She loved the sound of his voice. The deep, sexy tones. The way that one word seemed to say so much.
“Morning.” She reached up and touched his face, but then quickly brought her hand to her side, looking around the kitchen to see if anyone was watching.
His mouth curved into a smile. “So, did you come to swipe a cinnamon roll?”
“I did. And coffee. I so need coffee before I tackle this day.”
“Come sit at the counter by me while I work and you inhale coffee.”
She grabbed a roll and the coveted cup of coffee and went to sit next to him as he worked, frying up an immense amount of bacon. It was so nice to be back to being friends. She’d missed their chats in the kitchen while he worked. Well, she guessed they were more than friends now, but still friends. She watched as he scrambled up eggs and placed them in a large metal serving dish.
“Got to run this out to the buffet and put it on the warmer. Be right back.”
She swiped a piece of bacon—then a second one—while she waited for him. Who could resist bacon?
Jay grinned when he came back in and saw her plate but didn’t say anything. Dana came and grabbed some more flour for the bread she was making.
Lillian returned with a frown on her face. “Robin, did you take yesterday’s deposit to the bank and drop it in the night deposit box?”
“I didn’t take it to the bank, no.”
Jay whirled around. “Is money missing again?”
Dana dropped the bag of flour on the counter. “Oh, sorry.” She picked it up, looked at Lillian, then hurried back to her work station.
“Yes, there is. And I got that new safe with the new combination.”
Jay turned to Dana. “Could you run this tray of cinnamon rolls out to the dining room? And check to make sure there’s enough coffee.”
Dana came over, got the tray, and left the kitchen.
“We don’t need everyone knowing what’s going on.” Jay nodded in the direction Dana had gone, then held up his hands. “Not it. You never told me the new combination.”
Lillian rolled her eyes. “Which is silly. Of course, I’d trust you with the combination, but I understand after Sheriff Dave accused you of stealing the money last week why you wouldn’t want to know the new one.”
“How is someone getting in there to get to the money?” Robin frowned.
“I don’t know. I’ve even been locking my office door when I leave, along with locking the safe.”
Jay turned back to Lillian and frowned. “We put in those keycard locks on the doors to the inn that lock at night so guests have to use a card to get in or out. How is someone getting into the inn?”
“I don’t know.” Lillian shrugged. “And I’m not going to call the sheriff again. Not after I told him the last missing money was found.”
“Only it wasn’t. You were just getting the sheriff to quit thinking I took it.” Jay eyed her.
“Maybe we should put a video surveillance camera in the office?” Robin suggested.
“That’s a good idea. I’ll pick one up today and install it.” Jay nodded.
“Let’s keep this quiet. Not tell the staff. There’s enough on everyone’s minds with the storm.” Lillian sighed. “And I just heard that they think the storm may hit as a category one hurricane now. So we’ll get strong winds being on the edge of the storm. The forecast shows the storm going even more north of us right now. Let’s hope it stays that way. Not that I wish ill on the coastline above us.”
“I hope it does slip north of us,” Jay said.
Robin slipped off the stool. “I should get to work.”
“I’ll catch you later.” Jay smiled at her. That smile again.
Lillian left the kitchen as Dana came back in, her face creased in worry.
“Everything okay?”
Dana snapped her chin up. “Yes, just need to get more food out there. And the storm… it’s making me a bit jumpy.”
“They do that. It’s all the waiting and watching to see what’s going to happen.”
Dana nodded in agreement, but still looked worried.
Robin hurried off to her office to see what was next on her long list of to-dos.
Zoe filled her plate—probably with too much food—but she was famished this morning. There was no resisting Jay’s cinnamon rolls. She looked around at the few filled tables and saw Mason wave to her.
Her heart did a quick pitter-patter and she nodded at him, her hands full. He jumped up and came to help her, grabbing one of her plates. She was embarrassed she had two, but she’d seen the fresh fruit and had grabbed a small plate of that, too.
“I see you’re up early today.” Mason smiled but thankfully didn’t mention all the food.
“Feeling a bit restless. And I wanted to see where I could help today.” They headed over to Mason’s table.
“Can I get you some coffee? Black, right?” he asked.
“Yes.” She nodded. The man did remember the tiniest details about her. Like how she liked her coffee. She glanced over at the cup of coffee by his plate and saw it was black. She’d remember that now.
He brought the coffee and sat down across from her. “So, you heading to the community center to help?”
“I am.”
“I asked Lillian if I could help her, but she said to go to the center again because if the storm does become a hurricane, lots of people will be taking shelter there. So I guess I’ll be joining you helping out at the center today.”
That suited her just fine. Not that the storm intensity was increasing, but that Mason would be spending the day with her.
She devoured her breakfast and topped it with another cup of coffee.
Mason sat across from her with an amused smile on his face.
“What are you smiling about?”
“Just watching you enjoy your
