Hudson (Anderson Billionaires #4) - Melody Anne Page 0,64
wanted to find faults in his logic, and in him personally, but she honestly couldn’t.
“Time for breakfast,” he said as they turned another corner, and she found herself on a path that moved along a stream.
“Oh, this is beautiful,” she said. “How big is this community?”
“We just exited Carmel Heights, but this trail continues. The community we were in is about two square miles, and we only saw about half of it, so it’s much larger than what I’ll be able to do for now. But I hope to eventually grow.”
“You don’t know if you’re doing yours,” she pointed out. “Yet,” she added, feeling kind of bad for wanting to take it away from him.
“I’ll do it,” he told her, making her shoulders tense. He squeezed her fingers. “Even if I have to find another piece of land.”
She relaxed just as they turned a corner and entered a small restaurant with a huge back patio filled with tables and overhead heaters. The place was about half filled with happy diners enjoying a late breakfast on a beautiful Saturday morning.
She and Hudson were seated where they had a great view of the wide stream. People were scattered along the bank fishing and others were in the water kayaking. More people were out walking just as she and Hudson had been doing.
“This is a great place. I’ll definitely come back,” she told him.
“Have you kayaked before?”
“No, it’s one thing I haven’t done, but I’ve always wanted to.”
“I’ve done it a lot with my brothers. It’s a lot of fun. But in this area, we have a limited amount of time for outdoor sports,” he said with a chuckle.
“That’s true. We have so much rain here that it drives us inside way too often. That was the one thing I didn’t miss when I traveled all over the world.”
They each picked up a menu, and she was delighted with the choices.
“You should try the Moroccan baked eggs. They’re delicious if you want something different,” Hudson said. She looked over the menu and gave him a huge smile. “What?”
“You’re totally going to judge me, especially after I ate the donut this morning and then had two cups of coffee.”
“I don’t judge,” he said.
The waitress appeared. “Would you like something to drink while you’re deciding?” she asked.
“I’ll have a cup of coffee with lots of room for cream and a large glass of milk with my breakfast,” Daisy said without hesitation. Hudson placed his drink order. Before the waitress could leave, Daisy added, “I think we’re ready to order our food too.”
“Perfect,” the waitress said as Hudson set down his menu.
“I’ll take the Moroccan baked eggs with hash browns and extra crispy bacon on the side,” she said. The waitress began to turn to Hudson. “I’ll also have an order of the caramel apple cinnamon roll pancakes with warm syrup.”
Hudson laughed, though the waitress didn’t even blink. Daisy had to give her credit for discretion. It was a huge breakfast.
“Double that, but switch the bacon for sausage,” Hudson said.
“Perfect. I’ll be out with your coffee in a minute.”
“I’d ask if you think you can eat all of that, but I flew with you,” Hudson said after a couple of seconds.
“Everything looked so good. I couldn’t choose,” Daisy told him. “We’ll just have to jog back to the truck and burn off some of the calories we’re about to consume.”
“I think we’re going to be rolling back to the truck when we’re finished with this breakfast,” Hudson told her.
They continued to chat as other people did the same all around them. For such a busy place, their food came surprisingly fast. By the time they started eating, Daisy was regretting the jeans she’d chosen. By the time she stuffed the last bite of her cinnamon roll into her mouth she really wanted to undo her pants. She seriously could’ve eaten half the food and been more than full, but it had all been so good she hadn’t been able to waste a single bit of it.
By the time they finished, and Hudson paid, she had to stand. It was too uncomfortable to sit any longer. She groaned as they made their way down the steps and began walking — very slowly.
“I might’ve eaten a bit too much,” she admitted after a couple of minutes. “I can’t walk any faster or I might throw up, so there definitely won’t be any jogging in the near future.”
Hudson laughed hard as he rubbed his belly, pushing it out a