Chasing Football Dreams (Diner Girl #2)

Chapter Six

T here was a time when I would have given everything to have parents. I yearned for a mother’s love and a father’s insight. But I wasn’t ready to handle the truth lying hidden in the file I took from the orphanage. The evidence was so clear as daylight and yet. I didn’t want to accept it.

I didn’t want to acknowledge that the person I looked up to as a mother and believed was making change was responsible for kidnapping children.

Unable to close my eyes, I rolled away from Duncan’s sleeping form when the first strike of sunlight touched the curtains. I got dressed, left the house, and walked over to the diner, wanting to clear my head.

Brenda was at her usual spot when I slipped through the diner doors.

It was tough facing reality with the obvious truth that my pitiful life had meaning after all. I didn’t curse the life I lived or the tough upbringing of believing I would forever be stuck here. Life gave me a sister that I will never forget and a mother who took me and Eliza under her wing.

So many times, I caught myself shedding a tear about how I was taken from my family and how my life could have been different. But then I think about how I would have never met Eliza or Brenda or even Duncan and my team.

I wasn’t sure I wanted my life to change.

“You’re early,” Brenda noted with a slight suspicion when she looked at the entrance and there was no sign of Duncan.

“I couldn’t sleep,” I answered with a shrug, walking to the back and greeting everyone before getting ready for my shift.

I took a walk around the diner to refill everyone’s coffee and orders of newly seated customers when I suppressed the urge the groan when I came face to face with one of my regulars. He had a different girl with him this time and it pained me to know that she was looking at him as if he was the best man walking this earth—if she only knew he was the scum.

I took their orders while trying my best not to give my disapproving opinion of his game.

“Why is it that I keep getting this conceited fraud sitting at my table?”

Brenda frowned, gazing over my shoulder at the table where the cheat was sitting flirting with his 100th victim. I don’t know how girls can’t notice that he is cheating on them. I don’t even want to know what this guy’s schedule looks like to keep tabs on when he sees who at what time.

“Maybe he feels like he can trust you to keep his game a secret,”

I wrinkled my nose and shook my head. “If it was up to me. I would have called up all his girlfriends and had them here to see him playing them,”

Brenda smiled at me. “Don’t get me wrong but you’ve got too much of a big heart to drift that low,”

I rolled my eyes. “He’s a jerk that needs to learn of karma,”

“I would want someone to come up to me and warn me,”

Brenda’s deadpan look brought a frown to my face. “Imagine how it sounds if a girl comes up to you and tells you that your boyfriend has three other girlfriends,”

I bit back my remark when out of the corner of my eye I saw a certain broad-shoulder eye candy entering the shop. Butterflies erupted in the pit of my stomach when he caught my eye and a smile broke out on his face.

There was a time I wished to have met Mr. Darcy and had him look at me the way he looked at Elizabeth but watching Duncan cross the room with his confident strides and that dark, honeycomb look only focused on me, put Darcy to shame.

“Hey,” He greeted, resting his arms on the counter and leaning forward without breaking eye contact.

“Hi,” Why did I sound so breathless? Goddammit. I’ve seen this man naked. Kissed him until my blush blushed. And here I was standing grasping straws.

“I am going to install alarms in my bedroom,”

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. “You gotta stop treating me like a princess,” I was aware he wanted to drive me around like Miss Daisy but that’s just it. I don’t want to be Miss Daisy. I am used to taking care of myself and doing things on my own terms. Asking for help wasn’t something I was comfortable with.

Duncan’s smile was soft—almost understanding. “You’re asking me to stop loving you,”

“No, I’m not,” I frowned.

His grin widened. “I want to be there for you because of my love for you. I can’t watch you walk over 5 miles to work when I can drive you. I can’t eat without offering you food first. I can not stop spoiling you when all I want to do is buy you the best things and not because I feel sorry for you. I want to do all the above because that’s what love is all about,”

I felt like a jerk for wanting to do things for myself because I’m used to taking care of myself. I know Duncan means well and everything he does for me, doesn’t have a double meaning behind it. I don’t know why I even comprehend that he treats me like a princess when all this time, he has been treating me like an equal. He pushed me into a spot on the team when he could have blocked my path and called me out for being a girl with an insane dream but he didn’t.

He accepted me for who I am.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, picking my lip with my teeth.

“You don’t have to apologize, Zoey. I am still learning what to do and not to do,”

I wound my way around the counter to get closer to him. He was standing now, facing me with his arm resting on the counter. I didn’t blink to wrap my arms around his strong waist. I hummed when he enfolded his other arm around me, shielding me away from the crowd in the diner. “I am sorry I am making things difficult. It’s just I was forced to take care of myself. I haven’t let anyone in besides Eliza and I am really trying,”

He dropped a kiss on my cheek. “Once again, love. You don’t have to feel the need to apologize. I am not blaming you or is mad at you,”

I tilted my head back to look at him. “What did I do to deserve you?”

He beamed. “I am the one who got lucky to date such a strong and amazing woman,”

I pushed onto my toes and planted a kiss on his lips and tightened my arms around his waist. I got lucky to find someone as amazing as him to see my potential and it felt right to entrust him with my heart.

“Can I get you something to eat?” I asked, pulling back.

He nodded. “Two of those chicken wraps you love so much and two strawberry milkshakes,”

“It’s my treat,” I said when he reached for his wallet.

“Zoey,” He was ready to protest.

“Nope, I am not listening,” I walked away to place his order and pay for it. I grabbed my tray to clear my tables when Duncan decided to pick a booth for us.

Brenda chased me out from behind the counter after handing Duncan’s order over to me and ordering me to take my lunch.

“You’ve got Brenda under your thumb,” I remarked, trying not to think about how he picked a booth next to the jerk who has more than one girlfriend.

Duncan smiled at me, inviting me to sit next to him. “She understands that I just want the best for you,”

I rolled my eyes and bumped his shoulder with mine. He chuckled and draped his arm over my shoulder pulling me flush against his side, planting a kiss on my lips. He brushed my ear with his lips and I almost pushed him away not wanting people to look at us when I heard him asking me something.

“Why is he looking at you like that?”

I frowned at his question, raising my gaze to see jerk-guy looking at us. I returned my attention to Duncan. “I honestly have no idea,” It was odd to have jerk-guy’s eyes lingering on me.

“He is a regular who dates more than one girl and brings them here for lunch,”

Duncan arched an eyebrow, reminding me of his dark demeanor. “It seems he wants to have you for lunch,”

I almost gagged. “Nah-ah, not happening,”

Duncan chuckled at my response and dropped a kiss on my neck. “Have you thought that maybe he brings all these girls here to get your attention?”

I never thought like that. “Before you. I never looked at myself with much confidence,”

“You underestimate your beauty, love,” He softly tugged a piece of my hair that escaped from my bun, behind my ear.

“And you underestimate the effect you have on me,”