"Are you ready?" he asked as he disconnected his call.
"Yes. Let's see if this café is as good as you think it is."
"Your faith in me is humbling," he said, chortling, and Haley added one more item to her list of things she liked about Crew. He could laugh at himself.
*****
"It may look like a dive, but I'm telling you, Aunt Mae makes the best food I've ever tasted, and I've traveled a lot."
"You haven't lived here very long, have you? I thought you moved here only two years ago."
"I did move here two years ago, but my family owns a home on the other side of the island and we spent at least a couple of weeks a year here. I discovered Aunt Mae's café when I was sixteen, and I've been coming back ever since.
"Well, I hope it's as good as you say because right now I feel like I could take a knife and fork to a grizzly."
Crew stopped and laughed before opening the restaurant door. He was relieved to see her want a decent meal, for too often she just picked at her food. If he'd thought for a moment it was because she was putting on airs or worried about her figure, he'd be disgusted. Women who did that irritated him.
With Haley, he suspected that stress was the biggest problem. If she was worried about something, or frightened, she didn't function right. When she was happy or sated - he'd done a good job with that last night - then she seemed to have a bottomless appetite.
Well, he'd brought her to the right place. Aunt Mae liked to pile on the food. He didn't even bother ordering when he came here. Whatever she decided to bring him was always top notch.
He could see the surprise in Haley's eyes as they walked through the rickety door with tall, lush plants framing it. The building needed a fresh coat of paint and was in desperate need of new furnishings, but no matter how many times he'd offered his help, pleaded with her to accept it, or even tried to force it upon her, Aunt Mae had turned him down flat.
The tables were scarred, but she said that just added to the atmosphere. He knew that one of these days, the rickety chairs were going to leave him with his ass on the floor, but the food was divine and the décor just added to the experience.
Crew and Haley were lucky to find two bar stools open, and they sat down and rested their arms on the worn yet squeaky-clean counter. Behind it was an open window with a behemoth of a man wiping his brow with his forearm as he flipped burgers in the air.
Crew watched Haley eye the colorful posters announcing various menu items; there wasn't a handheld menu in sight. The pies sat in a small display case on the end of the counter, and the oven-baked aromas drifted out to torment them, making Haley's stomach rumble loudly.
"I guess you are hungry," he said with a grin as Aunt Mae approached them.
Haley's eyes widened at the stick-thin figure who couldn't reach five feet tall if she were wearing heels. Aunt Mae planted her hands on the counter, then leaned forward and gave Crew a kiss on the cheek before turning suspicious eyes on Haley.
Crew had never brought another woman in here, so he could see the surprise in the woman's eyes and knew she was judging Haley. He wasn't worried. There was something about Haley that drew others to her, and he was sure that by the end of their lunch, Aunt Mae would be trying to coddle her and send her home with a doggie bag loaded with food.
"You haven't visited me in weeks, Crew Storm. What makes you think I'll serve up anything for you to eat?" she pouted, and Crew could see the surprise in Haley's eyes at the deep, husky voice that didn't match her petite face and body. Years of hard booze and cheap cigarettes had given her what was just one of her many charms in Crew's eyes.
"I've been busy getting the new resort running, Aunt Mae. I've noticed you haven't taken up my offer of staying a night and testing out my chefs," he countered, and she blushed.
"I can't stay in your hoity-toity resort. I'd never be able to sleep again in my shabby little room upstairs. I will make it over some night to get a free meal. I'm not telling you until it's over, though. I don't want you telling them to fix something special. The best way for me to see if they're good enough to be cooking for you is for them not to know who I am."
Though it wasn't widely known, Aunt Mae had been a top-rated food critic when she was younger. Getting fed up with all the terrible dishes she had to endure, she'd given up her high-paying job and settled down to open her own place nearly thirty years before. The building had been old then, but in better shape.
Hard economic times had made the years rough, but she still had a steady stream of regular customers. One way or another, Crew would make sure she kept the place as long as she liked, even if he had to tie her down while the workers came in and made repairs.