“Honestly?” Jake shook his head as if he were looking into a grave. “Gert makes the worst coffee in the hemisphere. I never had the heart to tell Holly and Simon. But I appreciate the thought. Bring it in. I can stash it in the garage for now. Maybe I’ll write it into my will.” He chuckled.
The skin on Luke’s back stretched again as he bent to pick up the big metal box, but he followed Jake inside and set it on an old hardware bench in the garage.
“How about you tell me why you’re really here?” Jake asked when the older man closed the door to the garage behind him.
“If you have some time, I need your help,” Luke said. “With Simon.”
Jake sighed and closed his eyes. He leaned heavier on his cane. “If memory serves, you could grill up a pretty good steak. That still the case?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, then, you cook. And I’ll give you the lowdown on my grandson.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“GOOD MORNING, DAD.” Holly carried a plate stacked high with banana-walnut pancakes over to table seven, refilled the customer’s cup and planted a kiss on her father’s cheek. “What brings you by so early on a Friday morning?”
“Since when is eight o’clock early?” Jake chuckled at the sight of Simon with his head in his arms sound asleep at the counter.
“Since I haven’t seen much of you since, well...” She shrugged. She was having too good a day to think about how reclusive her father had become since his job had ended.
“I’m meeting Luke for breakfast. Can I grab a booth?” He motioned to the empty one behind Simon.
“Sure.” Ah, Luke? She scrubbed her free hand against her thigh. “You want your usual? Paige is filling in for Ursula for a few hours. Did you know she and Matilda are teaming up for a weekend bake-off in Monterey?” It was the first time Holly could remember the senior sisters not competing against one another. That alone should prove attendance-worthy.
“I heard rumblings of it.” Jake aimed a look through the kitchen window, where Paige was whipping up a batch of batter for Belgian waffles. “Paige is working out, then?”
“In this case, taking a chance has paid off. I don’t think I could keep this place going without her.” Being able to get in a decent night’s sleep, along with baking her pies in the morning instead of late into the evening, made her feel as though she’d struck gold. “I hate to say it, but the mayor’s expansion proposal might pay off after all.”
“Whatever you do, don’t tell Gil,” Luke said as he patted his hands against the poufy khaki uniform jacket staving off the morning chill. He blew on his hands. “Not yet anyway. Morning, Holly.”
“Good morning.” The sight of Luke first thing should have set her teeth on edge. Instead, all she could think was the man definitely knew how to wear a uniform. And that quirky, semiamused grin of his set her heart to fluttering faster than a flood of butterflies. “Coffee?”
“Dump it on my head, please.”
“Not until your wound heals.” Holly was glad to see him displaying his sense of humor again.
“What wound?” Jake’s forehead creased.
“I’ll fill you in over breakfast,” Luke said.
Would Luke have told her father anything if she hadn’t said something? “What can I get you, Luke?”
“Surprise me,” he answered.
“You heard the man, Paige,” Holly called, her voice rousing Simon, who drew sleepy eyes around the sparsely filled diner. “Surprise him.”
* * *
“ARE MY EYES deceiving me, or have you and my daughter finally called a truce?”
“It appears so,” Luke murmured as he slid into the booth across from Jake. The other day hadn’t been his imagination after all. “Let’s not jinx it.” He kept a watch on Simon out of the corner of his eye. The kid might be smart about a lot of things, but his spying technique wasn’t going to win him any prizes for covertness. Simon had a difficult time controlling his facial expressions. Or hiding the fact he couldn’t really hear anyone without turning his head in their direction.
Luke and Jake were counting on both quirks as they sipped their coffee and kept their conversation loud enough to tempt the pair of small, devious ears.
“You held Rex Winters all this time?” Jake frowned over the top of his white porcelain mug after Luke filled him in about Kyle.
“He’s being transferred to county jail this morning,” Luke said. “That reminds me. Fletch mentioned something about it being unusual for Winters to leave his house. What’s with that?”