She sat back, then picked up her menu and marveled at the wonders there. Cheeseburgers. Fries. Meatloaf. No pâté, no foie gras, not a piece of endive to be seen.
"You need another minute?"
Kelly looked up at the very ordinary-looking waitress. She smiled. "I know what I want. A cheeseburger, French fries, well-done, please and a thick, strawberry shake."
"Got it." The woman who was somewhere on the far side of thirty, turned to James and gave him a blue-plate smile. "What about you, hon?"
He grinned, but not at the waitress. "I'll have what she's having. Only make my shake vanilla."
Kelly nodded. She knew how James watched his diet. James lived on egg-white omelets and poached chicken breasts.
"You're a wicked woman, Kelly Declaremount-black."
"Yes, I am and let me tell you something else, Mr Barnes. I intend to have a hot-fudge sundae for dessert. With whipped cream and a cherry.
"You maniac. Is there no holding you back?"
"No. Wild horses couldn't stop me."
He laughed and before she knew it, she laughed, too and it was the first time she'd laughed in so long that tears came to her eyes and then she wasn't laughing at all.
He leaned forward, took her hand in his. "Don't. Don't let him take this, too."
She nodded. He was right. This was hers, damn it. Jones couldn't touch her here. Not here, in this dumb little coffee shop with plastic seats and fake flowers. But the tears, they wouldn't stop.
Not even when James got up, walked over to her side of the booth and slipped in next to her and when he put his arm around her, she was lost.
It didn't stop for a long time. She just cried and cried and leaned her head on his shoulder. His firm, wide shoulder. She smelled his smell, felt his fingers gentle on her arm and the tears, they just kept coming.
What stopped them wasn't the milk shakes. It wasn't the cheeseburgers.
What froze the tears in her eyes and the blood in her veins was Daniel Lee, standing on the other side of the coffee shop door, staring at her and James. Lifting a cellphone to his ear.
YOU ARE READING
Not-So-Secret
RomanceLike father . . . like son. The empty crib, the warning note - Kelly Declaremount-black recognised the signs that her secret life had been discovered. To save her son, she became the willing captive of a man arrogantly convinced that her baby was hi...
