Crew and Haley were lucky to find two bar stools open, and they sat down and rested their arms on the worn yet squeaky-clean counter. Behind it was an open window with a behemoth of a man wiping his brow with his forearm as he flipped burgers in the air.
Crew watched Haley eye the colorful posters announcing various menu items; there wasn’t a handheld menu in sight. The pies sat in a small display case on the end of the counter, and the oven-baked aromas drifted out to torment them, making Haley’s stomach rumble loudly.
“I guess you are hungry,” he said with a grin as Aunt Mae approached them.
Haley’s eyes widened at the stick-thin figure who couldn’t reach five feet tall if she were wearing heels. Aunt Mae planted her hands on the counter, then leaned forward and gave Crew a kiss on the cheek before turning suspicious eyes on Haley.
Crew had never brought another woman in here, so he could see the surprise in the woman’s eyes and knew she was judging Haley. He wasn’t worried. There was something about Haley that drew others to her, and he was sure that by the end of their lunch, Aunt Mae would be trying to coddle her and send her home with a doggie bag loaded with food.
“You haven’t visited me in weeks, Crew Storm. What makes you think I’ll serve up anything for you to eat?” she pouted, and Crew could see the surprise in Haley’s eyes at the deep, husky voice that didn’t match her petite face and body. Years of hard booze and cheap cigarettes had given her what was just one of her many charms in Crew’s eyes.
“I’ve been busy getting the new resort running, Aunt Mae. I’ve noticed you haven’t taken up my offer of staying a night and testing out my chefs,” he countered, and she blushed.
“I can’t stay in your hoity-toity resort. I’d never be able to sleep again in my shabby little room upstairs. I will make it over some night to get a free meal. I’m not telling you until it’s over, though. I don’t want you telling them to fix something special. The best way for me to see if they’re good enough to be cooking for you is for them not to know who I am.”
Though it wasn’t widely known, Aunt Mae had been a top-rated food critic when she was younger. Getting fed up with all the terrible dishes she had to endure, she’d given up her high-paying job and settled down to open her own place nearly thirty years before. The building had been old then, but in better shape.
Hard economic times had made the years rough, but she still had a steady stream of regular customers. One way or another, Crew would make sure she kept the place as long as she liked, even if he had to tie her down while the workers came in and made repairs.
“I wouldn’t dream of trying to fool you, Aunt Mae. You are far too wise a woman.”
“Don’t get cheeky with me, boy! Now, who’s this pretty little girl you’ve brought in?” she asked, turning her full gaze on Haley, who smiled big at her.
“Haley Sutherland. It’s nice to meet you.”
Crew was shocked by the ease with which Haley spoke to Aunt Mae. A lot of folks were intimidated by her at first, despite her diminutive stature. Haley seemed right at home.
“Well, well. What are you doing out with this hooligan?”
Haley’s grin never faltered. “He told me he was going to feed me the best meal I’ve ever had. I could hardly resist,” she said easily as Aunt Mae pulled out a cigarette and lit it, the smoke swirling in the air.
A man from a nearby table grumbled and Aunt Mae’s eyes turned to fire as she looked right at him.
“This is my place. If you don’t like the atmosphere, you know where the door is,” she said pleasantly as she took another drag.
The fellow looked down as he speared a piece of battered fish and continued eating. It appeared he was willing to risk his life with secondhand smoke for the food...that must be some food, Haley thought to herself.
“So, Haley, what do you do?”
“Nothing at the moment. I quit my job so I could find a good enough man to teach me how to be the perfect seductress,” she replied as if she were speaking of nothing more casual than going to the post office.
Crew’s eyes rounded in shock, and he choked on the water he’d just drunk. As he sputtered, he looked from her to Aunt Mae, wondering what his longtime friend was going to say to that remark. After a short pause, she put out her smoke and then laughed. The sound was raspy and a bit wheezy and asthmatic, and he always worried she was going to keel over when she did it.
“I like this one, Crew. I like her a lot, much more than some of those broads I’ve seen you with in town. I notice you’ve been smart enough to never bring one of them in here,” she said knowingly.
“I didn’t like them enough to give them the treasure of your cooking, Aunt Mae.”
“That’s a good answer, boy, a good answer,” she said. Haley’s stomach rumbled again and Aunt Mae turned her eyes back to her. “I’d better feed you before you turn into a skeleton right there in that chair.” With that she turned and scribbled something on her notepad before seeing to another customer, who had managed to snag a spot at the end of the counter.
“I like her,” Haley commented, making him glow.
It shouldn’t have mattered to him what Haley thought of Aunt Mae, but it did. Without realizing it, he’d been testing her. Shyness he could understand, but if she’d turned her nose up at a woman Crew cared about deeply, he wouldn’t have wanted to be with her.
“She’s a spitfire. Though she’s in her sixties, you’d never know it. I think she’ll outlive us all,” he said as Aunt Mae slapped down a plate between them.
At the look of lust in Haley’s eyes over the sizzling cheese, artichoke and spinach appetizer, he fell a bit in love. She’d barely touched his five-course meal, but Aunt Mae’s secret menu was making her drool. Haley polished off most of their appetizer, then dug in when her shrimp pasta was placed in front of her.
When she looked at his seafood sandwich with longing, he offered her a bite, then felt himself turning hard at her deep moan of pleasure when she swallowed.
No sex today, he reminded himself. Tomorrow. He’d have plenty of sex with her tomorrow. And somehow he’d better keep her away from his bed for the day if he wanted to keep that promise to himself.
When their plates were cleaned, Haley leaned back with a satisfied grin. “You were right. That’s the best meal I think I’ve ever eaten. I’m going to have to come here over and over while I’m on the island. But right now, I don’t think I could eat another bite.”