Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Alexis pushed open the doors of The Lighthouse Grill, feeling out of sorts. She’d just finished trying to console Hazel, who had still been crying on the couch when she’d left her. Alexis felt sad for her sister and frustrated that things had played out that way. She would never say it to Hazel, but she wished that her sister had had the courage to speak to Jacob about her feelings sooner. Then he probably would have said yes, and he wouldn’t be dating this Beatrice stranger from four towns away.
Alexis sighed, telling herself she needed to get her head in the game. It was going to be a long day for her. After she worked the lunch shift, she was going to work the dinner shift as well. She knew that that evening, the Rosewood Ladies Society would be coming in for their monthly dinner.
She grimaced a little as she made her way toward the kitchen, where she kept her apron and notepad. She’d served the Rosewood Ladies Society before, and they were notorious for being extra needy. Most of them were very nice women, but there were a lot of them, and they took up the whole back room. They always seemed to order things that required a lot of dishes, such as teacups, saucers, teaspoons, pitchers of cream, pitchers of honey, and the like. Additionally, they usually stayed for a very long time.
Alexis glanced at the clock, noting that her shift wasn’t due to start for another ten minutes or so. She wandered toward the office, wondering if Julia or perhaps Vivian was there working. She wanted someone to talk to, and she hoped that a conversation with one of her family members could help lift her spirits.
The door to the office was slightly ajar, and Alexis pushed it open curiously. Julia was seated at the desk, an almost empty mug of coffee at her elbow, typing away rapidly on her laptop. Julia was frowning as she worked, and she looked rather glum.
“Hey,” Alexis said, stepping into the office.
Julia looked up in surprise. “Hey! Sorry, I had no idea you were there.” She smiled. “Got lost in my work, I guess.”
“It’s okay. I know the feeling.” Alexis picked a stack of papers off a chair and sat down on it. “How’s work going?”
“Oh, fine. It’s work. How are things going with Hazel? Did she pick a time to tell Jacob how she feels about him?”
Alexis winced, feeling another wave of sympathy for her sister, and Julia gasped.
“Oh, no! It didn’t go well?”
Alexis shook her head. “She didn’t get a chance to tell him how she felt, but I guess that’s for the best. It turned out that he’s been dating someone else for a couple of weeks. She appeared right when Hazel was about to ask Jacob out.”
Julia pressed her hands to her cheeks sympathetically. “How awful. At least she wasn’t right in the middle of telling him when the girlfriend showed up.”
“I know. It could have been embarrassing for her, but still—I almost wish that she had gotten a chance to tell him, even with this girlfriend in the picture. Then, if things don’t work out between them, he’ll know that Hazel is interested in him and then maybe he’ll date her later.”
Julia shook her head. “I don’t think it’s right to think like that. Jacob’s off the market now, and I guess Hazel will have to find someone else to go out with.”
Alexis sighed. “If she ever wants to. It’s been so long since she’s dated anyone. I’m sure it’ll be hard for her to get back up on the horse, so to speak.”
“I’m sure she’ll get back up there eventually. I am really sorry to hear that about Jacob, though. I think those two would have been great together. I was really hoping for the best.” Julia looked out the window, her expression pensive. She bit her lip, and her shoulders drooped.
“Are you okay?” Alexis asked gently. “You seem sad.”
Julia turned to her and chuckled sheepishly. “It’s nothing. Well, nothing serious. I’m a little glum, but thankfully it’s not over something that’s a big deal.”
“Well, what’s making you glum? You can tell me.”
Julia sighed. “It’s just that it’s been difficult to carve out time to tell Cooper how I feel about him. Every time I think I’m about to express my feelings to him, something comes up to prevent me. The delay has made me start to worry about how I’ll feel if he doesn’t feel the same way yet.”
“Oh, he does! I’m sure of that.”
“Yeah, but you were sure Jacob liked Hazel too.”
“Hey, he probably did. Just because he’s dating this other woman now doesn’t mean that he wasn’t interested in Hazel. He probably just assumed she wasn’t interested in him.”
Julia smiled. “Okay, fair enough. But I’m nervous. I think he does feel the same way about me, but I can’t be sure. Feelings are complicated things.”
“They sure are.” Alexis thought about her own relationship, twirling her fingers around the end of her long braid. Whenever she thought about Grayson, she got jittery. “I don’t have all my feelings figured out either.”
Julia smiled sympathetically at her sister. “I know you’re dealing with a lot right now. Sounds like things are getting better, though! I heard he helped you with your errands the other day.”
“He did. It was completely unexpected but also sweet. At first, I didn’t really want him to come and help me, but then I started to realize how nice it was to have him along with me. He helped me carry supplies into storage here, and between us we rolled enough silverware to last a week.”
Julia laughed. “I’ll bet he—” She didn’t finish her sentence, because at that moment, her phone began to ring. “Hmm, it’s Bill. I thought he was here already.” She answered the phone, frowning. “Hello?”
Bill was one of The Lighthouse Grill’s dishwashers. Alexis watched with concern as Julia’s eyebrows lifted in alarm.
“Oh, no, Bill, I’m so sorry to hear that.” Julia pressed her lips together. “No, I completely understand. Thanks for letting us know. You rest up and we’ll get things covered over here. Okay. Feel better. Bye.” She hung up and gave her sister a look of dismay. “Bill is sick. He thinks it’s food poisoning, and he hopes he can be back soon, but either way, he’s out tonight. So we’re without a dishwasher tonight I guess.”
Alexis groaned. “Not tonight! Of all nights.”
“Why?” Julia looked confused. “What’s tonight?”
“The Rosewood Ladies Society is here tonight.”
Julia gasped, clapping her hand to her mouth. “Oh, no. So many dishes!”
Alexis groaned again. “I know. What on earth are we going to do?”
Julia shrugged. “We’ll just have to dive in and make do, I guess. It’ll be all hands on deck, that’s for sure, but we’ll make it work somehow. We’ve got an experienced team here.”
Alexis smiled. “We do, but we’re definitely in for a long night.”
Hazel sat in the gazebo in the town square, staring out across the green lawn of the park and sadly munching on cookies out of a Ziploc bag. She’d made the cookies for Jacob, and they were delicious. Unfortunately, the fact that they were delicious wasn’t helping her feel any better, because she kept wishing that he was the one eating them instead of her. Or that they were eating them together after their date.
She felt another rush of tears fill her eyes and she blinked them back. A light wind ruffled her hair and she took a deep breath. She told herself that she needed to be strong and stop feeling so emotional about the whole thing. After all, it was just a crush. She’d been living without any kind of romantic relationship for years, it would be easy for her to continue doing so. She squared her shoulders, feeling determined, and then in the next instant she imagined what it would have been like to be out on a date with Jacob at that moment, and the tears came back.
“Hazel!”
She looked up, blinking rapidly to try to make the tears go away. Dean was walking across the grass of the town square toward her, waving and smiling in his friendly way. Her heart lifted up as it always did to see her twin, and she hurriedly brushed the tear streaks off her cheeks.
“Hey, you.” Dean stepped inside the gazebo, grinning at her. “I heard that today was the big day. Did you talk to Jacob—” His words trailed off as he got a better look at her face. Even though she had tried to hide the fact that she’d been crying, he seemed to realize it right away anyhow. She wondered if her eyes were red, or if she just looked so sad, even through her forced smile, that he was able to see it.
Or maybe it’s just because he’s my twin, she thought, feeling grateful for him. We’ve got that sixth sense about each other.
“It didn’t go well?” he asked gently, sitting down next to her.
She shook her head. “He has a girlfriend,” she squeaked, and the tears started to fall freshly again.
Dean wrapped his arms around her and rocked her back and forth a little bit. “I’m so sorry, Hazel.”
She hiccupped. “I feel like I missed my chance. He just started dating her a few weeks ago. If I’d only said something to him sooner, then maybe he would be dating me instead.”
Dean kissed the side of her head. “Hey. Go ahead and cry about it if you want to, but don’t let your thoughts go there. You’re a human, and you had no way of knowing he was about to start dating someone else. Besides, just because he’s dating someone now doesn’t mean it will be forever. Jacob may very well be single again in the future, and then you’ll know to be brave and ask him out. And now you know exactly how you want to do it, and you’ve already learned that you’re brave enough to do it. So if you get another chance, you’ll be ready.”
Hazel gave her brother a watery smile as he leaned back. “That’s true. You’re right. Thank you for being so kind.”
“You’re welcome.” He lifted a shoulder. “That’s what brothers are for, right?”
“You want a cookie?” She held up the bag.
“Sure, I’ll take one.” He took a cookie out of the bag and took a bite out of it. “Wow. That’s amazing.”
“Thank you.” There were the tears again. “I made them for Jacob.”
“Hey, none of that. They’re delicious. You got to eat some, and I got to eat one too. They didn’t go to waste. Speaking of, how many of these have you eaten?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Seven?”
Dean chuckled. “I think cookies may not be the best dinner. How about you and I go to the pub? Get something more substantial, like fish and chips or a tuna melt?”
She nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Dean. That sounds good.”
“I’ve got you.” He gave her another hug and then the two of them stood up. They walked out of the gazebo together, and she felt much better than she had before. She was still sad about Jacob, but she felt grateful that her family was there for her, so ready to help cheer her up.