* * *
“Hold up.” Megan grabbed her arm as Jules rushed past, swinging her around with the force of her momentum.
“I promised the guys their breakfast,” Jules protested. “They just got creepy Norman to quit being handsy with me, plus—and much more importantly—Hugh was shot in the leg while saving my brother. The least I can do is make sure they get fed. Vicki’s in a mood and can’t promise to put a rush on their order, and kind of… Well, she demanded that I get out of her kitchen, so I grabbed some biscuits and gravy to tide the guys over. I put it on my tab.”
“Those three will be fine waiting a few minutes for their food. Did Hugh do his starving-puppy imitation?”
“Well…” He had looked a bit like a starving puppy.
“Besides,” Megan continued before Jules could answer, “they’re doing their thing.”
“Thing?” Jules looked over at where the three cops had joined Norman in his booth. Since she’d been distracted by Hugh’s mention of his leg hurting, and Theo just being Theo, and relief at getting away from Norman’s tight grip as he babbled about needing to tell her something important, she hadn’t wondered why the guys had sat down with Norman. “What thing is that?”
“Their cop thing,” Megan said, as if it were obvious. “And it’s about time. Norman Rounds has been here every morning for the past two weeks, staring at you with his weird creeper stare, and now he’s started grabbing you. That’s not okay for anyone to do, but especially Norman. He’s one of Gordon’s bomb nuts, so he’s not one you want to have as your very own super-special stalker.”
“Bomb nuts?” Seriously? As if she didn’t have enough to worry about, now Megan was telling her that a guy who was into bombs had a crush on her? This was bad.
“Yeah. Gordon has a group of guys living at his place, and they build things that go boom while discussing how much the government sucks. Theo will have a talk with him about how there’s only one creeper allowed to stalk you at a time, and Theo’s called dibs.” Ignoring Jules’s stare, Megan continued. “Those two are your only tables right now. Why don’t you go sit down, eat your biscuits and gravy, and ignore those guys for a few minutes. If anyone else comes in, I can babysit your section while you take a breath.”
Shaking off the disturbing information overload Megan had just dumped on her head, Jules glanced around. It was true. There was a lull, rare for this early in the morning. Even in the short time she’d been working as a server, she’d learned to grab breaks when the opportunity presented itself. Jules wasn’t about to turn down Megan’s offer, especially as frantic as the day had already been.
“Thank you, Megan.” With a final, curious glance at Norman’s table, where the three cops seemed to loom over the strange man—as much as three people sitting down could loom—Jules obediently headed for an unoccupied booth in the corner. She chose the side that had an excellent view of whatever was going down at table twelve. Jules was curious to see what “doing their thing” entailed.
Norman had become an early morning regular at the diner, always sitting at table twelve, and she’d started to dread seeing him walk in. She would’ve asked Megan to switch sections with her, since the other woman didn’t seem to be as bothered by Norman’s weirdness—or much of anything, actually—but then Jules would lose the cops’ table, too. She was willing to put up with Norman in exchange for an excuse to talk to Theo every day.
Speaking of Theo, he was saying something to Norman, who looked…how Norman always looked. Bland. Possibly mildly amused. Although Jules had a more oblique view of Theo’s face, she didn’t have to see his expression to know he was frowning. In fact, his entire body was scowling.
It would’ve been better if she could have heard what they were saying, but the men kept their voices low. She gave up trying to figure out the gist of the conversation and just enjoyed her biscuits and gravy, as well as her chance to stare at Theo as much as she wanted without anyone noticing.
As soon as she had that thought, she caught Hugh’s amused glance and held back a sigh. Busted. Well, even if her gawking had been noticed, at least she still had her food. Jules tried to stay focused on her plate, but her disobedient eyes kept glancing at the cop—her cop.
Finally they slid out of Norman’s booth and started back to their usual table. When Theo glanced around and spotted her, he reversed direction and headed her way. Her stomach did its usual spin and dive at the sight of him, so big and intense and focused on her, and she put down her fork. With all the butterflies in her belly, there was no room for any more biscuits and gravy.