Match Made In Paradise by Barbara Dunlop (black female authors TXT) 📕

wasn’t generally a fast food person. Then again, she wasn’t generally a cinnamon bun person either, but she’d tasted one at the Bear and Bar today, and it was delicious.

The building was a big, open square room; well, two rooms if you counted the pass-through kitchen. She could see two men back there in white aprons and white hats busily putting together food orders.

There were ten picnic tables in two rows of five. Each was covered in a different patterned plastic tablecloth, very colorful. About thirty men were distributed around the picnic tables, with four others at a round table in what looked like a lounge area. The four were playing cards while two others stood back to watch.

Curious glances turned her and Raven’s way.

Raven made a move, and Mia looked ahead to see Silas. He was sitting at one of the picnic tables, a burger and fries on a plate in front of him.

The man across from him spotted Raven approaching and smiled.

“What’s going on?” the man asked. It was clear from his expression that Raven’s appearance was welcome but unexpected.

“I tried for the governor again,” she said, climbing in to sit next to him. “This is my cousin Mia. Mia, this is Brodie.”

At the mention of her name, Silas looked up at Mia. His eyes narrowed, but otherwise his expression was unreadable.

“Nice to meet you, Mia,” Brodie said. “Saw you were at the Bear and Bar earlier.”

It seemed awkward to lean across their dinner to shake his hand, so she settled for a smile. She could feel interested stares at her back, so she sat down next to Silas across from Raven.

Silas bit down on a fry.

“How’d you do with the governor?” Brodie asked Raven. The amused glint in his eyes said he expected her attempt had failed.

“Got the commissioner’s direct number.” She pulled a folded piece of paper from the breast pocket of her denim shirt.

“No kidding.” Now Brodie looked impressed.

“You want to call?” she asked.

“You don’t want to do it?”

“A deeper voice is usually most effective.”

“That’s sexist,” Mia couldn’t help but observe.

They both looked at her.

“You shouldn’t have to be a man to get things done.”

“Way of the world,” Silas said.

She turned to rebuke him with a look. “That doesn’t make it right.”

“I agree with you,” Raven said to Mia.

Mia couldn’t tell if Raven saw her point or if she was placating her for the sake of conversational harmony.

“But,” Raven continued, “I’m more interested in getting the haul road fixed right now than chalking up a win for the sisterhood.” She pushed the paper Brodie’s way.

Brodie cleared his throat. “Happy to be of assistance,” he rumbled in a ridiculously low bass voice.

Silas cracked a smile as he popped another French fry.

A man appeared in Mia’s peripheral vision and the table shifted as he sat down on the bench with a tray of food. “Nice to see you again, Mia.”

She recognized Xavier as the copilot who’d flown with Silas yesterday. She’d also said hello to him as he left the Bear and Bar this morning.

“Hi, Xavier.”

“Mia, is it?” Another man joined them, sitting next to Raven and across from Xavier. “I’m Zeke Podeswa, ground crew with WSA.”

“Nice to meet you, Zeke,” she said, and he gave her a friendly grin.

He glanced down at his burger. “Are you hungry? Can I get you something? Thirsty?”

She looked to Raven, thinking they likely weren’t here to eat, but Raven’s attention was on Brodie.

“Thanks, but no,” Mia said to Zeke.

He looked disappointed.

“I had a cinnamon bun earlier,” she said to soften her refusal.

The answer seemed to make him feel better. “Oh, at the Bear and Bar? Those are fantastic!”

“It was delicious,” she said. She’d eaten less than a quarter of the giant concoction, but she’d have happily indulged in more.

The way food was served around here, she’d have to find a replacement for her gym workouts, and fast. Once she took over Lafayette Fashion, she wasn’t planning to continue modeling, but she’d still want to keep her form for the new styles.

AJ stopped at the end of the table, a dinner tray in his hands. There was clearly nowhere for him to sit down.

“Hi, Mia. I see you found Raven okay.”

“Hi, AJ. Thanks again for your help.”

AJ glanced around the table, obviously wishing he could join the group.

Silas abruptly came to his feet. “I’ll give you some room,” he muttered.

Mia looked up, intending to tell him to stay and offer to make room herself. She and Raven had obviously broken up his conversation with Brodie.

“I didn’t mean to—”

But he was gone, walking away, shoulders square, stride determined.

Mia looked at Brodie to see if he was annoyed by the turn of events, but he seemed engrossed by Raven’s description of the haul road problems.

AJ took Silas’s spot.

“Are you hungry?” he asked Mia.

Chapter Five

Two nights later, the cafeteria poker game seemed more intense than usual.

Silas balanced a slice of deep-dish pizza and took a glass of water from the kitchen pass-through and headed over to the game table, where Zeke, AJ and four other guys were playing around stacks of red, blue and green chips.

“What’s going on?” he asked Xavier, who was part of the standing crowd.

“Whoa,” a collective exclamation went up as Zeke raised the pot by one hundred dollars.

Since these were friendly games using fake money, and Brodie had a rule against gambling for anything more than a bottle of bourbon, the level of excitement didn’t make sense.

Silas took a bite of the hot, crispy pizza.

“Zeke’s bound and determined,” Xavier said in an undertone.

Silas swallowed. “To what?”

“Win.”

“Why?” Silas wondered if the Co-op had brought in some particularly fine bourbon.

“To be the first to ask Mia out.” Xavier seemed surprised he had to spell it out for Silas.

“What?” Silas stared at Xavier then at the game, half stupefied, half angry, with the angry half quickly taking over.

“Everyone wants a date with her, and this seemed like the fairest way to decide. We don’t want to