9. Thea
thea
The small-town grocery has everything you need for a home-cooked meal, and that is absolutely what I need. Something that can be both comforting and delicious, something that would remind me of my childhood and bring me some comfort on my one and only day off this week.
And something that would distract me from the fact that tomorrow night I have a date with Logan Cash.
I knew the date was fake, but at the same time, he was so insistent on it that it felt so far from fake that I was wondering if there is more to this than just showing Luella he had a life.
I admire that he wants her to spread her wings and fly, to let her get some ground under her feet before she grows up too fast and ease her into her independence instead of holding her back.
But I wasn’t thrilled that I was the scapegoat.
I guess I had kind of been hoping for something more than that, that maybe he possibly would just ask me out instead of coming up with an excuse .
I roll my eyes at myself and pick up a can of premade dough. I could make homemade biscuits, but I was all about ease and not having to work too hard on my day off.
I took Wednesdays off because it was one of our slower days, but the truth is my sisters could take care of the bar just as well as I could any day of the week, but we all had to pick a day, and Wednesday is basically my Sunday.
“Oh, hi, Thea!” I look up from the can abruptly, startled by the close voice, and look over to see Lue standing there.
She’s gotten so tall. Her blonde hair seems to get longer every time I see her, and her height has taken off at just fourteen.
Behind her, Didi Cash, a.k.a. Logan’s mother, is standing beside Lue, smiling at me. “Hi, Thea.”
“Hello, Mrs. Cash, Lue, how are you doing?”
“I’m doing great!” Lue answers, her face bright and bubbly. I’m not sure outside of my sister Juniper that I’ve ever met someone who was always happy, but Lue is one of those girls who is.
“How are you doing, Thea? How’s the restaurant?”
Didi was another longtime supporter of Bottle Grounds. From the moment we opened, she and her girlfriends would come in about once a month for a moms’ night out.
“It’s great.” I give her a pleasant smile.
A phone ringing interrupts us, and Didi reaches into her purse. I politely step away a bit as she answers and peruses the milk section. Do I go dairy-free or just stick with what I know? Is it really that much healthier to be dairy-free?
Maybe I won’t bloat so much.
I shake my head and grab a half gallon, sticking it in my cart.
“Oh dear, okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Didi hangs up, and because they’re still close to me, I look over. “That was a client. I’ve gotta head into the salon and help her with a hair emergency.”
“What? But I thought you were going to help me practice my lines.” Lue sounds so disappointed, and I feel for her.
“I know, sweetie, but maybe your dad can help you after he’s done at the ranch. You’ll have to come with me to the salon.”
Lue pouts, and I bite my lip, trying not to offer what I so badly want to offer. “I can practice with you.” The words are blurted out before I realize what I’m doing, and both Didi and Lue look at me.
“Oh, you can?” Lue asks excitedly, clasping her hands together in front of her chest.
“Yeah.” I look at Didi and raise my eyebrows. “If that’s okay with you.”
“Oh, well, I suppose that would be okay. You’d just take her to Logan’s and stay with her until he gets home? Or I can come over after I’m done with this client. I don’t know how long that will take though.” She looks at Lue, biting her lip.
I shrug. “I can stay until Logan is back. I’ll even make dinner—that’s what I was here for anyway. I’ll just have to stop by my apartment and drop off groceries.”
Didi seems to be contemplating her choices for a moment, her eyes locked on Luella, who’s got her hands clasped under her chin and her bottom lip poking out. “Please, please, please!”
She sighs and smiles at her granddaughter. “Well, all right. If that’s what you want.”
“It is!” Lue says immediately, her hope rising with each word.
“You have your phone in case of an emergency?”
“Of course.” Lue pats the fanny pack over her shoulder. She wears it like a crossbody bag. “I always have my phone. ”
Didi shakes her head, smiling teasingly at the girl, “What was I thinking? Of course, you do.”
I smile at the back-and-forth banter, and we make plans for me to take Lue with me. Nerves bubble in my stomach for a moment before I remind myself that I practically raised my sisters. I can take care of Lue for a few hours.
After checking out, Lue rides with me to my apartment to drop off my groceries. She enters with a bag in one hand and her eyes on everything else. “Wow.”
“It’s not much, I’m afraid.” My apartment is…not where I put my energy, if you will. I have a couch, no TV, a bookshelf, and a rug.
“This is your apartment?” Lue sounds so disappointed that I blush slightly.
“I’m at the bar a lot,” I tell her. “It’s not super practical to have too much at home when I’m rarely here.”
“Yeah, but…” She trails off, spinning in a circle. “Don’t you want to feel comfy when you are at home? Dad says home is where we get to be ourselves. I like to decorate my room with things that make me happy.”
I try to picture Logan decorating his house and can’t see the big and tough cowboy taking too much care with design choices.
“Well, let’s go see your room then,” I deflect, taking the few groceries I need for dinner and leaving the rest behind.
The sooner we leave, the sooner the teenager will stop judging me.
I stand corrected. Logan does seem to care about design choices .
I pull up to his house where Lue directs me. It’s on a bit of acreage, so his neighbors are spread out, and there’s plenty of space for things like a chicken coop and a little barn out back, which he has, but according to Lue, there are no animals.
From the outside, the home looks like your typical farmhouse. It’s white with dark blue shutters, has a small but homey front porch with a swing hanging from the banisters, and there’s a welcome home mat settled in front of the door.
But the moment I walk inside, my mouth hangs open.
The floors are sleek oak wood, and the couches are brown leather and look buttery soft.
There’s a fireplace that is encased in rock, giving the inside of this home a cabin-like feel.
There’s so much natural light streaming in that the dark furniture features don’t make it feel too small in here.
When I look to the right, there’s a kitchen that should be small, but someone—I suspect Logan—took out whatever was there and filled it in with a good-sized island.
Simply put, it’s beautiful.
“Wow, nice house,” I say, setting my groceries on the island. Lue looks over at me with a smug smile.
“See, you gotta live somewhere you can be yourself.”
I smile at her and nod. “Got it.”
She helps me put away the groceries for the time being. I won’t need to start dinner for a while yet.
Then she sets me down on one of the couches, my body sinks into it in a pleasant way, and I breathe in the leather smell.
“Okay, so I just really quickly want to run through all my lines,” Lue says, shuffling back to a room down a hallway. “Be right back.”
I take a minute to look at my surroundings.
There’s a photo on the wall that’s bigger than the others, and it’s of Logan and Lue when she was younger.
Logan’s hair is a little long, but he’s smiling wide in a boyish way that shows how young he was when he was thrust into fatherhood, tickling Lue, and making her laugh in the photo. It’s beautiful.
Surrounding it are smaller framed photos of his brothers and Lue, each photo is a glimpse into his life, and I realize that he’s truly that family man he depicts when I see him out with his daughter.
My heart thumps.
Dammit, heart. No thumping.
“Okay, got the scripts!” I hear her say, coming back into the room.
“What play is it this year?”
“ A Midsummer Night’s Dream ,” she says right as she hands me an inch-thick stack of papers.
I blink in shock. “This is for a middle school play?”
“Well, not really. The play is for anyone to join, but it’s mostly kids from school.” Lue just grins broadly at me and settles herself on the coffee table in front of me. “Let’s get started!”