Sweet Mercy - Lynn Hagen Page 0,3

paper towels. “I was also told to drive you around so you can get your errands done. The mechanic said it would be about an hour before he could get to you.”

An hour with Ford. He could do this. He just had to resist flirting with the guy. Ford was a new hire, and Mercy wasn’t ready to dip his toes back into the dating pool.

But damn if Ford didn’t make him want to.

“I’ll save the grocery store for last,” Mercy said. “Dang it!” He’d forgotten the mail he was supposed to take to the post office on the front seat of his Jeep.

“What?” Ford looked around before his gaze landed on Mercy. “What’s wrong?”

That was all he had to do. Go grocery shopping and stop at the post office. He told Ford as much.

“Well, you can come back when the tires are on your Jeep. Until then, I say we get something to eat. My treat. How does that sound?”

“Any place with cool air.” Mercy fanned himself, mostly from the heat but also from being near the stud. “I’m already starting to melt again.”

They ended up at Bent Spoon, a mom-and-pop diner that served breakfast all day and had prices that didn’t break your wallet. They were told to sit anywhere when they entered the place, and Mercy chose a booth by the big windows.

“So where are you from?” Mercy knew the menu by heart. He came here every time he had to run errands. But he needed to do something with his hands, so he skimmed the items on the plastic-coated menu with his finger.

“Somewhere you probably never heard of.” Ford picked up his menu, and from the look on his face, the subject was closed. Interesting.

“Have you lived here all your life?” Ford set his menu down, but he still had a guarded look in his green eyes.

“My whole life.” Mercy nodded. His past was something he didn’t want to discuss. Not his poor upbringing, his dying mother, his abusive ex, or the fact that he liked the ranch but didn’t want to live on it.

Ford grinned, and Mercy’s heart skipped a beat. “Great, then maybe you can show me around town sometime.”

“Be a tour guide?” Mercy chuckled. “I’d love to.”

Wait. No he wouldn’t. Why on earth had he said that? The only tour Mercy wanted to give Ford was of his bedroom.

Ugh, stop!

Mercy looked up when the waiter approached. His insides froze. The lust he’d felt vanished as he stared into Lloyd’s face. “What’re you doing here? I thought you’d left town.”

Fear crept up Mercy’s spine. Lloyd’s hands, curled around the order pad and pencil, were a reminder of Mercy’s life with the jackass. How Lloyd had knocked him around, punched him, and choked the crap out of him a few times.

“Family needed my help.” Lloyd looked between Mercy and Ford. “So I came back.”

Mercy highly doubted Lloyd’s family would ask for his help. They couldn’t stand him and had been relieved when he’d taken off. Mercy’s ex was an all-around jerk who had treated everyone like crap. Too bad Mercy hadn’t known that before he’d started dating the guy and moved in with him.

“What’ll you guys have?” Lloyd was studying Ford a little too closely, as if measuring him up. The expression was barely there, but after living with Lloyd, Mercy knew disdain when he saw it.

“Nothing.” Mercy got up and skirted around the bastard. Great, now his favorite place to eat was off-limits. There was no way Mercy was coming back while Lloyd worked there.

“Sit down and stop acting like that,” Lloyd said. “You always were a drama queen.”

If by “drama” Lloyd meant Mercy begging his boyfriend to stop hitting him.

Anger rolled inside Mercy, but he refused to show it to the jerk. He refused to show any emotions and give Lloyd the satisfaction of knowing he was getting to him.

“Mercy says he wants to leave.” Ford stood, towering over Lloyd. “Step aside.”

A flush crept over Mercy’s cheeks, and he felt his ears burning. His stomach dropped at the show of dominance. This was too much. Mercy fled the diner and raced onto the street. Now Ford would have a suspicion that something bad had happened between Mercy and Lloyd. He would probably want to know what it was, and Mercy never wanted to talk about that part of his life.

Ever.

Damn Lloyd for coming back to town.

“Wait up,” Ford shouted as Mercy moved swiftly down the street, trying his best to escape the situation.