I chuckled at the way he’d said it. “You never know. I might move on from The Crow one day, myself.”
“Nah,” he said, and there was a fond tone in his voice, no judgment. “You love that place. I know you do. One day, I thinkyou’re going to buy it off Grey and run it yourself, even if he doesn’t screw up again.”
Now, there was a pretty vision of the future. It wasn’t like I spent most of my paycheck. I lived well within my means, and I was making savings – I just had no idea what I was saving upfor.
Maybe Beau had a good idea, there.
“Christ,” I said with a chuckle. “You’ve thought about this more than I have.”
“I won’t think badly of you if you take your jobs back,” Beau said. “Any of you. I didn’t ask you to walk out. You can go back if you want. Just don’t involve me with anything to do with Grey ever again.”
“I can do that,” I promised. “Let me know if you need any help getting back on your feet. If I can write a letter of recommendation for you or help you out with setting up a new business – whatever you decide to do. Just call me if you need help.”
“I will,” Beau promised. He heaved a sigh. “If you don’t mind, I’ve got a date with a king-sized tub of ice cream and some weepy romcoms.”
I rubbed at my eye. I wasn’t crying. It was just a cold night and the wind was stinging my eyes. “Alright, Beau. I’ll let you get to it.”
He hung up, and I sat for a moment long, feeling the cool air on my skin and taking one moment to myself before I stepped back inside to chaos.
By the time service ended and the replacements were walking away from the restaurant, I was glad to look outside and see Luca and Ainslie walking across the parking lot together. In thedistance behind them, I saw Kit and Nikolai getting out of the same car, and stepped inside to wait.
Grey had put in some effort; once the restaurant was empty, instead of closing up, he’d set up the table we used for family dinner with clean settings and candles. The neon lights were off and the wicks were lit, giving a softer light to the place. With exchanged glances, the others took their seats one by one. Grey stood at the head of the table, holding onto the back of his chair as he leaned on it, and I hovered by mine.
“Is this everyone?” Grey asked. I looked at my watch. It was already fifteen minutes past closing time. Drake should have been here.
“Not yet,” I said. “Just wait, please.” I walked to the doors and looked out, scanning the whole parking lot for a sign of his bike.
I couldn’t hear that throaty engine powering down a nearby street, no matter how hard I strained my ears.
Hadn’t he listened to my message?
Or was he like Beau – and he considered his bridges burned now that we’d had a romantic entanglement?
I thought back to my message, agonizing over what I’d said. Should I have mentioned the sex? Told him I wanted to see him again? Should I have been more firm andtoldhim to come here, rather than asking?
What had I done wrong?
“Rafael,” Ainslie called out, not reproachfully. “Uh, Chef?”
I looked back at them. He was right. It was time to get started. These people had already taken time out of their day to come here, with no guarantees that they would be taking their jobs back. I couldn’t ask them to wait indefinitely.
I took one last glance over my shoulder and reluctantly closed the door.
“Okay,” I said, moving over to my chair. “Let’s get this meeting started.”
Drake
My phone rang while I was sitting in the waiting room. I silenced it quickly, glancing around to see if anyone was looking at me reproachfully, and turned off the ringer completely. My stomach pulsed with guilt when I saw a voicemail pop up from Rafael a moment later. He wanted to talk to me.
I wanted – needed – to listen to the message, but not here. Not right now. It wasn’t the place.
Anxiety clawed its way into my stomach next, wondering what he could have needed to say. Was he telling me not to bother calling him again? To lose his number? Was he going to say something cold like how he was working at The Crow again now and didn’t need me?
I needed to hear it.
My brain was only telling me bad things, and I needed to know if there was still any hope that he might have left a message telling me how much he wanted to see me again.
“Drake Warwick?”
