Page 58 of Finding Carly
“Tough day?” he asked.
Carly and Kenna giggled.
“What?” he asked in confusion.
“That’s almost exactly what Jag said when he saw us,” Kenna replied, snuggling into her husband’s side.
“Well, we do share a brain, you know,” Aleck quipped.
The women laughed again.
“Right, if you thoughtthatwas that funny, I know you’re beat,” Aleck said. “You ready to go?”
“Just about. Carly and Jag said they’d drop by Food For All so we could go visit Robert.”
“Thanks, man,” Aleck said, giving Jag a chin lift.
“Of course. I’ll see you in the morning.”
While Kenna gathered her things, Jag and Carly went to the back of the kitchen, where the extra food was stored. He blinked at the number of containers.
“Told you we were busy today,” Carly told him.
Jag hadn’t thought much about leftover food from restaurants before he’d met Carly and Kenna. He’d been shocked at how much of it got wasted every day. He was pleased that the management and owners at Duke’s were doing their best to let as little food as possible get thrown away. The uneaten leftovers and table scraps from a customer’s meal were always disposed of. But raw ingredients—all of the excess fruit and vegetables—could be donated, as could day-old bread that was never served. Even some individual components of dishes, like sauces that were unserved by the end of the day, could be brought to Food For All.
Alani had planned for the influx of customers with the marathon coming to town, but even with preparation, it was hard to predict what diners might want to eat. Therefore, there was always too much of one thing and not enough of another. Instead of simply throwing away the extra lettuce or the bread that didn’t get eaten, it was a win-win situation for everyone to donate the food. Many pantries might turn away a lot of the leftovers, but since Elodie had started volunteering at Food For All, they’d started accepting more and more donations.
Elodie’s background as a chef, and her creativeness, meant that she could repurpose just about anything that was donated and turn it into gourmet meals for their clients.
“It’s gonna take more than one trip to get all this to my car,” Jag said. “How about if you stay here and I’ll pull up out on the street. I’ll text when I’m there, and maybe you can get Justin or someone to help you carry it out?”
“Sounds good,” Carly said. “Are you okay?”
Jag looked at her in surprise. “Yes, why?”
“I don’t know, you look…hyped up? That’s not exactly the right term, but you’re different today.”
“We can talk about it later,” Jag said, not wanting to worry Carly before they were on their way.
She frowned. “Is everyone all right? No one’s hurt or anything?”
“No, nothing like that,” Jag reassured her.
“Baker found Shawn’s accomplice?” she whispered.
“No,” Jag said, hating that he had no new information about that situation.
She stared at him for a beat before taking a deep breath and nodding. “Okay.”
It was one of a million reasons why he loved this woman. She was resilient and trusting. “Give me about five minutes and I’ll be out front,” he told her, before kissing her once more. This kiss was a little longer and a little more intimate, since they were alone in the back room in the kitchen. He wanted to linger, but his desire to get her home where he could pamper her was more pressing at the moment.
He brushed the backs of his fingers over her flushed cheek before he turned and headed out of the kitchen.
Within ten minutes, he had Carly and all the food loaded in his Jetta and they were on their way to Barbers Point. Carly had texted Lexie to let her know they were on the way so she’d be ready for them.
“Okay, what’s up?” she asked, turning a little in her seat to look at Jag while he was driving.
“I saw Eddie Evans in the international market,” he said, not wanting to draw this out.
