followed her inside. “But, it’s the one thing that we all have in common.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, glancing around the small shop nervously.
“Relax,” he said as he leaned down and kissed her forehead, because she looked like she could use a little support and not because it felt like an eternity since the last time he’d touched her. “Everything in here is safe for you to eat.”
After a slight pause she nodded and ventured closer to the large menu posted on the wall. She stood there for several minutes, not saying anything as she took in what they had to offer.
“What do you recommend?” she asked, chewing on her bottom lip as she started at the top of the menu and worked her way down again, obviously wary of her first real taste of gluten-free cooking.
He hadn’t actually tried anything here, because of the obsession he had with dissecting recipes and recreating them for his restaurant, but his brothers had. As far as he knew they’d given every item on the menu the Bradford seal of approval so he pointed at the first item on the menu.
“The baked macaroni and cheese is pretty good,” he said, praying that his brothers hadn’t made him a liar, otherwise he was going to have to hunt them down and beat the shit out of every last one of them.
Chapter 19
“Would you stop doing that?” Lucifer snapped as he was once again forced to pluck an ice cube out of his glass and place it on the back of his hand.
“Probably not,” she said, taking her time to scoop up another spoonful of that delicious beef stew and dumplings that she’d let him talk her into ordering after she’d devoured the baked macaroni and cheese.
“You could share,” he pointed out, on the verge of pouting as he sat there looking from his empty bowl to hers and then back again.
“I could,” she agreed, pausing long enough so that she could enjoy that perfect spoonful of beef, gravy, vegetable and dumpling before adding, “but I’m not going to.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously on her and she knew that look well enough to know that he was seriously considering stealing the rest of her food, but lucky for him, he didn’t try. She really hated the idea of sending him to the ICU after everything he’d done for her, but if he tried to steal another bite of her delicious food she wouldn’t have much of a choice.
“You’re mean,” he grumbled, signaling to the waitress for another bowl.
“Yup,” she agreed as she scooped up another spoonful, already planning on stealing his bowl of beef stew when it came, “that’s me.”
“And it doesn’t bother you?” he asked with a curious tilt of his head as he studied her.
“Not at all,” she said with a shake of her head as she reached for the hot roll that she’d noticed Lucifer eying. “Does it bother you that everyone thinks you’re an asshole?”
He chuckled as he grabbed the roll before she could. “No.”
“Seriously?” she asked, not because she didn’t believe him, because she did, but because she was honestly just curious.
“Why would it bother me?” he asked with a careless shrug as he broke off a piece of his roll. He dipped it in her bowl and soaked up some of the gravy.
“Because most people would have a problem with everyone believing that they’re an asshole,” she explained as she watched him.
“Most people are fucking morons,” he said unapologetically as he took the bowl of stew from the stunned waitress, who practically ran away as soon as she placed an extra basket of freshly baked rolls on the table.
“And why’s that?” she asked, grabbing a gluten free roll, still surprised at how good it tasted. It didn’t taste exactly like a regular roll, but it was close enough that she didn’t care.
“Because they care what other people think,” he said as he stole the roll out of her hand.
Sighing, she reached for another roll. “And you don’t?”
“Not one fucking bit,” he said as he dug into his stew, leaving her to wonder how that must feel.
It was definitely a tactic that could have come in handy for most of her life, she thought as she picked up her spoon and-
“Did you want me to kill you?” the selfish bastard asked with a cold glare that had her sighing as she continued with her mission to steal a large chunk of dumpling out of his bowl.
“Yeah, because you really scare