“Mr. Crawford, one of these would look adorable in your garden!” she says with way too much enthusiasm.
He looks like a deer caught in headlights. There is no way he wants that ugly thing, but he’s way too nice to say no to Olivia. Especially a persistent Olivia.
She finally wears him down and does a victory dance the second he leaves with a statue tucked under his arm.
“We’re tied now!” she says.
“Yeah, but there’s a good chance he was our last customer for the day.”
“Then we should spend our time wisely—checking out the guys who work here. Papa has to pick someone for Nonna’s party, and they’re practically the only people he knows.”
This makes me sit up a little straighter. I’ve been so worried about Nonna’s pick on New Year’s Eve, I haven’t given any thought to Nonna’s party. So now I’m scanning every guy who walks past us.
And because we’re on a skeleton crew today, there aren’t many options.
“Randy, Jason, Chase, and Scott are the only guys here today, and two of them are married. And I’m pretty sure Chase is wanted by the law,” I say. “You’re going to have to talk to Papa. See if he needs help picking someone out.”
“At least the whole family will be at Nonna’s party. You probably won’t even have to hang out with the guy.”
I nod and pull out the schedule for the upcoming week to see who else is working. Olivia reads it over my shoulder.
“Wes and Charlie will be working on Tuesday,” she says.
“I see that,” I reply. Does she know things are weird between Wes and me right now?
Her chin rests on my shoulder. “Wes and his family are invited to the party, so it kind of makes sense if Papa picks him. But he probably knows y’all are just friends.”
Yeah, she has no idea where my head’s at with Wes. It’s probably best I didn’t mention the almost kiss.
“Are you worried about tonight?” she asks.
“A little. It’s Aunt Maggie Mae. I mean, why is our date starting at four?”
She swivels around and around on her stool, and I get dizzy just watching her. The door chimes, and we both look up, excited that we may have an actual customer. But it’s not a customer. It’s Olivia’s boyfriend, Drew, and Seth is with him.
“Looks busy today,” Drew says, then laughs. “We were close by and thought we’d pop in to see y’all.”
Seth leans against the counter. “Hey. How’s your sister?”
“She’s good,” I say. “My niece, too.”
Seth leans closer to me. “Good. I was worried when you told me what was going on.”
“Yeah, me too.”
There’s an awkward pause. “Well, let me know if you’ve got any free time while you’re still here,” he says.
I wait for the excitement that should be rushing over me—or even a little bit of a blush—but there’s nothing.
I think he can tell he’s thrown me, because he adds, “But I know you’ve got a lot going on.”
I’m relieved. Seth is a great guy, and I’d be dumb not to consider another date with him. But if he pressed me, I think my answer would be no, and I don’t know why or what that means.
“Maybe we can all go out again after this date thing is over,” Drew says. “Olivia said she’s not letting Sophie disappear on her again, so it sounds like we’ll be headed to Minden. Seth can come with us.”
This isn’t the first time they’ve mentioned this, and suddenly I can’t take it anymore. “I didn’t disappear on you.”
Olivia gives me a funny look. “We text some, but we haven’t hung out in months and months. Charlie says the same thing. You never want to come here, and every time we mentioned going there, you had some lame excuse. I’m not letting you get away with that when you go back home.” She wags a finger between her and Drew. “You’re stuck with us.” And then she points to Seth. “And you might be stuck with him, too.”
