CEREAL DATER (The Way To A Man's Heart Book 13) by Frankie Love (ebook and pdf reader TXT) 📗

Muscular, strong, cropped hair to show off his handsome, sharp features. He smiles at me, and I manage to smile back.

"Hi," I greet him, trying to keep my voice perky. "What can I do for you?"

"I think I’d like a coffee," he replies, and he settles down onto one of the seats at the counter. The rest of the customers have already been dealt with, so I don’t mind him keeping me company. Honestly, the way that he is looking at me, it’s as though he wants more than just the drip coffee that I am about to give him.

"You run this place?" he asks me as I push the coffee over the counter towards him. I nod. I still can’t quite believe I can say that and mean it. I really run this place. It went from just an idea at the back of my mind to a full-blown business in a matter of months, and now, it’s all mine.

"Is it really just cereal and coffee?" he wonders aloud, and I nod again.

"That’s all we do," I reply, smiling at him. He laughs – for a moment, I think that he is laughing at me, but I see the warmth in his eyes and know he likes the idea as much as I do.

"Why?” he asks, still chuckling.

"Because this is somewhere I wanted to hang out, but it didn’t exist yet," I reply, with a shrug. "So I decided I would make sure that it did."

"How long have you been running it?”

"Three months," I reply. He whistles through his teeth.

"Doing pretty well for just being open for three months," he remarks, and I nod proudly. This place has taken off – and given everything that it represents for me, that matters.

"Yeah, word of mouth spreads quickly around here."

"So I see," he replies, and he takes a sip of his coffee and returns his gaze to me. There is something about the way that he looks at me, the way that his eyes meet mine, that makes it hard for me to think of anything else.

"And you do it all by yourself?"

"Hey, if you’re offering to hop the counter and give me some help, I’ve got a spare apron back here," I joke.

"I don’t think I’d be much good at that," he warns me. "You never get a break? It’s just you running this whole show?”

"A break?” I reply, snorting with laughter at the thought. "Last time I had a break, this place wasn’t even open yet. I haven’t been able to take any time off since then, been too busy making sure that it doesn’t go under."

"Sounds like you could use some time off," he remarks.

"You offering?” I shoot back as I go to dump some bowls into the sink.

"I might be," he replies, and when I look back to him, I can see something written on his face that sure as hell wasn’t there before.

Chapter Three

Landon

This girl – this girl is doing something to me that I didn’t even know was possible. I can’t take my eyes off of her. This is the chemistry that I’ve been looking for, in all the dates that I have been on up till now. Everything that I have been waiting for, it’s come down to this moment, and I don’t want to give up on it now that it’s right here in front of me.

With curly dark hair to match that curvy little body of hers, there’s no doubt that she’s hot. But someone with the nerve and the balls to open up a place like this, and run it themselves till they could get it off the ground? Yeah, that sounds like my kind of woman.

I need to know more about her. Everything about her.

And that’s exactly why I need to convince her to come to this destination wedding with me.

"What, you going to hire staff to cover for me for a couple of weeks?” She laughs, as she tucks a loose strand of hair back into her ponytail. "I like the offer, but–"

"I need a date to my sister’s wedding," I explain. "In Maui. Tomorrow."

She bursts out laughing, turns to me, eyebrows raised. I don’t laugh. I’m dead serious.

"Dude, what?” she asks. But I can see the flush to her cheeks, and I know that something about the proposition that I have just sent her way intrigues her.

"Maui," I repeat. "I need someone to come with me. I’ve been going on dates all week trying to find someone to take with me, and none of them have worked out."

"And what makes you think that I would?" she asks.

"Gut instinct," I reply. "I run a business. I know to trust what my intuition is telling me. So. You in?”

She eyes me for a moment, as though she is waiting for me to burst out laughing and tell her that this whole thing is nothing more than a joke on her – but I don’t. I cock my head to the side, raise an eyebrow.

She shakes her head.

"I can’t leave the business," she protests. "I’d love to take a vacation, trust me, but I can’t just leave all of this behind. I don’t have any staff, and if I did I’d need to train them all before I left, anyway – it's just not something I can do right now."

"I’m sure I could help with all of that," I reply. She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip. There is something about the pressure of them on her full mouth that makes me want to lean across the counter and kiss her, to taste the sweetness of those full lips against mine, but I know that I have to let her set the pace.

"It’s just not my thing," she replies. "But you – you're a serial dater, huh?”

"Looking to become a cereal one," I reply, gesturing to the board full of fancy products that she sells. She groans, slaps a hand to her forehead, as though the pun is