The men walked up to them. Jesse looking surprised to see them, Austin, not so much.“Well, hello. This a surprise,”Austin said, trying to look credible.
She shot Livy a look. Livy sent back an overly innocent expression, turned, and smiled at the men.“Do you two want to join us? We haven’t ordered yet.”
“We don’t want to intrude,”Jesse said.
“Oh, you aren’t. We’d love for you to join us. Right, Heather?”
Heather glared at Livy.“Yes, love it,”she lied.
Austin sat next to Livy so, of course, that only left the seat next to her for Jesse. He promptly claimed it, and she ignored how close he was. The men ordered drinks while Heather concentrated on the menu. Concentrated hard. Read every little detail and noticed they had a typo in mayonnaise. One n. Maybe she should get up and go talk to Jimmy and tell him…
Austin and Livy chatted about their days, oblivious to the silence across the table from them. Or maybe they knew it was there but ignored it. They all ordered. Heather decided on the salad with shrimp but ordered a side of hushpuppies to split with Livy. Might as well have some carbs to tone down her stress level. Maybe she’d even finish her meal with key lime pie. Why not?
“Heather picked up another greeting card line,”Livy offered up in a lull in the conversation.
“You did?”Austin asked.
“I did. For a line of beach-themed cards.”
“That sounds nice.”Austin smiled at her.“So you do all the drawings and they add words, or it’s just cards with drawings?”
“This company adds the words. They’ve actually sent me some of the wording, so I’ll draw according to the sayings. And they want some of my other illustrations, too. If the line does well, they’ll expand to putting it on coasters, t-shirts, tote bags. Things like that.”
“You have a very interesting career.”Austin shot a look at Jesse.
Jesse, who still hadn’t said a word since he sat down.
“How’s The Destiny doing, Jesse?”Livy tried again to jumpstart the conversation.
“Fine. Busy. No complaints.”
“Heather and I were talking about going on a dinner cruise,”Livy said. Or, more appropriately, lied.
She kicked Livy under the table.
“Oh, that would be fun. We should all go. Jesse, you could take some time to chat with us if we go on a cruise, couldn’t you? Maybe grab dinner with us?”Austin asked.
“I…uh…sure.”He looked about as ambushed as she felt.
“Great, how about next Monday? I know that Livy is busy with the cafe on the weekend,”Austin suggested.
Heather struggled to come up with a reason she couldn’t go, but nothing seemed plausible. Maybe she’d just have to be sick on Monday.
“Monday works,”Jesse said.“It will actually be a great day for me to do it. I have some extra help that night. Training a few more employees this week and they’ll be there.”
“Great, Monday it is. Right, Heather?”Livy insisted.
Heather nodded, still ignoring the fact that Jesse sat right next to her. And he seemed to be starting to relax. That wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t she?
“Austin said that you got the new ordering system for Parker’s—I mean, Sea Glass Cafe—up and running,”Jesse said as he leaned back, relaxed. So very relaxed.
“We did. It’s a bit different. We have to juggle online orders along with the in-person orders. But it’s working out. And our business really took off when we added it. We hired another part-time cook, as well as another server.”Livy grinned.“Because Heather was so done with being a waitress.”
“It wasn’t so bad,”she insisted, then smiled.“Well, it kinda was. But I’m glad to be back to my own work. Especially with this new card line.”
Their meals came, and much to Heather’s surprise, her tension began to dissipate. She was able to sit back in her chair, her spine no longer frozen ramrod straight. Just a simple dinner with friends. That wasn’t so bad, was it?
“You know, I wonder if your mother could help me plan out some new menus for The Destiny. I feel like I’m stuck on just a few dinner buffets that I rotate through.”Jesse looked at her.“You think she’d do that?”He turned to Livy.“Though, nothing to compete with the cafe, of course.”
