by Tina Folsom
He laughed. “You weren’t exactly picking at yours either.” He liked that she didn’t eat like a bird, but had devoured her lunch the same way he had.
“You never complained before.”
“And I’m not complaining now either,” he quickly quashed any doubts she might have had. “You have a fabulous figure.”
A blush crept up her face, and she quickly looked away.
“It’s true,” he assured her. He reached for her hand and pressed his cheek into her palm. “Tell me a little more about you.”
“There isn’t that much to tell. You’ve seen my shop. I don’t know what else I can tell you.”
Dio rolled onto his side and propped his head up on his elbow. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
Ariadne shook her head. “I’m an only child. My parents always wanted more kids, but my mother had a hysterectomy a couple of years after I was born. Cancer.”
“I’m sorry. Is she all right now?”
“She’s doing fine. Goes for regular checkups. She’s a survivor.” There was a hint of a smile on her face.
Dio brushed his knuckles along her cheek. “So you come from strong stock.”
She laughed. “I guess you could say that.”
“Where do they live?”
“In Idaho. That’s where I’m from.”
“That makes you a country girl.”
“You mean gullible?”
“No!” He’d meant nothing of the sort. On the contrary, his thoughts were going into a different direction: she seemed so pure and innocent, so goodhearted. “What I meant was that you have values, you know, a strong sense for right and wrong, a good heart.”
“Is that how you see me?” There was a curious expression on her face.
Not entirely. He also saw her as enticing and sexy, but he kept those thoughts to himself. After their passionate interlude in the storeroom of her shop, he figured that he should be a bit more subtle about how much he desired her. “I see you a lot of different ways.” And right now, his mind saw her naked and writhing beneath him in ecstasy.
Dio wiped a pearl of sweat from his brow.
“You’re an interesting man, Dio,” she suddenly said.
“Thank the gods for that! Otherwise you would have probably picked somebody else over me.”
“Picked?”
“From all the other offers you've had. I’m sure I wasn’t the only guy who made a play for you.” With her beauty and her luscious figure, he was surprised that he didn’t have to fight other contenders off with a stick.
She looked away. “I didn’t date much before we met.”
While the thought pleased him, it also made him curious. Then he remembered something. “Because you’re religious?”
He noticed her flinch almost imperceptibly. Then she shrugged. “I didn’t meet any guy who I thought was worth it.”
Her words made him grin. So she thought he was worth it. His gaze strayed past her as he let the words sink in deeper. A movement caught his eye just as a cracking sound reached his ears.
“Ah, shit!” he cursed and jumped up in the same instance.
***
Ari jerked her head in the direction Dio was running and immediately saw what had him act in such panic. A young boy, probably not older than six or seven years, was dangling from a tree branch of a massive oak tree. The branch had already snapped where it was connected to a larger limb and was now holding on by a strip of bark—as was the boy.
“Mom!” he yelled. His feet were motoring as he tried to reach another branch, but he was too short and not strong enough to pull up his weight.
Ari estimated the distance to the ground as she sprinted after Dio. The boy was at least fifteen feet if not more off the ground. How he’d gotten up this tree in the first place was anybody’s guess.
Another cracking sound made her heart stop. The branch broke off completely, crashing down with the boy.
Dio’s body was a blur as he lunged underneath and caught the boy in his outstretched arms then rolled out of the way of the branch that crashed down on the spot he’d just occupied.
Breathless, Ari reached the place where Dio had landed with the boy at the same time as a couple of other people did.
“Mom!” he wailed. Thank God, if he could scream he had to be all right.
“Are you okay?” she heard Dio ask the boy, his voice urging. “Are you hurting anywhere?”
She watched as Dio gently lowered the boy on the ground next to him.
“Sammy?” a woman’s voice penetrated, the shrillness evidence of the panic she was in as she pushed through the onlookers.
“He’s all right,” Dio calmed the woman at the same time as he ran his hand over the boy’s head, smoothing down his ruffled hair. “Aren’t you, Sammy?”
Ari’s heart melted at the tender gesture.
“He could have broken his neck,” a male bystander offered.
Dio shot him an annoyed look. “Luckily, I got there in time.”
The mother pulled her son into an embrace, squeezing him tightly to her chest. “Oh, Sammy, how often have I told you not to climb those trees?” There were tears in her eyes now.
Sammy lowered his gaze. “Sorry, Mommy.” Then he turned to Dio, pointing at him. “But he caught me.”
Ari could fairly hear the admiration in his voice, and her own heart filled with pride. Dio had saved the boy.
Sammy’s mother set her son down but kept him close as she stretched her hand toward Dio who’d gotten to his feet and was brushing leaves and dirt off his shorts and shirt.
“I don’t know how to thank you.”
Dio simply took her hand and shook his head. “Anybody would have done the same. I was just faster.”
Faster? Ari had never seen anybody run as fast as Dio. And the way he’d grabbed the boy with such precision and was still able to avoid the tree limb hitting him was a move worthy of an athlete.
Ari put her arm around his waist and hugged him close.
“What’s that for, baby?” He chuckled and drew her fully against him.
“That was amazing!”
He put his finger under her chin and tilted her face up. “Just practicing for when we have our own. I’m sure the boys will get into plenty of scraps they’ll need to be rescued from.”
Ari felt tears well up. “You want children?”
There was a jolt in his body as he pulled back slightly. “You don’t?”
“No, I do. I can’t wait to have kids,” she hastened to correct him. “I just never thought that you really wanted any.” The subject had never come up during their two weeks of dating, but somehow she’d always assumed that he wasn’t interested in children.
“I love kids. They are like little wonders. I want a large family.” He smiled at her, then winked good-naturedly. “Now, how about a little kiss for your hero?”
She couldn’t argue with that and looked deep into his ocean-blue eyes. This was the Dio she’d fallen for, the one who made her laugh, the one she desired. “How about a big kiss for my hero?”
When his lips met hers, she forgot everything around her. Now she had only one wish: that all this was real and not a deception. And that she’d never lied to him.
Chapter Seventeen
Ariadne walked into Natalie’s restaurant and entered chaos. It was late afternoon, and while the restaurant was virtually devoid of diners, a couple of paramedics tended to a waitress who lay on the floor, her leg twisted backwards at an awkward angle. Her face was contorted in pain.
One paramedic was busy trying to straighten out the woman’s leg while the other prepared the stretcher. Ari averted her eyes when the waitress screamed in pain and searched the dining room for Natalie instead, finding her braced against the bar, her face ashen.
Ari walked up to her and put a hand on her arm, making her friend snap her gaze to her.
“I told her not to step on the chair. I would have gotten the ladder, but she didn’t listen.”
“She could have broken her neck.” Her eyes darted back to the waitress. She’d stopped screaming, and the two paramedics now lifted her onto the stretcher.
“It’ll be fine in a moment,” one of them assured her. “We’ll get you to the hospital. They’ll take good care of you.” Then he glanced toward Ari and Natalie and gave a faint smile, nodding in reassurance. “Most likely just a broken leg. It’s painful, but it feels like a clean break.”
Natalie nodded. “Thanks.” Then she walked to her employee and took her hand. “You take all the time you need to recover, you hear me?”
A low grunt came from the waitress before the paramedics carried her to the waiting ambulance.
Natalie turned back to Ari, wringing her hands. “She wanted to get the champagne glasses down from the top shelf.” Natalie closed her eyes, shuddering visibly. “The chair wobbled and she just fell backwards. I wasn’t fast enough to catch her.”
Ari patted her friend on the shoulder. “She was lucky.”
“That she was. Jesus, I’m gonna have to scramble to get a waitress on such short notice.”
“I would help out, but I have a group coming in tonight for a wine appreciation class, otherwise—”
Natalie interrupted her. “No, no. That’s quite all right. I’ll call around. Maybe Molly over at the Grill can help out if they’re not busy. We’re fully booked for tonight.” She sighed. “So, how’s the retraining of Dio going?” Natalie asked.
Retraining wasn’t exactly what Ari would call it. “So-so.”
Her friend raised an eyebrow. “That’s not much of an explanation.”
She shrugged. “I really don’t know what to say. Some things seem to work, but then … Well, he went to an AA meeting on Saturday. That’s a start.”
“An AA meeting? You didn’t tell me he’s an alcoholic.” Natalie’s shocked expression would have been funny if Ari had been in the mood to laugh.
“Of course he’s not an alcoholic, but I had to think fast and come up with something. I needed an excuse.”
“An excuse for what?”
“He was pestering me about why we’re not having sex.”
Natalie chuckled. “Told you that abstinence thing wouldn’t fly.”
Ari fisted her hands at her waist. “Of course it’ll work. I just had to get the motivation right. I think he’s buying it now.” She sure hoped so. “I told him that we decided to have sex once he’s dealt with his drinking problem.”
“But didn’t you just say he doesn’t have a drinking problem?”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, you lost me there.”
“Since he doesn’t have a drinking problem, he can’t fix it, ergo, we won’t have sex.” It made perfect sense.
Natalie twisted her lips into a frown. “And then we’re surprised that men don’t understand us. I wonder why.”
“There’s no need to be sarcastic. What would you have done? He was all over me. I had to do something!” And had she not blurted out that excuse, she would have landed in bed with him again and be no further than before.
“I know exactly what I would have done: let him be all over me and enjoyed it. I thought you told me he’s good in bed. Why don’t you just enjoy it and take it for what it is?”
“I can’t do that.” Sex wasn’t enough. Not after the glimpses she’d seen in Dio when he’d rescued that little boy. He would make a great father one day.
“You really think that he’ll just give up? If he’s really as hot as you say, he’s going to try again.”
Ari felt heat rise into her cheeks remembering the incident in the storeroom. Her entire body was suddenly burning. She cast her eyes to the side, not wanting to meet Natalie’s scrutinizing look.
“Oh, no, he’s done it again, hasn’t he?” Natalie’s voice sliced through her, exposing her weakness instantly. “That dog!” Her admonishment carried too much admiration to be taken as a reprimand.
“He cornered me in the storage room the other day,” Ari admitted, knowing that there was no need in hiding details from her friend. Natalie would get them out of her anyway. Might as well save them both some time by volunteering.
Natalie’s eyes gleamed with interest. “And? Come on, don’t let me pull it out of your nose.”
“He tried to seduce me. Luckily, Lisa interrupted just in time.”
“Ah, that sucks!” Natalie coughed. “I mean that’s fortunate.”
“I heard that. Whose side are you on?”
“Yours of course.” Her face turned serious. “So, tell me, are you still hell bent on turning him into a nice guy?”
Ari nodded. A nice guy who fell in love with her.
“Then I think we have to figure out a way of tiring that man out a little so that he won’t even think about sex.”
Ari listened up. Tiring him out? Wearing him down? Sounded like boot camp to her. Perfect. “Any ideas on how to do that?”
Natalie smiled like a Cheshire cat. “It appears that I’m short a waitress …”
***
Dio stared at the short, black apron in his hands, then back at Natalie, the woman Ari had introduced him to just before she’d excused herself to go back to her shop to conduct a wine appreciation class. The tall brunette was in her early thirties with a decent figure and intelligent and all too perceptive, brown eyes.
“I’m a waiter?” How was that possible? He didn’t feel like a waiter.
Dio let his eyes roam around the little restaurant. There were probably fifteen tables and a few extra seats at the bar. It had a casual bistro feel to it, warm and comfy, with ornamental lace curtains on the window, the kind that only covered the bottom half. Still, he didn’t recall ever having worked here.
Natalie nodded enthusiastically. “And when Ari told me about your little accident, I was very generous in letting you stay home for a few days.”
“You were?” He wrinkled his forehead into a deep frown, trying to come to grips with his lot. By the way his apartment was furnished and from the expensive brands of clothes he wore, he could have sworn that he was well off. How could a waiter afford the things he had? His leather couch alone looked like it had cost a waiter’s entire annual salary. It didn’t make sense.
“Yes. But now it’s time you come back to work. There’s nothing physically wrong with you.”
Natalie ran her eyes over his body for longer than he thought was necessary to assess his physical health, and he sensed that she liked what she saw. A thought popped into this mind: had he ever made a pass at his boss? Was that why she was ogling him like he was some forbidden fruit? Had he maybe even tangled with her a little because Ari wasn’t putting out?
“Now, put on that apron, and let’s get started. We have a ton of reservations tonight, and we need to turn over the tables quickly.” She pointed at a stack of folders on the bar. “Here are the menus, and the specials are on the board behind the bar.”
He looked up at the large chalkboard where somebody had marked down several dishes with colored crayons. One dish caught his eye: Seafood over grits. It sounded familiar. Somehow he knew that dish.
He pointed toward the board. “I think I’ve eaten that before.”
Natalie’s eyes followed his outstretched finger. “Probably. All my staff gets to eat what’s on the menu. We often do seafood over grits. It’s a popular dish in Charleston.”
Dio nodded. Perhaps working in his old job again would trigger some memories, even though they couldn’t possibly be good ones. How could slaving away as a waiter be a good thing? However, he needed to occupy himself with something until Triton and Sophia came back from their honeymoon and he could ask them about his life. And for all he knew, he might also need the money to support himself.
Dio tied the apron around his waist and went to work. How hard could it be? All a waiter did was take orders for food and then bring the plates to the table. It
wasn’t brain surgery. Despite his amnesia, surely this was within his capabilities.
***
Dio put the plates of food in front of the guests.
“What’s that?” the thin woman asked, her mouth twisting into a disgusted frown.
“The fried salmon sandwich with French fries.”
She pushed the plate away from her as if it contained toxic waste. “Do I look like I eat French fries?”
Dio let his eyes travel over her spindly figure. She didn’t look like she ate anything at all and should be grateful he made sure she consumed a few extra calories. “They’re excellent.” He’d eaten a few off her plate before he’d brought it to her, so he could attest to their crispiness.
“I ordered the salad with the dressing on the side, no fries, no bun and the salmon grilled, not fried!” she snapped.
Impatiently, Dio shifted his weight. He didn’t have time for this. The next table was already pestering him about the check. “It wouldn’t be a fried salmon sandwich then.”
“I didn’t order a fried salmon sandwich, I ordered the grilled salmon salad!”
Annoyed, Dio bent over her table. “You just said you ordered the fried salmon sandwich with salad on the side, without a bun and the salmon grilled not fried. So don’t change the order on me! We have no grilled salmon salad on the menu!” Damn it, couldn’t people just order what was on the fucking menu?
“I want to talk to the owner!” the woman hissed.
“Go ahead!”
Dio turned and rushed to the next table, slamming the check onto it.
“We haven’t had dessert yet,” the man protested.
Dio looked at his waistline and then at the overly round curves of his wife. “Trust me, you don’t want dessert. I recommend a brisk walk instead.”
The man’s jaw dropped, and his wife let out a shocked gasp. “How dare you insult us!” He patted his wife’s hand.
“Hey, I’m just telling you what’s good for your health.” Gods, these people were touchy!
“Waiter!” he heard another customer try to get his attention.
Relieved, he spun on his heels and walked to the table closest to the door. “Yes?”
