“Yes. I heard Leah call you that the other day when you came in to pick up an order.”
He smiled, exhibiting perfectly straight white teeth. “That means you have one up on me, because I don’t know your name.”
Cherie knew it wasn’t possible to withhold her name because all he had to do was ask Leah or Kayana who she was. “It’s Cherie Thompson.”
He extended his hand. “It’s nice meeting you, Cherie. And I’m Reese Matthews.”
Switching the umbrella to her left hand, she offered him her right. “It’s nice meeting you, Reese. I have to go, or I’m going to be late for my first day of work.”
He released her hand. “I don’t want to be responsible for you losing your job. I suppose I’ll be seeing you around.”
Cherie smiled. “I’m certain you will.”
She left the parking lot and climbed the stairs to the front door as pinpoints of heat dotted her cheeks. She didn’t know if Reese Matthews was married or single, yet she’d found herself ogling at him like the woman she’d seen him with the day before. It was something she’d accused Leah of when she couldn’t stop staring at Kayana’s brother, unaware that the two would become a couple.
Cherie liked Reese’s large dark eyes, which were as mesmerizing as the timbre of his mellifluous voice. It contained a drawl that made her listen intently to its cadence and enunciation, and she concluded he had a voice for radio. She forgot about Reese when she was greeted by Kayana, who escorted her into a room where she was given a bibbed apron and a bandana. The owners of the Seaside Café had a hard-and-fast rule that all cooks and servers were required to cover their hair.
“Business has been slow today because of the weather,” Kayana said as she opened the walk-in refrigerator and set a tray of marinating chicken on a shelf. “We had a total of five customers, and they all ordered takeout.”
“I met Reese Matthews in the parking lot.”
“Not only is he a steady customer, but he’s known as one of Coates Island’s most eligible bachelors.”
Cherie didn’t react to this information, because despite finding the man attractive, she had no intention of fawning over him like the woman she’d noticed yesterday. “Is your brother counted among the eligible bachelors?” she teased.
Kayana chuckled. “Not if Leah has anything to say about it. While we were on vacation, I overheard them talking about setting a wedding date.”
Cherie secured the ties of the apron around her waist. “They both are widowed, so what’s stopping them?”
“It’s Leah who wants to wait. Derrick has been widowed for more than five years, while it won’t be a year for Leah until this summer.”
“Are you saying she’s changed her mind?”
“I think so. I managed to convince her that there’s nothing keeping them from becoming husband and wife. Even my niece, Deandra, says she’s looking forward to the day when Leah will be her stepmother.”
“Are you saying she wouldn’t mind having a—”
“Don’t say it,” Kayana interrupted, frowning. “One of these days you’ll come to see that Leah isn’t that much different from you or me. I think of her as a sister-girl of a lighter hue. If you hadn’t cut your vacation short last summer to return to Connecticut, you would’ve met one of her sons, who just happens to be engaged to a mixed-race woman of color.”
This disclosure did shock Cherie. “Like Mama, like son,” she drawled.
Kayana’s frown deepened. “There’s no need for you to be so cynical, Cherie. As a black woman, I always found myself attracted to black men, and that’s why I married one. I will be the first to admit that I was devastated when James cheated on me and had a baby with another woman. Although I didn’t want anything to do with another man, it had nothing to do with race. Then Graeme Ogden walks in, and for a year, I never gave the man a passing glance. Then when he came back the next season, it was to buy a vacation home. I had no idea he’d moved here to get close to me.”
Throwing back her head, Cherie laughed. “It worked, didn’t it?”
“No shit,” Kayana drawled. “And if it hadn’t been for my brother threatening to kick Graeme’s ass because he believed he’d done something for me break up with him, that brought me to my senses.”
“Was Derrick serious?”
Kayana nodded. “Very serious. Derrick has appointed himself the protector of his sisters, and when my sister broke up with her husband, he drove down to Florida to confront the man.”
Now Cherie was intrigued. “Did he do the same when your left your husband?”
“No, because he claimed I could take care of myself when it came to James. It was different with Graeme, because Derrick got to see our relationship play out over the summer.”
“Were you in love with Graeme at that time?”
“Yes, I was. I asked him about going back to Massachusetts at the end of the season, and that’s when he told me he wasn’t returning. He admitted he’d resigned his teaching position and had retired on Coates Island. That’s when I lost it, Cherie. Before that, we’d talked about trust, because neither of us had trusted our exes, and then he admitted to being in love with me and that he was hiding another secret but couldn’t tell me unless we were married.”
