Cherishing You

Chapter 1 ShannonHe looked up as soon as I entered the dining room, and my breath hitched. I waited on him almost every shift. I knew his name from the credit card he dropped on the table at the end of his meals. Jonah Moran. We never talked about anything other than what he wanted to drink and how he didn’t like mayonnaise on his sandwich. He always reiterated that fact. I never explained that I didn’t need the reminders. Every favorite dish, every request rooted in my mind. But he still reminded me, and I would smile and say, “Yes, sir.” In the beginning, he would smile back and then bend his blond head back over his phone. Lately, though, he added a wink, then steadied his startling platinum gaze on me until heat prickled my cheeks and I ducked away. As best as I could tell, he was a lawyer or accountant or something like that. He wore precisely tailored suits and carried a tobacco-colored messenger bag with his tablet computer and all sundry of other expensive devices. His hands were smooth and neatly manicured. They were almost feminine in their grace. The rest of him was more masculine. Jonah Moran stood just over six feet tall—built like a runner with well-honed, compact muscles. Gazing into his pale gray eyes, I felt both the urge to run and the urge to run my finger over his perfect bow lips or his strong, clean-shaven chin—all at once. For a while, I wondered if he could even grow a beard. But once, a few weeks ago, he stopped in at the bistro for dinner and picked up a club sandwich to go. A smattering of stubble had appeared on his face. “You’re getting it to go? You can go to the bar next time.” “If I did that, I wouldn’t get to sit in your section.” His lips parted slightly as he smiled. Then came the wink—a shot of adrenaline that never failed to elevate my vital signs. The patches of stubble stimulated unasked questions about his day. My eyes lingered on his roughened cheek, fantasizing about the feel of his nascent beard against my skin. Then, I sprinted away to put in his order. He could grow a beard, and pretty quickly. Obviously, that was unacceptable to him so, under normal circumstances, he kept it strictly at bay. Refined and finely handsome, he was obviously rich. All of this is why I vowed never to speak to Jonah Moran about anything except his sandwich. Regardless of his winks and the panty-dropping looks he’d started giving me, he was out of my league. I had experience dating out of my league. Those men never stayed, and on their way out the door, they took a little more of my confidence with them. Of course, even my shitty boyfriends did that. The last one had been the worst. Although, Kid hadn’t been a boyfriend. He’d been a husband. Even making him an ex-husband hadn’t stopped him from wreaking havoc. I sighed and poured Jonah a refill on his coffee, working to steady my hand. I needed to swap out my nicotine patch. Cigarettes weren’t the only thing I’d quit. Me and men weren’t a good mix. I needed to focus on my own life and nothing else. Men were trouble, and I finally had a stable job, making decent money. I finally had a relationship with my daughter, Olivia. This was the height of my dreams.