At that, Nate stopped guzzling water and turned back around—and the sight made the egg and water fill his throat so that he started coughing and sputtering.
Stacy absently patted his back as Terri and two gorgeous men walked toward them. “Terri, you look great. Where did you get that suit and that cover-up?”
“Elaine’s. Today I’m a walking advertisement for her shop. You should stop by some time. Do we set up here?”
“Sure. Anywhere. And I will definitely shop there.”
Terri motioned to the young men who flanked her to put the cloth and the basket down. “Your food looks like it’s from Kale House.”
“It is. Have you eaten there?”
“I went with a friend and we ordered everything on the menu. You can’t have too much green food.”
“That’s what Nate calls it too.” She glanced at him, but he had his back to them as he tried to calm down from his coughing attack. “I haven’t met your friends.”
“They’re Turners,” Terri said in dismissal.
“Brent,” one said.
“And I’m Brett.”
“It’s nice to meet you. I guess you’ve met my fiancé, Nate.”
Nate had finally turned around to face them, but he said nothing.
“We’ve seen him around, but we haven’t had a lot of conversation.”
Stacy noted that Nate kept staring at Terri. While it did annoy her, she really couldn’t blame him. Terri was five-nine or -ten and most of her seemed to be long, slim legs. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on her. Actually there was hardly an ounce of anything on her. Her red bikini was so small it almost didn’t exist. She had on a white cover-up but it was a soft, completely transparent cotton voile. Nothing was concealed.
All three of the men were gaping at her while the twins unpacked the picnic basket.
“Mr. Parnelli made a meal for me,” Terri was saying. “He makes his own sausage and all the pasta is homemade. Help yourself.”
“Dad bought some of his food,” Stacy said. “Too spicy for me, but Nate might like some.”
Nate didn’t say anything, but he was staring at Terri in a way that Stacy really didn’t care for. “Terri,” she said, “you’ll never believe who called me last night. Someone you greatly admire.”
“Chris Hemsworth?”
“No, but close. Billy Thorndyke.”
Terri was leaning back on the cloth, all of what looked to be four feet of her legs before her, but she abruptly sat up straight. “Billy? How is he? Where is he? What’s he doing now?”
Stacy smiled warmly. “He called me with a job offer. His uncle now owns the Thorndyke house and the old stable. He’s going to make the house into apartments and divide the stables into two houses. He wants me to decorate them and your father to handle the rental.”
“That’s really great.” Terri gave a quick glance at Nate, who still hadn’t said a word. “But didn’t you put an office on the ground floor?”
“I did, but there’s still the upstairs and isn’t there an apartment downstairs? I only went to a few parties there. What’s the upstairs like?”
Brett handed Terri a sandwich, ciabatta bread slathered in mustard, with sliced beef, pickled peppers and homegrown tomatoes. She bit into it. “This is so good. Best I’ve ever had. Soooo spicy.” She glanced at the pretty little containers on Stacy’s cloth. “Is that a kale salad? The one with cranberries?”
“Yes, it is. Want some?”
“No, thanks. This is enough. Oh, thanks.” Brett had leaned forward and used a napkin to wipe a bit of mustard from the corner of her mouth. “Food like this makes me such a pig. Could one of you get me a cold beer?”
Brent opened one and handed it to her. “Now, where was I? Oh yes, dear Billy and that wonderful house. The attic is huge. Billy and I used to spend a lot of time up there. We’d...” Terri gave a little giggle. “Never mind what we were doing. But yeah, I could see that you could divide it up easily.”
“Billy mentioned his grandmother’s place downstairs. What’s it like?”