“You hungry?”
I turn to Sawyer and smile. “After twice last night and twice more this morning, I’ve worked up quite the appetite,” I smile salaciously. “I’m famished.”
“Excellent,” he replies. “We’ll need energy for another round when we get back to the cabin.”
“You’re incorrigible.”
“No, I’m insatiable,” he fires back. “There’s a difference.”
“Fair enough,” I respond with a laugh.
He leads me into a small diner called Pancake that’s set between an ice cream parlor and a souvenir shop. I inhale deeply and let out a long, satisfied breath.
“Oh my God, it smells incredible in here,” I gasp.
Sawyer nods. “This is my favorite place to eat when I’m up here,” he notes. “Been coming here since I was a kid.”
“Wow, so this is like an antique restaurant,” I giggle.
“Cute,” he grins at me. “I mean, you do realize you’re only a couple of years younger than me.”
“The key word there being – younger.”
We laugh together as a middle-aged woman with iron gray hair greets Sawyer warmly before leading us to a table near the back of the restaurant. She sets the menus down in front of us.
“It’s good to see you again, Sawyer,” the waitress says.
“Good to see you too, Bette,” he replies. “This is Berlin.”
“Good to meet you, Berlin,” she smiles. “Keep your eye on this one. I’ve known him a long time now, and he’s as troublesome as they come.”
“She does know you well,” I grin.
“She’s also prone to exaggeration,” Sawyer protests.
They both laugh, and Sawyer favors her with the sort of smile you’d give a favored aunt. I can definitely see the affection between them that’s developed over the years.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” Bette says.
She hustles off, and I look around. The diner has a distinctly ‘woodsy’ feel to it. Like our cabin, it’s got the faux rough-hewn log walls. Old logging equipment and old black-and-white photographs of the town hang on the walls. It’s quaint and charming – and incredibly homey. And the confluence of delicious and tantalizing aromas that fill the place make my mouth water. Twelve hours of incredible sex or not, I think I could eat my weight in food here anyway.
“So what are you thinking?” he asks.
I flip through the menu – such as it is. The menu is far less expansive than the places in the city I’m used to. They don’t have many things on offer, but hey, I can respect a place that knows itself well enough to know what it does well and sticks with it, rather than experimenting just to satisfy city dwellers like me who are used to having a thousand different choices.
“I may just go with the pancakes,” I state.
“Really? How boring,” he grins. “Be adventurous. I mean, you did just have sex in a hot tub for the first time.”
I giggle, my first instinct being to look around to make sure he wasn’t overheard. The waitress comes back to the table and flashes Sawyer a wide smile.
“What’s it going to be, hon?” she asks.
Sawyer looks at me. “Allow me.”
“My culinary fate is in your hands.”
Sawyer orders us enough food to feed an invading army – country fried steaks, hash browns, eggs, bacon and sausage, and a short stack of pancakes on the side. When we’re alone again, I just laugh.
“Is somebody else joining us for breakfast?” I ask.
“Nah. I’m just making sure you’re carb-loaded for the next round.”
“I’m pretty sure if I eat all of that food, I’ll sleep through the next round,” I counter.
“Don’t worry; I’m pretty sure I can manage to keep you awake.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” I grin.
“You better.”
“And you two better get a room.”
We both look up into Bette’s smiling face. She sets our plates down and tops off our coffee before she turns and heads off again. I inhale deeply and feel my mouth watering. I cut a glance at Sawyer before digging into the mountain of food. We eat in silence for a few minutes – it’s all so delicious, I really have no desire to speak anyway. Every bite seems better than the last, so I just keep shoveling food into my face.
I push my plate away and lean back in my seat, feeling like I might just explode. I stare in amazement at Sawyer’s nearly empty plate.
“Where in the hell do you put all of that? You don’t have an ounce of body fat on you,” I whine. “I’m going to put on a thousand pounds from this.”
Sawyer shrugs. “You only ate half of your food. You’ll probably only put on five hundred. Max,” he notes, giving me a grin. “Don’t worry though; I know just how to work it off of you.”
I laugh. “Do you ever not think about sex?”
He screws his head up, feigning thought. “No, not really.”
“Sounds about right.”
I look at the table next to us and see a young mother cradling her baby in her arms. She leans down and places a gentle kiss on the infant’s forehead. The baby coos and makes a series of adorable gurgling noises, squirming in his mother’s arms.
Watching them interact sets off a rush of maternal feeling inside of me. It’s not going to be long before I’m holding my baby just like that. The thought of it brings a smile to my lips and fills my heart with a joy, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.
I turn and cast a glance at Sawyer, and the smile on my face slowly melts away. The expression on his face has darkened, and he’s very pointedly looking away, clearly not wanting to see the baby. It sends a familiar lance of pain through my heart. I feel my eyes burning with unshed tears. Sawyer looks at me, and I can see his expression slowly soften,
