A heavy swallow drags down my throat, my eyes dropping down his face and absorbing the solution after solution he’s offering me. He keeps going.
“If we gettoo manycovers, we’ll whip up some daily specials with whatever’s left and the waitstaff will push those and wow every single person that comes through those doors. And then we’ll order more.”
My senses return, the pressure on my eardrums and the tunnel vision both receding at once.
“And if I need to get Ronnie to get Gracie to come steal you for a day outside of this building, I’ll do it. You deserve a break, Lex. But when you’re stressing like this, you come see me. You don’t have to take this on by yourself, k?”
An unwelcome sniffle sneaks by my defenses and I look away from him, shocked at the way he not only didn’t bolt, but he actually saw something was wrong, cared to find out what it was, and stayed to help me fix each and every thing.
“Did I miss anything?” Wilder rasps, his hand slipping back to the nape of my neck.
“The Post-its,” I whisper, eyes velcroed to his lips. Wondering what they taste like. If they’re hard, like the rest of him, or soft like he can be when I least expect it.
“Keep making those. Wallpaper the whole office in them if you want. I like seeing what’s on your mind.”
“You don’t think I’m being insane?” I ask him, watching as his eyes dip lower on my face, and relishing the way my stomach dips in response.
“I think you’re up against a lot, and no one can do it all alone. Not even a woman as strong as you.”
And somehow when he says it, I feel for the first time like maybe I’m not over the top. That I’m not too much for everyone, that maybe there’s someone out there who can handle my ass after all.
Maybe Mercury is in the microwave again, but after unloading on him and feeling like I’m not alone in this, I don’t feel so crazy anymore.
And I wonder if I’d had a partner over the past twenty years of my adult life, instead of being out here on my own, if maybe I’d have felt calm like this more often than the never I did.
Someone who doesn’t minimize my feelings, the battles I’m facing, but helps me stare them down and come out the other side.
It’s a feeling I’d be all too happy to get used to, which is why I can’t let myself get comfortable. If my own family didn’t stay by my side when I needed them, this new guy in town with thigh tattoos and a big knife isn’t going to either.
Easiest thingI ever did was tell Amelia yes when she asked if we needed another experienced server at the diner.
Is it a stretch on the budget to hire her mom?
Less than I would’ve thought, since we’ve been even busier than the projections Rory helped me forecast before opening.
The smile on that girl’s face, I know she hasn’t had enough of them in her life so far, and I’m too damn happy to be the one to put that there.
Selfishly, this will also mean Ineverhave to cover a huge section by myself again, unless our water really is contaminated and all our servers go down at once. Wilder even pointed out that with another server, we might be able to turn tables over quicker and get more covers in.
But more importantly than all of that, it means Amelia and her mom are reunited, after far too much tragedy kept them apart all these years.
The smiles on their faces are so bright, the rest of us have no choice but to take notice.
Raucous laughter spills over the jewel green grass of my sister’s backyard, still vibrant even in the low light of sunset, now that summer is in full bloom in the Smokies.
Wyatt hung string lights around the perimeter of the area we usually host family dinners, even adding a second picnic table to have plenty of room for all of us now that both the Grady boys’ mother and Amelia’s mother are going to be here every Sunday night.
My eyes can’t help but dart to the two women who are newest to the Heights, staying close throughout the night at the first family dinner since Amelia’s mom got to town, and Amelia got her new job working for her idol, Jynx.
It’s a celebration tonight.
New beginnings, Amelia toasted to.
For Rory and I, it’s bittersweet.
It’s a fresh start for Amelia and her mother, but Rory and I will never see ours again.
Two and a half years and it still pits my stomach every time it hits me, when those fresh realizations land a strike.
