Love By Accident by Michelle Beattie Page A

It means a lot to me, you spending time with him, especially on your day off."
    "It's not a problem, Nick."
    "Well, thanks all the same. It's one less thing for me to worry about."
    Juliet whisked Nick's plate away and exchanged it for the last cinnamon bun which steamed from its blast in the microwave.
    "Thanks," Nick said, sending Juliet an absent-minded smile.
    "Yeah, thanks. I was going to get it for him, but once I sat," Lauren sighed. "I didn't want to get up."
    "Hey, you gave me the first break. Take an extra five. I've got things covered."
    "Sweet kid," Nick commented when Juliet had shuffled back to start clearing the dirty tables.
    "Yeah, she is." And she was damn tough. Just watching Juliet maneuver between chairs in her platform boots while she carried her laden tray of half-eaten food made Lauren's arches shudder.
    A grumbling from her stomach reminded her of another part of her body needing attention. As she thought it, Juliet came back, delivering Lauren's sandwich. Forgoing polite conversation to avoid starvation, Lauren dug in. She didn't hear anything but the crisp lettuce leaves crunching in her mouth, didn't sense anything but Nick's silent laughter as she devoured her lunch.
    "I'll get you a refill," he chuckled when she slurped the last of her drink through her straw.
    Barely pausing in her assault on her sandwich, Lauren acknowledged him with a nod.
    "What's this? Sitting down on the job?"
    Lauren's stomach jumped, her head snapped up. Dressed in uniform, beige hat clasped in his hands, lazy smile fluttering on his lips Matt looked...
    The word yummy came to mind and it was so unexpected Lauren choked on the last of the toast she was trying to swallow. Suddenly Nick was at her side, pressing her drink into her hands. Nick. Nick was her friend too. No, they didn't share the same history she shared with Matt, but her body had never, ever, reacted to his the way it did to Matt's.
    "Mind if I join you?" Matt asked.
    There was a very slight, but very intense moment when the men's gazes held. It was high noon at the OK Corral and they'd both just put their palms on the butts of their six shooters.
    "Um, sure," Lauren managed as her nerves began to dance. Matt, she knew, suspected Nick was her boyfriend. Nick, after her numerous rejections, suspected there was someone else. Good grief, what if he suspected it was Matt?
    "I guess even the boss gets time to eat, eh?" Nick chuckled, but the humor never made it to his sharp gaze.
    "Something like that."
    As though throwing down the gauntlet, Matt reached for her drink and, forgoing the straw, raised the cup to his lips and chugged down half. To Lauren it was nothing because he had done it to her all the time in college, but Nick took exception. She suddenly saw a lot more of his sparkling teeth and it wasn't necessarily because he was smiling. Matt, however, was.
    "So are all the campsites clear?"
    "Empty. Sheds are locked, garbage hauled away. Elk are rutting and stupid, but no major problems. It'll all be in my report tomorrow."
    Again their eyes clashed and if she hadn't known for sure before, she did now. These two men didn't like each other. Matt hesitated, nodded, then turned his attention to her.
    "Busy day, huh?"
    Busy and suddenly very uncomfortable.
    Juliet came to take Matt's order. "And a cinnamon bun, too, please."
    "Sorry," Juliet answered, smacking her blue gum, "all out."
    Matt's eyes turned to Nick's desert plate, where a half a bun remained. Nick smiled, licked some icing off his fork. "Lauren saved me the last one."
    She hadn't. It had just worked out that way. Yet the look Matt sent Nick was cold enough to freeze her pop. It was only a cinnamon bun, for Pete's sake!
    To hell with her aching feet, she couldn't stand the tension enveloping them anymore.
    "Well, break's over. It's not fair to Juliet to have the whole clean-up." She ducked between the men, grabbed an empty tray and gladly went to the other side of the café to start clearing