You're Not Broken

by Hart, Gemma

  Kat stared at him.

  “What about you?” she countered.

  “What about me?”

  “You’re certainly tougher than glass. Tougher than bricks, even.” She gave him a faint smile. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not precious. That doesn’t mean you’re not worth protecting.” She saw the faint smudges underneath his eyes that spoke of several sleepless nights. “You don’t have to fight alone.”

  Kat expected Jason to give a chuckle and brush off her words saying something like, “Let’s start with protecting you first.” Or something of the like. She expected him to tease and lighten the mood so that he could deflect the attention away from him.

  But she had not expected his smile.

  His small but genuine smile. A smile that reached all the way to his eyes and showed open gratitude to her.

  “You’re right,” he said, blowing her mind. “I find that I sleep better at night when I’ve spent the day with you. I think you have a secret skill in fighting off the bad dreams.”

  Kat felt her heart skip a beat. She also slept better after having spent the day with Jason. Whether it was arguing over shelving or teasing each other through Malcolm, she felt more complete at the end of the day when her hours had been filled with his company.

  “Well,” she said, her voice a little husky with emotion. She cleared her throat. “I guess we both have our hands full.”

  Jason raised a brow as he carefully lifted Kat’s injured ankle. “Very,” he replied pointedly.

  Kat grinned.

  Suddenly a loud gurgling cut through the air. Jason’s brow nearly touched his hairline at the volume of the sound. He slowly turned his head towards Kat whose cheeks turned a faint pink.

  “Hungry?” he asked sardonically.

  She gave a coy smile. “I guess I could eat a little,” she said delicately before her stomach gave out another roaring gurgle that sounded like a starving lion gobbling a gazelle in the Serengeti.

  Jason snorted before standing. “Well, you’re in luck. I make a pretty mean chili.”

  Kat raised a brow. “I work in a diner,” she answered, arms crossed. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “And how long have you worked at Doughy Pop’s?”

  Kat blew air out of her lips as she smiled. “Oh gosh, I feel like I was born here!” she laughed. “I’ve been working here nearly all my life. This was my uncle’s baby and I loved knowing I was helping to take care of it.”

  The blogger nodded as she eagerly tapped against the keys of her laptop. She grabbed a French fry and munched as she wrote. “I have to say,” she added in a less interview-y tone, “this is just a cute town.”

  Kat beamed. “It is. It’s hard to find towns like Peytonville anymore.”

  The blogger nodded and then looked up and sniffed. “What’s that smell?” she asked, her eyes wide with enticement.

  Kat grinned. “My cinnamon almond scones. They’re almost done.” She looked at the blogger nearly drooling over her keyboard. “Would you like one?” she asked casually.

  The blogger nodded eagerly.

  Kat headed back towards the kitchen to check to see how close to finish the scones were.

  The blogger had emailed Kat a few weeks ago about her food and Doughy Pop’s. She had been interested in coming in and interviewing Kat. Kat had welcomed the woman and had encouraged her to come in and try some of Doughy Pop’s menu.

  But as soon as the woman had come into Peytonville, she had been completely charmed by the town. She had spent a whole day blogging and recording videos all about town. Kat was excited. She knew this blogger had thousands of followers online. She hoped with her endorsement Peytonville would only gain more popularity.

  And it wasn’t just the blogger.

  With the renovations the entire town was receiving, many members of the community began to feel hopeful for the first time in months in actually making a turnaround with the town.

  Hoyt’s Market looked remarkable after its facelift and Hoyt seemed to agree. He reached out to some nearby local farms and was in the process of creating a weekend farmer’s market out on the lot of his store. He would stock his market with locally produced goods and on weekends, he would let the farmers come in themselves as vendors and sell not only their produce but also homemade products like oils and soaps.

  The blogger had been thoroughly charmed by the whole idea when she had heard about it.

  Mrs. Olsen who owned one of the largest homes in town had decided to make her place into a bed and breakfast. She had asked Kat for some help in setting up a website and advertising. Within a few weeks, she had already booked out the place.

  It was small incremental growth but Kat could see it all snowballing into something greater.

  Essentially Peytonville was doing what the big hotshot New York buyers wanted to do, which was turn the town into a getaway resort. But instead of bulldozing all the history and character for condominiums and pools, Peytonville had stayed true to itself, assured that its own charm would bring in people.

  And so far, it looked like it was working.

  Kat looked around her finished kitchen. It was beautiful. With additional ovens, more storage space, and new worktops, it looked like a real restaurant quality kitchen. Malcolm and Kat could now work without constantly bumping into each other.

  It was amazing how well thought out the plans had been. Jason had truly outdone himself, given that he had no restaurant experience. He had clearly put a lot of thought into the plans to anticipate the needs of people working inside a small kitchen.

  Kat couldn’t help but smile to herself when she thought of Jason.

  It was clear now that Jason fit into her life like a foot into a shoe. And not just her life but also Malcolm’s and Dillon’s as well.

  Jason always offered to drive Kat to the hospital to see Dillon. Recently when he suffered a fever spike and was feeling quite grouchy, Jason had sat with him and turned on a ballgame. He had sat in relative silence with Dillon, throwing out odd trivia or comments on the players.

  Kat had sat in consternation at first. She had heard about Dillon’s grumblings and his difficulty in taking the additional medication he needed. The nurses had asked she talk to him. But Jason had given her a warning look and hushed her.

  So she watched in huffy silence as Jason and Dillon watched the ball game.

  But then slowly but surely, Dillon’s hunched and resentful shoulders began to relax. His face lost that angry frown and instead, Kat could see him leaning back a little on his pillows. Jason’s calm and quiet presence along with his casual commentary was clearly taking Dillon’s mind off of everything.

  Dillon had been stuck in the hospital now for nearly a month. That was a long time for someone used to being an outpatient. It was no wonder he was feeling frustrated and angry.

  Jason, immediately sensing that no amount of words or lecturing would work, had sat down and soothed Dillon’s temper by distracting him.

  Later when the nurse came to give him his medicine for the day, Dillon took it calmly with no grousing. The nurse’s eyes widened in surprise and then she smiled, patting Dillon encouragingly.

  As she was leaving, the nurse gave Kat a covert thumbs up, applauding her success in however she had managed to subdue her rowdy younger brother.

  But Kat could only give a faint smile, unable to explain to the nurse that she had had nothing to do with it. Jason had been the one to instinctively know what to do. The man, who was so awkward in a hospital it would make any doctor nervous, had sat down and immediately plunged Dillon into a world of ball, athletes, and batting averages.

  And his skills in handling her brothers hadn’t just improved with Dillon.

  Jason was now completely at ease with Malcolm as well. Although Malcolm had become quite the fan of Jason now, that didn’t mean he shared every single attitude Jason had. Namely, Malcolm didn’t think Kat was safe from any kind of arguing just because Jason
seemed to worship her.

  For example, a few days ago Malcolm and Kat had been arguing through the order window. Malcolm, behind the grill, pointed the greasy spatula through the window at Kat.

  “I told you not to order in such small quantities,” Malcolm argued. “It’s way too expensive!”

  Kat plunked her hands on her hips. “Malcolm,” she started like a mother explaining a simple math problem to her child. It never failed to raise Malcolm’s hackles and she could see it working now as well. “I don’t know if the flours will work with every recipe. It’s wasteful to buy bulk in what might be a one shot deal.”

  “But you bought basically twenty different flours at literally just grams!” Malcolm cried out. “And all from specialty stores that charge an arm and a leg!”

  “Those flours are only made in specialty stores!” Kat argued back. “That’s why the flours are considered special.”

  “How many cookies are you gonna be able to make from that handful of sunflower seed flour that you ordered?” Malcolm threw back. “I know one thing—it won’t be enough to cover the cost of the ‘special’ flour.”

  “And since when have you become such a bookkeeping fanatic, huh?” Kat replied, her face getting redder at the accusations towards her baking. “Mister I Need This Japanese Spatula Shipped In Express Because Pancakes Can’t Be Flipped With Anything Else?”

  Malcolm’s cheeks turned a bright red. “Oh so now we’re gonna talk about waste, huh? Well, why don’t we just see who spends the most on equipment here! Because last I checked—”

  “Alright, kids,” Jason interrupted, stepping in. “I think that’s enough playtime for the two of you.”

  “I’m just trying to run a business here!” Malcolm said huffily.

  Kat’s eyes widened. “Oh really? And just what am I doing all day in that kitchen? Playing hopscotch?”

  Jason tried to placate them once more before realizing the siblings had sunk their teeth into the argument and had no interest in stopping. So he stopped the argument his own way.

  Jason bodily picked up Kat and simply carried her to the other side of the diner. Kat had protested and tried calling back arguments towards Malcolm but Jason kept her separated until she cooled down. He set her against a wall, pinning her by leaning one arm above her head.

  She had no idea when Jason become so apart of her family but now it felt like he had always been around. The sibling arguments seemed to unfaze him and he had no problems in stepping in.

  “I have the final plans for the remodeling of the dining interior,” Jason said, capturing Kat’s attention to distract her from Malcolm’s slaphappy grilling.

  Kat threw a glare in the direction of the order window before looking up. “What?” she asked, before realization lit up her eyes. “Oh really?”

  That was the part Kat had most been looking forward to. They were going to refloor the dining area and reupholster the booths. The walls were going to get new paneling and the light fixtures would be replaced.

  Kat wanted to keep the old school charm with the classic Formica tables and shiny metal stools but she wanted to give the place a clean lift to make it look a little brighter and more open.

  “Do you want to look it over tonight before we start work?” Jason asked, leaning over her.

  Kat grinned, excited. “How about you come back when we close? I want to do a walkthrough here with the plans.”

  Jason smiled back. “Sounds like a date.”

  The echo of such familiar words from so long ago made Kat shiver. Not in fear or regret but in something akin to…anticipation.

  And looking up at Jason’s dark green eyes, she could see that he had felt it too.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “I’ll give Dave the go ahead then,” Jason said as he finished the last of the meatloaf. He cleaned his plate and then looked up curiously. “Who made this? Did Malcolm make this before he left?”

  They were alone in the empty diner.

  Kat leaned across from him on the counter, a hand under her chin as she gave him a lazily confident smile. “No,” she said. “I made it.”

  Jason raised a brow. “I thought you only baked.”

  “You know what they say about making assumptions,” she replied in a singsong voice.

  Jason chuckled as he leaned back in his seat, thoroughly well fed and content.

  They had done a careful walkthrough of the plans and Kat couldn’t be happier with the work that Jason had done. She knew that Doughy Pop’s was going to look better than ever in no time.

  “Have you always been interested in construction?” Kat asked.

  Jason pursed his lips as he shrugged. “It’s not so much interest as it is something that I’ve always done. Been working with my hands since I was six.”

  “Six?” Kat grinned. “Like making birdhouses?” How cute would a little Jason be making popsicle houses?

  Jason shook his head. “No, my pop owned a construction firm for a few years. I worked with him until he lost the business.”

  Kat looked up, quiet. She had noticed he rarely ever talked of his own family. She remembered his short words about his parents two years ago—mom drank, dad hit.

  “How’d he lose the business?” she asked softly.

  Jason gave another expansive shrug. “Oh you know, a lot of ways really but mainly from gambling debts. His business was destroyed from always borrowing company money to pay off loan sharks.”

  “It must’ve been hard to lose the family business,” she said. She could imagine the stress that put the family under.

  Jason gave a soft snort. “I couldn’t have been happier,” he said in a detached voice. “I never did like how many 2x4s were so handy for my dad.”

  A chill ran down Kat’s spine.

  She watched Jason as a tension began to build up around his shoulders. Wanting to relieve him of his burdens, she suddenly swung up onto the counter and turned towards him, letting her legs dangle between his.

  Jason leaned back in surprise but then smiled as she swung her legs casually in front of him.

  “Isn’t it weird,” Kat started out, as if talking to herself. “I used to think when I was older, when I was a grown up, I’d become more…whole. I’d understand the world better, I’d have less questions, more answers, and overall, just have a better handle on life.” She tilted her head to one shoulder. “But it’s been the opposite. If anything, I feel more useless and inept the older I get. I think it’s because I keep comparing myself to who I thought I would be by now.”

  Jason looked at her, his smile disappearing for a more meaningful gaze. “You’re not useless,” he said in a quiet and firm voice. It was such a solid answer, full of confidence.

  Kat gave a small smile. “And you’re not tainted,” she replied. “You’re not the sum of all your damages.”

  Jason stared at her a long time. She couldn’t tell if he actually believed her or not.

  Finally he sat up and then leaned forward, resting his head against her breasts. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer. Kat wrapped her arms around him as well, feeling his spicy masculine scent surround her.

  “You know what I think?” Jason asked, his head still buried against her.

  “What?” she asked, her pulse rising from his nearness.

  Jason looked up, capturing her with his arresting eyes.

  “I think it was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me—coming into this diner two years ago,” he said. And before she could reply, he scooted her off the counter and onto his lap so she sat straddling him.

  His lips soon fell on hers. And Kat closed her eyes, wanting his touch.

  His lips this time were neither rough or bruising. Instead they were insistent and thorough, as if wanting to memorize the taste of her. His arms were like steel bands around her back, pressing her breasts against him.

  She could feel his hardness rising beneath her. She sat right above his cock as it grew and lengthened. With instinctive movements,
she swayed in his lap, undulating her hips back and forth.

  That somehow snapped Jason awake. His hold tightened on her, squeezing out her breath. His lips grew forceful and his tongue more demanding. Kat was left breathless in the wake of his touches.

  Breaking apart simultaneously, Jason pulled off her shirt, unhooking her bra with an expert ease. Her creamy full breasts came tumbling free in the dim diner.