Mad, Bad and Blonde - Cathie Linz [7]
And waited. And waited. Other diners were seated on the sunny terrace dining area. Two guys in particular made a point of staring at her sitting all alone. She wasn’t pleased to see their food arrive before hers. They hadn’t even ordered Italian but steak and fries. The skinnier of the two men gave her a leering look. He poured ketchup onto his plate and then dipped a fry into it, holding it up and taunting her with it before chomping into it with gusto.
Normally Faith would have looked away and ignored him, but she wasn’t feeling very generous toward the opposite sex at the moment.
Faith gave the man her best withering librarian look.
He responded by smacking his lips at her.
She made an Eww-yuck face.
He dipped another fry in the ketchup and waved it at her before sucking it into his mouth in one go. An instant later the man grabbed his throat and started turning red then blue.
Before she could react, a man smoothly moved past her and gave the choking man the Heimlich.
Faith sank into her chair. She felt guilty that while trying to impress her, the idiot had ended up choking and nearly killing himself. Was there some kind of Italian curse that was reserved for brides who came to the Amalfi Coast without their grooms?
Then all thought went out of her head as she got her first good look at the rescuer. Dark hair, dark eyes, stubble-darkened cheeks and chin. A dark knight. A man meant to get a woman’s juices flowing.
He stopped at her table and stared down at her before saying with amusement, “I’ll say this: you sure know how to make an impression on a guy.”
Chapter Two
“Thank you, uh . . .” Faith paused, waiting for him to provide his name, which he finally did.
“Caine,” he said. “Caine Hunter.”
The name suited him. He looked like a hunter, someone who went after what they wanted. “Well, thank you, Caine Hunter.”
“Are you thanking me for saying you know how to make an impression on a guy?”
“No, I was thanking you because you saved that man’s life. I wasn’t trying to make him choke.”
“Good to know.”
A waiter hovered nearby. “I’m so sorry, signore. All the tables are taken. You will have to wait,” he said apologetically.
“Would you like to join me?” Faith heard herself ask.
A second later the waiter scooted forward to hold a chair out for Caine invitingly.
Caine didn’t bother looking at the menu before ordering in fluent Italian. She’d meant to learn more of the language, but there had never been enough time, what with all the planning for the wedding. The wedding that never happened.
She glanced down at her hands, glad to see they weren’t shaking. Her left hand looked so bare without her engagement ring. She’d yanked it off at her condo and stuffed it in a bottom drawer.
“Is this your first trip to Europe?” Caine asked.
She looked up. “No. My first trip was with my grand-parents when I was thirteen. We didn’t come here to the Amalfi Coast, though. We visited the capital cities and some of the battlefields where my grandfather fought in World War II. After V-E Day he was called back to the States to do top secret work—intelligence gathering, code breaking, that sort of thing. After the war he started his own investigation business in Chicago. He passed away two years ago.” She took a deep breath. She still missed her grandfather and couldn’t believe she’d just babbled all about her background the way she had. She was normally a pretty private person. “Anyway enough about me and my family. What about you? Is this your first trip to Europe?”
“No.” He didn’t elaborate the way she had. In fact, he didn’t elaborate at all.
A man of few words. That suited her just fine. Unless it meant that she was the one who had to do all the talking to fill in the awkward silence. She was rapidly running out of energy here, and if she didn’t get some food in her soon, she’d pass out at the table, and Caine would have to do a second rescue.
“Here.” He shoved some fresh bread still warm from the oven at her. “Eat some of this.”
She did so gladly. Where