Exploding: A Mafia Romance (The O'Keefe Family Collection #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

helped Fallyn unload the muffins that went in the display case. “You want to show the new kid where we keep the coffee grounds?”
    James shot Jen a brief look of gratitude at throwing Fallyn his way. The coffeemaker was too tall for her to reach the top, so she scooted the stool over with her pink heel. She took his hand to step atop it gracefully and cradled the heavy bag of coffee in her other arm. “Thanks. Everything’s right up here,” she said, reaching to open the lid so she could pour more grounds inside. Fallyn wobbled on the stool, so James pressed his hand to her hip to steady her, taking in a clean shot of her hint of eye-level cleavage tucked inside her modest, yet still sexy dress.
    “You there! Hands off! Eyes front!” boomed a voice from the back of the line.
    Fallyn gasped as her second oldest brother made his way to the counter. “Declan! What are you doing here?” She scrambled off the stool and ran for her brother, crashing into his midsection with a ferocious hug. “Come on back and see the kitchen! It’s just the way I want it now.”
    Declan was almost as tall as James at a solid six foot. His auburn hair matched the hue of his sister’s, but while her face was given to smiling, his was not – at least, not around strangers who had the glad eye for his sister. He pointed two fingers to his eyes, and then turned them to James. “I’m watching you,” he mouthed while his sister’s face was buried in his shoulder.
    James quirked an eyebrow at the man in the fitted leather jacket. “I think that’s my cue. Been a pleasure, ladies, but I have a job all my own to get to.” He took off the apron and handed it to Fallyn, but Declan intercepted it.
    “I can help her from here. Find a new toy, man.” Declan’s arm around his sister’s shoulders took on a protective purpose, and the edge in his set jaw was meant for one goal – intimidation.
    Fallyn rolled her eyes at her brother, taking the apron from him and looping it over her head. “This isn’t a toy, it’s a real apron. See my logo?” She showed her brother the front of the bib where the store’s name had been printed in teal and brown.
    “That’s nice, Fallyn.”
    “Go on back. I’ll meet you in there in a second.”
    Declan had left James and his roving hands unchecked and unbroken, so his frown lasted a few extra beats. “Get that guy out of here, or I’ll kick him out for you.”
    She reached up and pecked his cheek, sending him back with his scowl firmly in place. “I know, I know. You’re super scary.” After Declan left for the backroom, Fallyn turned to the cash register and opened it, pulling out a twenty. She folded it into James’s hand, smirking at his confusion. “For your help this morning. Thank you. Really, you saved us.”
    James grimaced at being handed cash and pushed it back into Fallyn’s hand. “My pleasure.”
    “No, seriously. Take the money. You more than earned it.”
    “I’m never going to take that. Doesn’t feel right. You’re a new business, and I don’t actually work here.”
    “Let me send you off with breakfast, at least.” Fallyn opened a to-go bag and placed a blueberry and a banana nut muffin inside, slipping in the twenty so it stuck out between the two napkins. “Here you are.” She pretended to scold him with her sparkling eyes. “Now, I hope this taught you a lesson about cutting in line.”
    He cast her a sexy grin. “Yes, only do it when there’s a prospect of getting a date out of the deal.”
    Fallyn paused, and then giggled, “Jen, I hope you don’t have plans for tonight. I think new guy wants to ask you out.”
    Jen turned to James and shrugged as Fallyn scampered off into the backroom to see her brother. “Told you so,” Jen muttered.

5
The Spice in the Sweetness
    D eclan left after an hour of helping his sister, a coffee and muffin in hand. Fallyn went back to work in the kitchen to replenish the baked goods during the midmorning lull. She whipped