The Firefly Cafe (Billionaire Brothers, #1)(6)

A gasp from the other end of the kitchen had them both turning to face Penny, standing in the doorway. The starched pleats of her uniform had wilted over the course of the day, but her curly hair was as bouncy as ever.


“Matthew Emmett Little! I didn’t raise you to be rude to guests in our home.”

Matthew deflated like a pinpricked balloon, but his mouth went hard and flat. “It’s not our home, and he’s not a guest. He works here. Like you do.”

Something around Penny’s tired eyes went taut, but her voice was calm as she said, “Even more reason to keep your sass to yourself. Dylan is here to do a job, and you will treat him with the same respect you’d expect in return.”

Dylan shifted his weight, wishing he could crawl back under the kitchen sink to escape the awful tension strung between mother and son.

But when Matthew broke and dropped his gaze away from his mother’s inflexible stare, he looked straight at Dylan. “I apologize,” Matthew said. “You’re just doing your job. But we don’t need your help.”

“The Harringtons sent Dylan down here,” Penny told her son, coming into the kitchen to stand shoulder to shoulder with Dylan. “They hired him. It’s not up to us.”

Matthew struggled visibly for a second, anger and embarrassment at war on his open, young face. “It should be. We’re the ones who live here most of the time! And I told you I would take care of all the stuff on this list, Mom. I can do it. And if I needed help, I could call Dad.”

“Matty…” Penny pressed a hand to the bridge of her nose as if she felt a headache coming on.

“Don’t call me Matty,” Matthew shouted, deep red suffusing his cheeks. “I’ve told you a million times, I hate that stupid baby name.”

With that, he grabbed his backpack off the floor and all but ran out of the kitchen. Heavy footsteps pounded up the stairs and down the hallway, punctuated by the slam of a door.

Penny winced, then blew out a breath. “Sorry about that. I’ll see what I can do about getting you combat pay.”

“Don’t give it another thought. Believe me, I’ve seen worse.” Dylan gave her an easy smile, wanting to lift some of the weight off of her slumped shoulders. “In fact, I was worse. Way, way worse.”

“Matty—I mean, Matt.” She pressed her lips together as if chastising herself. “He’s a good boy. But ever since the divorce…”

She cut herself off with a little laugh. “Listen to me rattle on. You don’t want to hear about our problems.”

“Don’t stop on my account. I can’t promise any sage advice, but I’m happy to listen if you want to talk about it.” Shockingly, Dylan realized it was the truth. He saw a lot of himself in Matthew’s troubled eyes. And Penny—she tugged at something in him.

“You don’t have to, just to be nice. I know there’s still a lot of work to finish.”

“I’m never nice. Besides.” Dylan hitched his hip up on the kitchen counter beside the sink with a winning grin. “I’m due for a break. And maybe another shot at that iced tea? Although if we fumble this one, too, I’m out of luck. This is my last clean T-shirt.”

Penny’s gaze sharpened on his face as if he’d just come into focus. “You’re not fooling anyone, you know.”

Freezing, Dylan’s brain went into an immediate, frantic tap dance trying to come up with a way to keep this going.

“What do you mean?” he asked, stalling.

A slow smile lit Penny’s round, apple-cheeked face as she sank down into one of the kitchen chairs. “I don’t care what you say, you’re the real deal. An actual nice man, hallelujah and praise be.”

Relief and guilt made for a dizzying cocktail. Dylan grimaced at the galloping of his pulse. He was just starting to slough off the dirty skin of the Bad Boy Billionaire. He wasn’t ready to go back to being a Harrington yet—but even though it wasn’t hurting anyone, didn’t matter in any real way, he still didn’t like lying to Penny.

“No,” he said quietly, meeting her warm, kind eyes as she handed him a glass full of sweet amber liquid. “I’m really not.”





Chapter 4



Under the cover of the table, Penny slipped off her shoes and flexed her exhausted feet. It wasn’t even four o’clock yet. Plenty of daylight left to get through the endless mountain of laundry and dirty dishes generated by a teenaged boy. But before her second shift started, Penny decided she’d allow herself a few moments to enjoy the strange intimacy that had sprung up between herself and this gorgeous stranger.

“So you were saying, about your divorce?” He went back to tinkering with the kitchen sink, which somehow made it easier for Penny to open up.

“It happened a few years ago now, but Matt’s still angry at me. The marriage didn’t just break up—we also left the town we were living in to start fresh here, on Sanctuary Island. The transition was hard on him.”

“But not on you?”

“It was my choice to leave.” Although there hadn’t been a choice. Not really. “Matt doesn’t understand why his whole life had to be uprooted, or why I cut off all contact with his father. Not that his father makes any effort to keep in touch with him, anyway—which, of course, Matt blames me for.”