When Jack pulled up to the front doors of the office, he gave me his cell and ordered me to plug in my address and phone number. Then I reached for the door and said, “Thanks a lot for the picnic, Jack. It was sweet of you, and the food was amazing. I don’t think any guy has ever gone through that much trouble just to feed me lunch.”

He grabbed my arm. “You’re welcome, honey. I’m happy you liked the food. And the company, I hope?” He leaned in to kiss me. His face changed, and he asked, “Did your ex contact you again?”

I slumped over. Was this why he took me out? To check if Gabe was still being a dick? “No, and he won’t. Something shiny will come along and take his attention away from me.”

“I want you to call me immediately if he does. Deal?” God, he looked so worried. Why? The man hardly even knew me.

“Deal.” I sighed.

“Bye, gorgeous,” he said and kissed my nose. I did my best to smile, but I felt sick thinking that he only took me out to check on Gabe. Shit.

Once I opened the office doors, his car engine revved out of the parking lot.

Two crazy women and two very messy, very adorable boys greeted me. The crazy women were beaming insane smiles at me. The sweet boys were covered head to toe in ketchup. Well, not quite but pretty darn close.

“Who had French fries for lunch?” I raised my eyebrows and hands.

“We did, Auntie Harper. How’d you know?” Nicki asked, cocking his head to the side suspiciously.

“Hey, yeah, how did you know?” Levi chimed in, as he wiped more ketchup from his face onto his light green shirt. Yikes. I’d have to ask Audrey what kind of stain remover she used. Whatever she had worked like dynamite.

“Just a good guess, that’s all. And what did your mommy and Auntie Vivienne have for lunch? A big fat gossip burger with a side of idle chatter?” I said and narrowed my eyes at the women as I stashed my purse.

“Well, we didn’t have a hot restaurateur sandwich with a side of broad shoulders like you did, that’s for sure,” Audrey said and both she and Vivienne exploded into roaring laughter.

“You guys are nuts. Nothing happened.”

“Nothing happened. Then why is there grass in your hair?” Vivienne said, pulling out a few pieces and handing them to me.

“Looks like our girl got some fun in the sun,” Vivienne screeched, and again they both cackled like a couple of old women. “He came in and scooped you up like a scene from a Brat Pack movie. It was awesome.”

“Oh my gosh, you guys are bad. First, he apologized for acting like a…” I said and adjusted my speech for our present company. “Dufus. Then we ate his picnic lunch by the lake. I had no idea that place even existed, but it was so nice and peaceful there.” I kept talking while I kicked Vivienne out of my chair and sat down and checked my computer. “You should have seen what he made. I was expecting tuna fish sandwiches or crackers and cheese, but he brought these platters of focaccia bread with avocado, prosciutto, and cheese sandwiches and some kind of duck salad with grapes and apples in these cute little lettuce leaves. It was to die for. Oh, and chocolate dipped strawberries. So good.” I was babbling, and I also felt guilty because from the bags lying around, all they had was fast food from Bacon Burger. So, I shut my trap.

Now, Bacon Burger was wonderful—don’t get me wrong—they had the best burgers in town, all gushy secret sauce and onions on the biggest, juiciest patties. but there wasn’t any comparison to the awesomeness that Jack served me.

“I hate you. All Murray knows how to make is macaroni and cheese, and ninety-nine percent of the time he screws that up.” Audrey scowled at me.

“Holy. He’s crazy about you, Harper. Nobody would do all that for someone unless they wanted to impress them. Holy.” Vivienne looked at me with wide eyes. “Harper has a boyfriend,” she chanted just loud enough so the boys would hear.

“Ewwww, Auntie Harper would never have a boyfriend. That’s gross,” Nicki said.

“Yeah, and she’s marrying me anyway, so what’s the point?” Levi answered, not looking up from the paper he was drawing on with my best permanent marker. Oh boy.

Fuck, watching her hot ass sway up to the office doors made me all kinds of hard. Again. Taking it slow wasn’t exactly my style, so I guess I’d have to get used to my perma-blue balls. Ouch. Just thinking about that made me ache.

But the more I learned about her past with her asshole of an ex-husband, the clearer it became I’d have to go slow with her. She hadn’t had a man in her bed in a year and a half, and the last one she had there left some open wounds. That was obvious.

Right now, I had to get back to the restaurant before Ma showed up. Traffic was incredible on the highway, and if I didn’t have this unbelievable car to maneuver in and out of the lanes, it would be much worse. The sun was shining as usual for this part of the country. We didn’t get many cloudy days. And that was why I was able to get the freshest and best food for my restaurants.

The weight on my shoulders lessened when Harper told me her fucking dick of an ex hadn’t contacted her again. Jesus, the last thing that girl needed was another guy to come into her life and mess it up again. “Fuck,” I said out loud to no one as I banged my palms on the steering wheel. The last thing she needed was me.

I parked and got out the picnic basket just in time to see my mom pull in. Great timing.

She waltzed up to me with a snide grin on her face. “Hmm, taking me out for a picnic? Thanks, Jacky,” she said. I bent down and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Hi, Ma, come on in. I’ll get lunch started.”

“I think we can order from the menu, honey. We need some mother-son time today.” Shit. The woman had my number. There was no use trying to stall.

After I unloaded and we found a seat, the questions began. “So, you found a girl? What’s she like?”

I squeezed the arms of my chair. “It’s nothing serious, Ma. I told you that already.” If I thought that would dissuade her, I was dead wrong. She laughed right into her glass.

“You in the habit of taking random girls out on picnics in the middle of the day?” Her smile widened, and she grabbed my hand. “You, who hasn’t taken a day off in how long?” She raised her chin like she could see directly through me.

I sighed and gave up the ghost. “Her name is Harper. She works at Brentford Organics, the business I order my food from. We literally met five minutes ago, so this is all new. There’s nothing to tell you,” I said, hoping that would suffice.

“Yet. But you like her? I could tell from your voice last night. I even told your father.” That was where I drew the proverbial line. If there was one way to quickly kill a conversation, it was to bring up my father.

“Ma, enough.” I banged my hand on the table and the plates shook. “You know I don’t give a shit what you say to him. Can’t we go two minutes without bringing him up?” I fixed my tie, which now seemed awfully tight for some reason.

“He still loves you.” She looked up with sadness in her eyes. Her hands rubbed her arms for comfort. It broke my heart, but she wasn’t going to win this fight.

I rolled my eyes and steadied my breathing. “He has a funny fucking way of showing it.”

“Language, Son.” She inhaled deeply, and tears started to form in her eyes. Jesus. “Jacky, you two just need to talk it out.” Yeah, that was the last thing in the world we needed to do. I’d yapped until I was blue in the face, but nothing I ever did was good enough for that man. Now my other two siblings? Different ball of wax. He loved them. Strange thing was, I loved them, too.

“Ma, I disappoint him. Every time he sees me, I remind him of how much. There’s nothing that’s going to change that. Accept it.” I leaned my head onto my hands, elbows resting on the table.

“Elbows off the table, Jacky,” she whispered, eyes still glassy.