Worth The Wait

Dumb as it seemed, she missed having him touch her.

She missed him holding her while she slept.

At her long internal debate, he gave her a mocking grin. “Having second thoughts?”

“Tonight.” Risky. Once she had him alone, or he had her alone—but this was too important. “After we close up.”

“Ohhh,” Lexie whispered, sotto voce, “to be a fly on the wall during that meeting.” Then she squeaked, thanks to Sullivan’s squeeze.

“All right,” Hogan said. He turned back to his grill. “If you see Colt, have him come out on his break, okay? I haven’t seen him yet today.”

Relief flooded through Violet until she almost felt light-headed. Hogan hadn’t flat out refused. “If I can pry him away from the girls, sure.” While Hogan might be great for her adult customers, Colt was equally great for the younger crowd. And that got her thinking. She needed to do something special for the school, something that would draw in even more young people during the less insane time between dinner and the cocktail hour.

Conversation did not resume.

Hogan busied himself filling a massive platter.

Since he wasn’t being totally disagreeable, Violet decided to push her luck. “I was also thinking, maybe you need an apprentice, a trainee of sorts who could learn what you do and how you do it so that if you ever—”

“No.”

The abrupt refusal irked her. She put her hands on her hips. “What do you mean no? You won’t even think about it?”

“Not right now, no.”

“Then when? After you get sick or hurt and I’m left in the lurch?” Only half teasing, she said, “Don’t be selfish, Hogan. If you don’t want to share your sauce with anyone else, maybe you could just share it with me.”

Jason choked and Sullivan snorted.

“Hey,” Violet protested. “I’m capable.”

Honor and Lexie, both grinning, rushed to agree.

With their backup, she decided to take another turn at Hogan. “You can trust me, you know. I wouldn’t share your secrets. But if you teach me, then at least—”

As if much put upon, Hogan sighed, straightened away from the grill and turned to her. They stared at each other, him impatient, her defiant.

Before she could guess his intent, he bent and put his mouth over hers in a firm, no-nonsense kiss that lingered a few seconds too long.

Violet heard the collective breath of the audience, but she couldn’t seem to pull away. In fact, she leaned into him. The cat’s out of the bag now.

Against her now-tingling lips, Hogan whispered, “You may be the boss, but no is still no.” And just like that, he gave his attention back to his grills.

Feeling all eyes on her, Violet fought off a blush, turned on her heel and headed back inside.

She heard Hogan say firmly, “Tonight, Violet.”

And suddenly laughter broke out. Wow.

So maybe she shouldn’t have pushed him after all.

* * *

After Sullivan and Lexie left, and Honor went inside to find Colt, Hogan decided it was now or never.

He could feel Jason watching him, though, and as soon as they were alone, he asked, “So you and Violet, huh?”

Since that was what Hogan wanted to talk about, he should have had a better answer, but all he said was “I don’t know.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means it’s complicated.” Hogan checked each grill, was satisfied and took a seat next to Jason. “I’ve been interested since the day I met her. No secret there.”

“Definitely not a secret,” Jason agreed.

“She’s always rejected me.”

“You’re not one to give up easily.”

“No.” Hogan looked out over the seating area. Neighbors, friends, people he’d met, people he liked, were all enjoying the day. And his food. He felt a sense of satisfaction over that. “Violet couldn’t be more different from Meg.”

“True.” Jason shooed away a bee. “That’s a problem?”

“I don’t know. I used to understand what I wanted, but that’s all gone now, and this—living in Clearbrook, being close to you, hell, even the sunrises and sunsets—they’re all nice.” Far nicer than he’d expected.

“I’m glad to hear it. Honor and I love having you and Colt next door. It would break her heart if you moved too far away. You know she never had real family until us, so she takes it very seriously now.”

Us. Yes, Honor definitely considered him and Colt a part of her family. “I know.” Meaning every word, he said, “Honor is special, not just to you, but to Colt and me, too.” He stood to slather more sauce on the ribs, then reseated himself, his legs stretched out in front of him, the sun hot on his back. “Violet is also unlike any of the ladies I’ve been with recently.”

“Amen to that.”

Hogan had to grin. “Your disapproval is showing through.”

“Not disapproval,” Jason protested. “It’s just that none of those ladies made you happy. Like you’ve said, you knew what you wanted and a string of meaningless hookups wasn’t it.”