Be Mine by April Hollingworth

Chapter 1
    “My shift is almost finished, no way in hell am I staying later,” I holler over my shoulder at my best friend, Sally Jenkins, who’s just come into Pete’s Diner to start her shift.
    “Worth a try,” Sally yells back, grinning from ear to ear.
    Shaking my head, I carry a plate of lasagna through the swing door leading from the kitchen to the dining area. The doors swoosh close behind me, while I stumble in shock at the sight of Mark Jenkins, Sally’s older brother. The boy of my dreams now most definitely a man. A large, muscular, and stunningly gorgeous, man. In horror, I watch the plate fly from my fingers and head like a missile straight at him.
    It lands in his lap with a plop, and instant chaos erupts. Customers laugh, I pick myself up off the floor, and Mark curses like crazy as he attempts to remove the hot food from his tan trousers. Oh God, this can’t be happening!
    I grab some napkins and rush over to him. Drop to my knees, muttering an apology, while trying to clean the food off him.
    He places a large hand on my smaller one, stopping my motions easily.
    “Normally, I get an introduction before having my junk played with,” Mark informs me. My eyes jerk up to look into his hazel ones. My mouth forms an O of surprise and heat blossoms in my cheeks.
    Before he can say anything else, I roughly remove my hand from under his, stumble to my feet, and run back into the safety of the kitchen.
    “Oh God. Oh God,” I mutter in shock. As if the repeating of the words can erase my mortification. I have no idea how.
    “What have you done?” demands Sally, coming up behind me.
    Quickly I tell her what happened, only to have her erupt in laughter.
    “You are such a klutz,” she finally manages to splutter out.
    “And you’re not helping,” I ground out, “Can you give table eight their lasagna? Everyone else has been served, well except your brother,” I amend.
    “I’ll take care of table eight, but I believe you did ‘serve’ my brother,” Sally chortles, as she grabs a plate and dishes up the order again.
    All I can do is gape at her in surprise. Well that and go bright red. Again! I can’t believe she just said that!
    ****
    Thinking of surprising my sister, by showing up in the diner she works at, I hadn’t expected to have a plate of hot lasagna thrown into my lap by a klutzy waitress. I especially hadn’t expected to have the mortified woman attempt to clean up the mess by rubbing my pants and swiping up the spilled food. Feeling my body react, I place a stilling hand over her much smaller one, and jokingly tell her, “Normally, I get an introduction before having my junk played with.”
    Startled blue eyes fly up to meet mine. Her luscious bow shaped mouth makes an O of surprise. There’s something familiar about her, but I can’t for the life of me figure out who she reminds me of.
    Next thing I know, her hand jerks out from under mine, she scrambles to her feet, and bolts for the kitchen. Leaving me in a right hot mess in more ways than one. Everyone around me is laughing. I’m left wondering what the hell just happened. A few minutes later, my sister swans out of the kitchen with a plate of lasagna in one hand and a wet towel in the other.
    “Here you go, Mark,” she hollers flinging it toward me.
    This time, I catch the towel before it hits me in the face. With a grimace I clean up as best as I can, then head to the restroom to try to make myself more presentable.
    “Damn tan trousers, and damn that waitress,” I mutter in annoyance. If I get my hands on her I’d be tempted to swat her pert ass! At that thought, a smile spreads across my face and I instantly harden.

Chapter 2
    Hurrying down the road away from the diner, a flush still stains my cheeks. I’m tempted to double check to make sure he hasn’t followed me. Once I reach the lot where I’d left my car, I hurry to it, unlock and climb in before locking it behind me.
    Tension releases from my shoulders. A