beams on the ceiling and walls and stone accents on either side. What I liked best about the place were the tall wooden booths. They offered privacy, which is something I didn’t always get when I was out in public. It wasn’t like I couldn’t walk through the grocery store without being attacked, but I had enough fans to keep things interesting.

“Hi. Welcome to The Raspberry Cafe,” a busty, young olive-skinned girl greeted us as we walked in. “Two today?”

“That’s right.” I stared at her, trying to figure out if she was legal or not. Jailbait was a big fat no for me. Frankly, if she couldn’t legally take a drink of alcohol, I had no desire to fuck her. Another rule of mine.

She grabbed two menus off the hostess stand and led us to a table in the back corner. I was thankful for the added privacy even though the restaurant wasn’t busy.

“Thanks, dear.” Gam smiled at her as she slid into the booth.

Once the hostess set the menus down and walked away, I slid in across from Gam.

“She was cute.” She nodded in the direction the hostess had just walked.

“Sure.” I shrugged.

“Think you’d date her?”

“I don’t date anyone.”

“Why not?”

I sighed, uncomfortable with the thought of discussing my love life with my grandmother. “I don’t know. I don’t really have time.”

She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. “Oh, that’s crap, Lawrence, and you know it. You have more free time than you let on. You’re off today. You could be taking a beautiful woman to brunch.”

“I am having lunch with a beautiful woman.” I reached over and kissed the top of her hand.

“Oh…” She grinned shyly. “You little shit. You’re good. Got that charm from your papa.”

“From what I hear he was quite the man. I’ll take that as a compliment.”

I’d never met my grandfather. He was the love of Gam’s life, but he’d died before I was born. I could tell he was a great man just based on the way her eyes lit up when she talked about him. As a kid, instead of reading to me, she would tell me stories about their life before he died. From what I knew, he was a talented artist, a badass pilot, and a practical joker.

“He was quite the man,” she responded, her eyes red-rimmed, “and your father was too.”

Check, please.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me,” she scolded.

Oops.

“Sorry,” I apologized coldly.

“Lawrence, your parents love you very much.”

“That’s great.” I picked up my menu. “What are you getting?”

Her hand came over the top of my menu and smacked it down hard onto the table. “Right now? The brush-off from my grandson.”