“Yeah,” Holley says then, sucking her lips into her mouth to hide her smile. “Geez, Dad.”
Clearly, she’s keen on taking whatever form of revenge she can for my mocking.
“Hey, hun,” a waitress I don’t know interrupts, a brief smile melting back to business almost immediately as she takes out her notepad. “You weren’t here when they ordered before. You know what you want?”
“Sure,” I respond, even though I’m going to have to figure it out on the fly. I’ve been way too distracted by Jake and Holley’s taunting and making sure my daughter isn’t plotting my murder to decide before now. “I’ll have…three eggs over medium, bacon, a side of hash browns, and a short stack of pancakes. Oh, and two sausage links. And fresh fruit, if you’ve got it.”
“Hungry much?” Sarah says under her breath, and Holley’s eyes sparkle with delight.
Jake, however, is assessing me much more closely. He’s not preparing for a punch line. He’s preparing for a hit of the truth. “Hungry this morning.” It’s a statement. A fact. Not a question.
“Yep,” I say simply in return.
“Why is that?” I know what he’s implying, but I’m also unsure what he expects me to do about it with my kids at the table.
“I don’t know,” I reply with a shrug. “I didn’t get to have dinner last night, so that might be why.”
His perfect black eyebrows climb to his hairline, a smirk making him look somewhat mischievous.
“Interesting.”
I nod, taking a sip of my drink. “Mm-hmm.”
“I had a hot pocket for dinner,” Hayden interjects, to my utter delight.
His timing is impeccable, and you have to love a kid like him. He’s not edgy like Sarah, but he’s easygoing and fun and unbothered.
And in this fine group, he and Hadley are the only ones who don’t break my balls.
I have a feeling that as far as Hadley is concerned, she’s just not old enough yet. One day, she’ll be right in the mix. Especially with the amount of time she’s going to spend under the influence of kick-ass, strong-minded, take-no-shit women.
I settle back into my chair, reaching along the back of Sarah’s and over to Hayden’s shoulder to give it a squeeze. “Sounds good, bud.”
Jake’s face strongly suggests that this is nowhere near the end of our conversation.
But, hey, maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll get called out to a fire before he can do his interrogation.
Nah. Truth is, I don’t mean that at all. I have my kids for the next couple days—which I’m thrilled about—and I’d also love to be around so I get the chance to explore what I’ve started with Lauren some more.
I feel the air change as someone arrives at our tableside. I’m expecting it to be our waitress with some food—maybe not mine yet, but everyone else’s at least—but it isn’t the waitress I’m expecting at all.
Instead, it’s Lauren’s sister, Shell.
Jake’s face lights up when he sees her.
“Hey, Shell!”
To any other woman, it might be upsetting, but Holley doesn’t even bat an eye. In fact, she looks like she might be happier to see Shell than Jake is.
“Hi, Jake. Holley. Sorry, I couldn’t wait on you. I’m actually off shift—”
“Are you kidding?” Holley interrupts. “Good for you. You deserve to have a little time off. I might recommend that you spend it outside this building, but I’m all for it.”
Shell laughs. “I just finished grabbing a quick bite before heading home.”
She smiles at Jake and Holley, and then, turning slightly, snags on the sight of me. “Oh! Hey! Garrett, right?”
I nod. “That’s right. How’ve you been?”
“I’m doing okay.” Unexpectedly, she turns nearly 180 degrees behind herself. “Guys, look who it is.”
A spark of hope makes me sit up straight.
Who’s with her?
I bob and weave my upper body, trying to get a good look at her companions, and spot Cara first.
Lauren’s blond-brown hair shines in the distance, but it’s otherwise clear she’s trying to make herself as invisible as possible by shriveling behind both of her sisters. I desperately try to meet her eyes, to assess some kind of reason for why she’s avoiding stepping up to say hello, but she’s like an acrobat when it comes to avoiding letting me see them.
“Are these your sisters?” Jake asks, either blindly ignorant to the vibes pulsing around him or too clever for his own good.
I’m not sure which it is, but I’m not going to be choosy.
Anything to give me a chance to see Lauren’s eyes—to make sure she’s still faring okay after the night we shared together—is fine by me.
“Yes. This is Cara, the middle child,” Shell introduces, causing Cara to make an adorably indisposed face, and then moves on to the woman of my interest. “And this is Lauren. The baby of the family.”
“Hi,” Lauren finally greets, beet-red cheeks the only thing exposing how uncomfortable she feels. “Thirty-one-year-old baby of the family here.”