Chapter Ten #2
“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 your favorite sweatshirt, 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 in his sweatshirt. 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 way he wanted it, and called it Pete’s Place. ”
“So they’re divorced and run rival restaurants?”
“Well, it’s hard to say.”
“Isn’t that the whole point of the story?”
“Are they rival restaurants? Maybe. They fill pretty different needs in the community.” Nick shrugged. “Also, nobody’s really sure if they’re divorced or not.”
“Do they live together?”
“Nope. I don’t think they get along well enough to live together. But neither of them has been with anybody else—publicly, anyway—and they’ve been known to spend time together now and then.”
“Isn’t that public record, though? Surely somebody could find out if they’re divorced.”
He shrugged. “Nobody’s business but theirs.”
Lucy laughed. “Zero chance you can convince me the people in this town are big on minding their own business.”
“There’s gossiping over coffee or a meal, and then there’s going digging for documents. There’s a line.”
He pulled into the parking lot, thankful there weren’t a lot of other vehicles there, and threw the truck in Park.
It occurred to him as they got out that people would talk about them being seen having dinner together, but since everybody all knew they were sharing Helen’s cottage, it didn’t seem like a big deal.
Like the Keel, it wasn’t busy, so they grabbed a booth in the back. It didn’t take them long to order because he knew he was having the chicken tenders and fries, and when it came to anything except sandwiches, Lucy tended to trust his taste in food.
Their dinner conversations usually started with the topic of Helen.
A day rarely passed without Lucy and her grandmother at least exchanging a few text messages.
But now Helen was on the cruise and had chosen not to pay the very large fee for service.
When she started doing regular excursions, she promised to look for places with Wi-Fi and give updates.
Nick didn’t really have anything to talk about because his entire life revolved around work, but he listened while Lucy related a conversation she’d had with Willow Brown. Nick knew Willow, of course, but he’d been surprised to know that she and Lucy had been summer friends as kids.
She paused while the server set down their meals, but then resumed talking about mixed-up spices or something to do with a ghost. He was struggling to pay attention because he kept thinking about how it was going to feel when Lucy wasn’t a part of his life anymore.
“How come you haven’t taken a football coaching job in this area?”
He almost choked on the bite of chicken tender he’d just taken. Somehow, he managed to swallow it, and then he took a long drink of water to thoroughly wash it down.
“Sorry,” he said when he could breathe again. “Where did that question come from?”
“You told me a while back that you’d accepted a job in the Boston area as a high school football coach, but you had to pass on it when your mother got sick.”
“I chose to pass on it.” Maybe it wasn’t much of a distinction, but he always made it because he didn’t want his brothers to think he resented the decision.
“Of course you did, because that’s the kind of guy you are. You work hard so the company succeeds, which means your brothers succeed. When you’re not working, you help out other people. But your brothers are adult men, back on their feet, and you could do something for yourself now.”
Every muscle in Nick’s body tensed, and it was good he didn’t have food in his mouth anymore because, with the way his jaw clenched, it would have been mush. “I think it’s pretty clear I wasn’t meant to be involved with football.”
“Wait.” She leaned across the table and lowered her voice, her brow furrowed. “You don’t think, if you try to coach again, that something bad will happen to one of your brothers, do you?”
“Of course not.” The fact he’d lost a parent each time he’d dedicated his time to the sport didn’t mean the universe was trying to keep him from it just out of spite.
“I’m busy, and coaching is a big commitment.
If something goes wrong, either with the company or something else, do I let down my brothers or do I let down the kids? ”
“I think you and your brothers would figure it out together.” She sighed. “Maybe you could volunteer with football clinics or something. Just be a little bit in it.”
“Maybe,” he said, just to close out the subject. Just the idea of another responsibility added to his plate threatened to kill his appetite, and he liked Jenna’s chicken tenders too much to risk that.
“So how many ghosts does Willow think she has?” he asked to change the subject back to one he knew she would go on about.
Lucy could think whatever she wanted about how he ran his life and his business. She was going to leave soon, and she’d probably never think about him again.