Her eye twitched. “This is a diner, hon. Not some fancy California granola restaurant.”
“I’m from New York, not California,” I corrected. “And I’m just asking if you have grilled chicken or fish. Maybe a nice salad?”
“We got salad,” she said flatly. “House salad with ranch dressing.”
“Can I get it with the dressing on the side? And maybe some grilled chicken on top?”
She stared at me like I’d just asked her to perform surgery. “I’ll see what I can do.”
As she walked away, I heard her mutter something under her breath that was clearly not praise.
“You really know how to make friends,” Lucas said, trying not to laugh.
“It’s a gift,” I replied dryly. I turned my attention back to my phone. “So, back to the bachelor party. When exactly are we doing this? I need to coordinate with the stripper’s schedule.”
“How about Saturday night?” Lucas suggested. “Beau will be out with the others already and the regular guests will be gone, so we’ll have the place to ourselves.” Lucas reached over, threading his fingers through Beau’s. “We’ll have it in the barn, that way we don’t disturb anyone at the house.”
“Who’s gonna be there?” I asked, typing away. “I need to make sure we have enough food and booze.”
“Logan, Eli, Dustin, Rowan, Hayden, Dolly, and probably Mabel. I doubt she’d turn down a chance to see a male stripper.”
I jotted down the names. “What about Marcus? He’s your officiant, so do you want to invite him to either party?”
“I don’t think he can get away for three days for mine,” Beau said, shaking his head. “But I don’t know if he’s ready for male strippers either.”
I felt my stomach twist at the mention of Marcus. “Well, he might surprise you,” I said, keeping my voice carefully neutral even though my pulse had kicked up. The last thing I wanted to do was out him to the entire town. “But I can ask him if you want. See if he’s interested.”
“That’d be great,” Lucas said. “I’d love to have him there. He’s been a good friend to both of us.”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll text him later.” I made another note, trying not to think about the last couple times I’d seen Marcus. The way he looked at me when I’d left his office, satisfied and relaxed in a way I’d never seen before. The way he’d kissed me goodbye like he didn’t want me to leave. And the way his eyes lit up when I mentioned that next time, I’d bring my dildo.
Dolly returned with our food, slamming my sad little salad down in front of me with enough force that some of the lettuce actually jumped. The grilled chicken looked like it had been cooked sometime last week and then reheated in a microwave, but I wasn’t about to complain. Not when she was already looking at me like she wanted to poison my ranch dressing.
“Enjoy,” she said, the word dripping with sarcasm as she walked away.
I poked at the wilted lettuce with my fork. “This looks absolutely tragic.”
“Welcome to small-town dining,” Lucas said sympathetically, cutting into his chicken fried steak. “But hey, at least she didn’t spit in it.”
“That you know of,” I muttered, pushing aside a particularly suspicious-looking tomato.
Beau was practically halfway through his meal in seconds, eating with the kind of enthusiasm that suggested he genuinely loved Dolly’s cooking. Which was insane, but whatever. Love was blind, apparently, and so were taste buds.
“So,” Lucas said between bites, “have you made any progress on finding whoever’s been stealing from the ranches?”
I looked up from my depressing salad. “What do you mean ‘you’? I’m not the sheriff.”
“No, but you were there when Marcus was investigating at our place,” Lucas pointed out. “And you seem to know what’s going on.”
I shrugged, spearing a piece of the questionable chicken. “Not really. Marcus is handling it. I’m just the wedding planner who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” I took a bite of my tough chicken. “Twice, actually.”
“Or the right place,” Beau said with that knowing smirk again.
I shot him a look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing,” he said innocently, though his eyes were dancing with amusement. “Just that you and the sheriff seem to spend a lot of time together. For someone who’s just planning a wedding.”
My face heated, and I took a long drink of water to buy myself some time. They were fishing, that much was obvious. But I didn’t know how much they actually knew versus how much they were guessing.
