Page 44 of Her Favorite Fumble
He was just starting around the corner of the house when he heard the truck start, and Nick reached the front just in time to see Lucy wave as Gray pulled into the road.
Of course she was wearing his hoodie over whatever shirt she’d worn to work. Between the air conditioning inside and the evening breeze right off the water outside, she was always cold when she left the Keel.
“Why aren’t you at work?”
“Because it was super dead and Billy said I looked tired, which might have been an insult or might have been an expression of concern. Or, knowing Billy, a little of both. But anyway, here I am.”
“He cut your shift because you look tired?”
She laughed. “No, he cut my shift because there weren’t many customers and it didn’t seem right to make Mattie split the tips when the Keel is her entire livelihood. And I actuallyamtired because I didn’t sleep well last night.”
She was probably too excited to sleep and lay awake dreaming of Miami, he thought sourly.
“Anyway,” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me this is your favorite hoodie and that it’s the last one of this kind you have?”
He shrugged, making a mental note to make Gray’s life miserable for a while. “It’s just a sweatshirt.”
“No, it’s not. It’s yourfavoritesweatshirt, and it means enough to you so your brothers are aware of that fact. You can take this one back and I’ll take one of the others. Or, you know, find a hoodie of my own.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m getting used to these,” he lied.
Seeing Lucy in a random Slater & Sons sweatshirt pulled from the stack of new ones wouldn’t make him feel the same as he did when he saw her inhissweatshirt. And that would probably be a good thing, but he couldn’t make himself agree she should find another one to wear.
“Did you eat yet?” she asked as she walked inside. “I hadn’t had my dinner break yet and I could have eaten something before I left, but I decided to come home and eat with you. Of course, now that I’m here it’s obvious I should have grabbed takeout for both of us because then there’s no cooking or washing dishes.”
There was a moment when Nick felt as if this was his life—life in this little cottage. Lucy coming home to eat with him. Talking about their days. Cooking together. It felt so incredibly right.
But it wasn’t real. And she had plans that didn’t include him.
The cottage felt too small all of a sudden, and he was afraid of what he might be tempted to do if he didn’t put some space between them. Something like kissing her until she couldn’t breathe and forgot all about Miami.
“You want to go out for a bite tonight instead of cooking?” he asked instead.
She thought about it for a moment and then gave him that smile and shrug combo that was Lucy shorthand for, “Sure, I’ll roll with it.” As a person who didn’t roll well with things, Nick liked that about her.
Five minutes later, she climbed up into the passenger seat of his truck and fastened her seat belt. “Where are we going?”
“Probably Jenna’s.”
“Jenna’s Diner? I saw it while I was out recently and thought it looked like a decent place to eat, but I wasn’t hungry at the time.”
“Really good food. Good prices. It’s my usual supper spot if I don’t cook at home during the summer, though, because the Keel usually has a wait for a table then.”
“Pete’s Place. Jenna’s Diner.” She chuckled. “They really went all out on coming up with names, huh? And they clearly missed the nautical pun memo.”
“Well, Jenna’s used to be called Laytons’ Diner, owned by Pete and Jenna Layton.”
“Wait, they’re married?”
“Hard to say.”
“How is that hard to say?”
“Look. I know you’ve been away a long time, but around here, if you want to know something, you have to be prepared to listen to the story.”
“You could give me an abridged version.” When he just glanced over at her, waiting, she sighed. “Fine. I’d like to hear the story, please.”
“So, maybe twenty years ago or more, Laytons’ needed some upgrades, and Jenna wanted to go full retro fifties diner because the summer people love that kind of stuff. Pete was not having it. So Jenna threw Pete out and redid the diner the way she wanted it. She even paid the money to have the name changed to Jenna’s Diner. So Pete went and opened his own place, just the wayhewanted it, and called it Pete’s Place.”
