“You sure?” Brandon asked.
She glared at him and pulled the crate to her chest. “Yes.”
Brandon grinned and stepped back, lifting the curtain at the back aside to let her in. “Okay. It’s all yours.”
Allie and Jo glanced at one another and laughed as Zoey came in with her crate. Brandon headed out the back again.
“Is he like that with you?” Zoey asked, setting the box where the twins directed.
“He was when he first started working with us, but we just don’t have time for him to be chivalrous all the time,” Jo said with a chuckle. “Sometimes, we need to carry boxes too.”
Allie scoffed. “Please. What she means is we had to tell him to knock it off.”
The smells of fried chicken, biscuits, something garlicky, and something sweet wafted into the tent, making Zoey’s mouth water. Where was that delicious smell coming from? She glanced out the front of the booth.
“Who’d you tell to knock it off?” A blond man with a contagious smile stepped up to the booth, carrying several large white paper bags that had been folded over at the top. He stopped in front of the counter separating him from them.
“Brandon,” Allie said, pointing to Zoey. “He was babying his baby sister.”
Jo stepped over to him, and he bent across the counter to kiss her on the lips. Jo’s husband, she remembered him from the wedding. The chef. Zoey’s gaze darted to the bags he carried, and she took a deep breath. Oh yeah. That was the food she’d just smelled. Delicious, mouthwatering food, if the smell was anything to go by.
Cash stepped around the counter.
Jo smirked at him. “No leaping over it this time?”
“You want me to leap over it, baby? I’ll leap over it.” He smirked.
“Nah, I don’t want you to spill the food.” Jo let him pass and signaled to Zoey. “Cash, this is Brandon’s sister, Zoey. Zoey, this is my husband, Cash.”
They shook hands.
“That’s right,” Cash said. “We met briefly at the wedding.”
Zoey nodded. “I saw your restaurant. Your food looks amazing.” And smelled amazing. And was she drooling? She wiped at the side of her mouth.
Allie had pointed out the Southern cuisine restaurant last night in the building next to theirs when they’d given her a tour of Sticky and Sweet. They’d thought about eating there, but all the tables were full, and there was a line of people waiting to get in. Plus, Allie had commented on how Cash cooked for them every weekend, so no point in waiting in line for it.
Zoey had been super disappointed until they’d crossed the street to Blue Shadow Café. It’d been busy too, but they’d gotten a seat in about ten minutes—and the food there was top notch.
Cash lifted the bags. “Glad you think so. I brought lunch.”
The group finished unloading the boxes out of the back of Brandon’s truck, then sat cross-legged on the grass floor inside the booth out of the sun and divided up the food. It was amazing—she couldn’t remember the last time, if ever, she’d had fried chicken this good. And the fries were fantastic too. Garlic fries with big chunks of garlic. So good.
The couples paired off as they started eating, and Zoey suddenly felt a little out of place with the two sets of newlyweds. Allie fed Brandon a fry, Cash kissed Jo on her temple, and Zoey averted her gaze out the front of the booth.
From out of nowhere, and for maybe the first time in her life, she wished she had a boyfriend. She pushed back the sudden and slightly disturbing image of Hunter flashing across her mind’s eye.
A man walked by then, with curly black hair under a black cowboy hat similar to the one Brandon favored. He wore a security guard uniform and seemed familiar somehow, from the shape of his eyes and the line of his mouth and jaw. He gazed in their direction and tipped the front of his hat down in salute when he saw her looking.
She waved in return, then shifted on her seat. The grass looked deceptively soft, but the ground was lumpy.
“Was that Dean Westbrook?” Jo asked after he’d passed.
Allie and Cash sat tall from their places on the floor and peered out the booth. Westbrook? That caught Zoey’s attention, and she stared after the man again too. He was related to Hunter? No wonder he seemed familiar.
“It is,” Allie said, sounding surprised. “We haven’t seen him since … high school at least.”
“He’s doing security for the festival?” Cash frowned. “I’d sooner believe he was doing jail time than security.”
