I did what she said and waited for my cake while I watched her interact with the kids. She was a natural with them and I found myself wondering why Lisa couldn’t have been blessed with a mother like her; a woman who genuinely loved being with children and gave them her full attention. While I was waiting, an older woman came out from the back area. She looked so much like Harlow that I knew she had to be her mother.
She came over to where I was sitting. “You must be Scott.” She smiled at me.
“I am. What was the dead giveaway?”
Now she laughed. “Could have been the tattoos, or the boots but it was probably the cut you’re wearing.” She winked at me. I liked this woman straight away and that was something that rarely happened.
“Harlow hasn’t told me your name.”
She extended her hand and shook mine. “I’m Cheryl. Nice to meet you. And thank you for what you’ve done for me with the fridge.”
“Good to meet you too, Cheryl. As I said to Harlow, you can’t run a café without the right equipment. Happy to help where I can.”
Harlow interrupted us at that moment when she called across the room. “Mum, can you get Scott some red velvet cake please?”
Cheryl smiled and nodded. “Absolutely. You want a coffee too? Or another drink?”
“Coffee would be good, thanks.”
“Coming right up,” she promised and left to go and make it.
I sat watching Harlow again after her mother left and didn’t realise that the time had passed when Cheryl came back to the table with cake and coffee. She actually had two coffees in her hand, and when she sat at the table with me, I realised she was settling in for a chat.
“Why do I get the impression this is going to be a heart to heart?”
“You’re a very intuitive man, Scott. And you’re a man who my daughter hasn’t stopped talking about for the past couple of days so I want to take this opportunity to find out why.”
I raised my eyebrows. Fuck, this woman was direct; another thing I liked about her. “What do you want to know?”
“The thing I want to know about you isn’t something I’m going to discover from a conversation over coffee. I just wanted to sit with you for a bit and get a feel for you.”
“You don’t pull any punches do you?”
“No, but especially not when it comes to Harlow. She’s been screwed over too many times in life and I don’t want to see that happen to her again.”
“Fair enough. I have to tell you though, that there’s nothing between me and Harlow, so you can rest easy.”
“See, I would have believed that if you hadn’t shown up here today. I would have believed it was all on Harlow’s end but you turning up to oversee a fridge delivery that didn’t need overseeing, that tells me a lot.” She drank some of her coffee and pointed at my cake. “Eat up, it’s good.”
This woman had managed to do something that most people couldn’t do; she’d stunned me into silence. So, I ate cake. It was the safer option. And fuck, it was good cake.
Smiling, she said, “Harlow’s a good cook. Would you agree?”
“Did Harlow make this?”
She nodded. “Yes, it’s her favourite cake.”
Damn, it was now my favourite cake too. It was fucking delicious; the best cake I’d ever had. We sat in silence, eating cake and drinking coffee until Harlow joined us a couple of minutes later.
“How was the cake?” she asked looking at my empty plate.
“Was just about to tell your Mum that it’s the best cake I’ve ever had.”
She fucking blushed. And then she gave me another of her mega watt smiles and I decided right then and fucking there that Harlow was a risk to my manhood. I wanted her in a way I’d never wanted a woman. I needed to get my shit together and get laid; that would fix the problem.
Before she could open her mouth and do further damage the front door opened and two delivery guys walked in. I stood and tipped my chin to them. “You here with a fridge?”
“Yeah, mate. Where do you want it?”
I nodded at Cheryl. “Ask the boss.”
I drowned out the noise of their conversation as they worked out where the fridge was going and instead focused on Harlow as she cleaned away the cake and coffee dishes. She went out the back somewhere and when she didn’t return, I wandered out there looking for her. She was loading the dishwasher in the kitchen and I leaned against the doorframe, watching her quietly.
She knew I was there because without stopping what she was doing she said, “Thank you so much for getting us a fridge. My Mum really appreciates it.”
“Your Mum is something else.”
She finished with the dishwasher and closed it before turning to look at me. My eyes dropped to her chest. That top fit her tits like a glove; any man would struggle to keep their eyes off her chest. I wasn’t a saint and had no problem showing my appreciation so it took me more than a few moments to look back up to her face. She was shaking her head at me but there was a hint of a smile.
I smirked. “Sweetheart, if you’re gonna wear shit like that you’ve gotta expect men to stare.”
“Turn around.”
“What?”
She repeated herself. “I said, turn around.”