“It’s fine,” he said, making silly eyes at the young one, which made her kick her feet in hysterics. “I’ve got sisters. I’m used to hair pulling.”
Marisa took a pull on her soda and leaned into the exuberant joy expanding her rib cage as she took in the sight at the counter, one she still hadn’t entirely gotten used to. The boy handed Sal the money and excitedly grabbed another bag of Sweetest Heart’s Desire’s Rugby Try Treats out of the tabletop display. It had taken her a solid three months to get the shaping right, but once she had it, the method had been easy enough to adapt to some of the other offerings she was putting together for the arena.
Her cheeks pinched the tighter her smile got as the boy rooted around in the bag of fruit-and-cream-swirled rugby-ball-shaped gummies. When his fingers came free with the watermelon ones, she quietly gave her nod of approval.
Watermelon was a sleeper flavor and a personal favorite of hers and Veronica’s as well.
Alec had been the odd one out in the flavor favorites department. Apparently, whatever seasonal-treat damage Marisa had done had stuck around for the rest of the year. The man still preferred blueberry.
And she loved him for it.
“Oh, it’s starting!” Eden bumped up the volume as high as it would go, and the entire restaurant’s customer base set their heads on swivels toward the screen.
Except for Marisa. She’d chosen to stand near the counter, with her shoulders supported by plexiglass and her line of sight unobstructed and pinned perfectly to the man who had filled out the frame with no shortage of Scottish charisma or, as the women around her pointed out with tittering appreciation, his resonant brogue.
She successfully managed to make it through the first two ten-minute interviews before she had to grab some gummies and shove them in her mouth lest she start finger-whistling her approval for how amazing he was doing.
Hold it together, Marisa. Hold it together . . .
“Here.” Eden handed her a basket of freshly fried zucchini sticks and warm marinara sauce. “They count as a veggie. I checked.”
“Thanks.” Marisa began to nibble on her molten-hot sustenance, grateful to her friend for recognizing the imminent waterworks and stopping the flow before she made a complete— “Where did you get that hat?”
“It’s a sample I was working on for your new logo, and I wanted to see what it would look like on some merch. Do you like it?” Eden modeled the baby-shit-green trucker hat that made the business’s swirling heart logo look like something the CDC should issue warnings for.
“It’s hideous.”
“Okay, but what do you think of it in mustard yellow?” Like some tricky magician, she quickly swapped out hats, her excited smile anticipating a reaction that not even Marisa, with all her previously earned experience on the lying circuit, could pull off in good faith. That was when, to Marisa’s horror, an entire box of colored cap monstrosities poked out from beneath the table next to Eden.
“I think . . .” Then her heart softened as Alec’s voice pulled her attention back to the TV screen. “I think we’ve got some fun choices to make.”
And that thought alone? Man, it was a keeper.
With her business not only having its legs solidly under it but running the equivalent of at least several respectable 5Ks, and having Alec by her side forging a foundation for his new career, her life had become nothing short of a firehose of happiness.
So, yeah, she’d gladly take shitty hat options any day of the week and couldn’t wait for more weird and wonderful fun.
Alec smiled at the camera, his eyes twinkling beneath the studio’s lights as he answered his co-host’s question about match strategy. “I hope the lads on the pitch today all go out and make the right choices one after another. That’s all it takes for the game to flow and for each team to find their footing early. If they can do that, they’ll only have the best of choices in front of them from then on out. Should make for a good match-up. I’m excited to see what they can all pull off. Some real top talent out there, for sure.”
Alec held his confidence and smiled a beat longer so the camera could soak it all in, but the way the scarred side of his mouth rose almost imperceptibly higher than the other side was all for Marisa.
Their secret signal. A quiet nod that spoke of exciting futures and thrilling promises.
All sweet choices they would make together.
