I subtly track him as he hustles between serving plates, refilling drinks, cashing people out, and hopping on the grill when Sullivan gets backed up. He’s removed his flannel shirt at some point during all the running around, leaving him in only a tight black T-shirt. If I said I didn’t appreciate how this provides a glorious view of his bulging arm muscles, then I’d be a lying liar who lies.

He should be happy—because a steady stream of customers means more money—but it looks like he’s barely managing not to frown as he serves people. He probably reached his peopling capacity for the day about thirty plates ago.

“Flag him down,” May insists. “You know he’ll come over for you.”

“No, that’s rude. I can wait.”

She bites into a fry and lets the end dangle out of her mouth, taunting me with it. “I told you to order when I did.”

“I can wait,” I say again. And it would’ve sounded believable if my traitorous stomach didn’t choose the next moment to let out a loud rumble.

May snorts. “You look like you’re two seconds away from eating your own hand.”

Right as I’m coming up with a witty retort, a giant plate of food is slammed down in front of me. “Wha—” I look up to find Travis hovering beside me. “I didn’t order anything.”

“You need to eat. Stop worrying about work.”

“I wasn’t wo—”

“Yes, you were,” May interrupts me.

I scowl. It’s true, but I was also worrying about Elise and Grant coming tomorrow. And what I’m going to say to May about the fake dating thing. I’m a multifaceted worrier.

When I look up at Travis again, he’s smiling at me. A real one, not his obligatory customer service one. I know the difference. “Just eat, okay?”

A sudden swell of emotions rushes through me. “Thank you.”

With a simple nod, he walks away.

As I dig into the juicy burger—the man even put mayonnaise on the bun for me so I wouldn’t have to do it myself—I get lost for a moment in a memory. Back when I first moved to town, I wasn’t in the best place financially. I was able to use the money from selling my parents’ house to buy my house here. But because I needed more and more stuff for May as she rapidly grew, and I didn’t have the best job yet, I had to be careful.

Since I suck at cooking, I did come to the diner for meals more often than I should have, but a lot of times I’d let May order whatever she wanted for breakfast, then order something cheap like toast for myself. One day, when Travis dropped off our food, he set down May’s plate of pancakes and set an omelet in front of me.