“Nina’s always been trouble,” Lucas says. He holds out his hand to me and I shake it. “Nice to meet you, Tess. Aaron hasn’t told us much, but I did hear you’re decorating his office.”
I let out a laugh. “It needs it.”
“I tackled Lucas’s home office,” Nina says. “You’d swear he was an aspiring chess grandmaster with the black and white vibe he had going there.”
“Aaron’s office is the same,” I say. “My soul stages an uprising every time I step into it.”
Aaron and Lucas share a pained glance. “Told you,” Aaron says ruefully.
“Careful,” I warn him with a playful chest poke. “I might be tempted to buy you one of those solar powered dancing flowers to put on your car dashboard.”
“Please, no,” Aaron begs on a shudder. “They give me the creeps.”
Nina links her arm in mine. “Ooooh, I like you already.”
We sit at a private table at the back of the restaurant. My gaze sweeps Soul Fare’s interior, admiring the abundance of natural light, rich wood, and splashes of greenery. “Your restaurant is beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Nina replies. “It was old-fashioned and dreary looking when I first started working here.”
“You’ve done wonders. It feels so warm and welcoming.”
“It was an uphill battle,” Nina admits. “The staff hated me when I first arrived.”
I gape at her. “That’s so hard to believe.”
“I had to work really hard to bring them around.”
“She’s captured the heart of everyone here, including mine,” Lucas says, lifting her hand to his lips and pressing a tender kiss there.
My chest cinches at the devoted look in his eyes. Maybe one day Aaron will look at me like that, as though I’m his world and he can’t imagine living in any other one.
I discover that Lucas and Nina have a toddler, a dark-haired mini Lucas, and they’ve left him in the care of her brother and his wife.
“My little terror is busy ransacking Ryan’s premium Lego collection,” Nina says with satisfaction. “My brother will have spent the last hour chasing Michael around the house. Suitable punishment for making me drink that vile charcoal latte.”
“Fortunately, I managed to escape that one,” Lucas says in relief.
At my confused look, Aaron explains, “The three of them have this crazy drink dare thing going on.” He shakes his head. “I still can’t believe you guys haven’t dropped it.”
“Never,” Nina says, looking shocked he would even suggest it.
“When I’m eighty,” Lucas grumbles, “she’ll be daring me to drink prune juice.”
“When you’re eighty,” Nina retorts, “you’ll be begging me for prune juice.”
“What’ll everyone have to drink?” asks a dark-haired, elegant server I soon discover is named Jeena.
An impish look crosses Nina’s face. “You game?” she asks me.
“Hey, don’t involve Tess in your weird dares,” Aaron protests.
“Bring it on,” I say to Nina, who cheers and gives me an excited fist bump. I glimpse Jeena rolling her eyes, but she’s smiling, as though she’s used to these antics.
“You don’t have to,” Aaron says with a small frown.
“Oh, but I want to.” Also, I’m not one to back away from a challenge (unless it involves running), and I want to impress Aaron’s friends, a truth I admit only to myself.
Nina raises her eyebrows at Lucas. “You know the drill, bodyguard.”
