Chapter Seven
The short walk back to their car went more slowly than the rushed steps when they’d first arrived. Liz could tell Devlin was processing the evening. The way the muscles in his jaw clenched, she knew the situation and concern for his friend had him more than a little unsettled.
At his car, the same way as he’d done when he’d first picked her up and then again after the spec house, he opened her door and offering a hand, waited for her to climb in before closing the door and circling the hood to the driver side.
Nothing about tonight was happening the way she’d expected, and right about now, she wished she could do something for Devlin besides rearrange the staging in his residential project.
In his seat, Devlin pushed the button to start the car and blew out a deep sigh. “Still up for steak?”
She really wished he didn’t seem so worn out. “You don’t really want to eat. You’re still worried about Stuart.”
Devlin’s head snapped around. “It shows?”
“I’ve got great instincts.” Sucking in a deep breath of her own, she reached over and touched the top of his hand. It had been nice having his hand wrapped with hers for the last hour or so. “Why don’t we head to the hospital and I can get a lift from there back to my sister’s.”
“No, ma’am. My grandmother would have my hide if I let you take a public ride home.”
“Okay, what if you drop me off at the condo and then you go to the hospital and check on your friend.”
He shook his head. “I promised you a dinner date.”
“We can do dinner another night.”
“You’re probably starved.” Devlin pulled away from the curb. “Tomorrow morning will be soon enough to deal with the aftermath of the fire. I’m sure Stuart will be fine once the adrenaline rush dies down.”
“You keep telling yourself that.” She leaned back in her seat. This man was proving to be very interesting in ways she’d never imagined. “Let’s try something different.”
“I’m all ears.” He kept his gaze on the road ahead.
“We’ll go to the hospital. You can do whatever you need to. Then I have an idea for where to go for dinner.”
His gaze shifted to level with hers. “You don’t mind?”
“Not at all. Friends are important and you’ll feel better once you see for yourself that all is in order.”
“I guess you’re about to get a tour of the ER at County Medical.”
The smile on his face made giving up a fancy night out worth it. Watching Devlin stroll into the hospital like he owned the place was not what she’d expected once they arrived. Though, now that she thought about it, she knew his family name was a big deal, she should have known he, and all the other Barons probably did own half the city.
“I’m looking for Stuart Whitman.”
The woman at the desk began clacking on the keyboard. “Are you family?”
Devlin shook his head.
“I’m sorry sir. I’m only allowed to give information to immediate family.”
This time, Devlin nodded and turned away.
For a split second Liz thought that was all there was to it. They would leave and get something to eat and Devlin would call Stuart or whoever in the morning. Only Devlin didn’t walk to the door, he stopped in the hall and pulled out his phone. Whether he was talking to the real governor or his grandfather, she didn’t know. What she did know was that when Devlin finished with two more short phone calls, a distinguished man in a suit with graying temples came up to them. A handshake and a few quick words, and the hospital director escorted them into the ER.
Liz was getting an up close and personal tour, not of the hospital, but of the influence the Baron name held. Try as she might, she wasn’t quite sure what to make of it all. Though she was pretty sure about at least one thing. This man wasn’t going through the motions of doing the right thing, he clearly really cared about people. All of his questions were not just about the treatment everyone was getting, he was concerned if they all had enough health insurance, he put in a few calls to people about speeding up the insurance claim for the building, and by the time they’d made it back to the car, he’d already made arrangements for a temporary location for the restaurant to open in so that none of the employees would be out of work.
Damn that man was good. Too good to be true.
“Now I’m starving.” Sliding into the car, Devlin leaned back against the headrest for just a second.
“A good day’s work will do that to you. Is your life always this… intense?”
“Intense?”
“Having your new spec house broken into was quite a bit of excitement for one night, but no, you had a break in and a fire. It’s enough to make a person’s head spin. Or buy a rabbit’s foot.”
He chuckled at the lucky rabbit’s foot, though she had a point, he might just have to buy one. His mind still racing at a thousand miles an hour, he shook his head. There was still so much to work out in order for Steer’s Den to move forward, for him the next twenty-four hours didn’t hold out hope of being any easier. “Thank God, no. I feel like today has had seventy-two hours in it. And to make matters worse, most restaurants are closed now.”
“Not all. I think I have the perfect solution for your latest dilemma.” Liz shifted in her seat, her gaze straight ahead.
“Where to?” No doubt, Liz had to be starving now too.
“You’ll see when we get there.” A hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, she clasped her hands together and continued to keep her eyes forward.
“A secretive streak?” This woman was full of surprises.
She shrugged at him and her smile widened. “Take Westminster to Marietta.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Normally, he would be taken aback by the secretiveness. Being taken blind into a situation was not in his comfort zone, but right now he was more intrigued than irritated. Maybe it was because he was exhausted, or maybe it was the company. Either way, he was looking forward to finding out where she was taking him to eat. Actually, he was downright intrigued by the prospect of being led into the unknown. How ridiculous was that.
On Marietta Avenue and a few more turns had them deep in the heart of one of the oldest Houston neighborhoods. Between work and time with family at the ranch, it had been years since he’d been down this way.
“There.” Liz pointed to the corner. “Pull into that parking lot.”
The neon sign for Kelly’s Burgers flashed at him. “They’re still open?”
“Till two am.”
“How’d you know about this place?”
“Emily brought me here on my last visit. Best burger I’d ever had.”
“You really want to eat at a greasy spoon?”
“If the burgers and fries are as good as last time I was here, yes.”
In the parking lot attached to one of the oldest family owned burger joints in the county, he removed his jacket and tie and set them in the back seat, then rolled up his sleeves. “Let’s go.”
This time he resisted the urge to grab hold of her hand. Inside they settled into a booth near the far corner. He doubted the place had changed in the last fifty or so years.
“Did you know that this place has been in the Kelly family since it opened?” Liz didn’t look up from the menu.
“I went to school with Cynthia Kelly. Her grandfather started this place. We used to go to the Kelly’s in north Houston. Though it’s not as nostalgic as this place.”
“I love the décor. It reminds me of an old diner.”
A waitress with her hair in a netted bun paused at the table, setting two glasses of ice water in front of them. “Would you like anything else to drink?”
Liz grinned up at the woman. “I’ll have a cola, no ice, a mushroom cheeseburger, no onions, and the sweet potato chips, please.”
“What kind of cheese?” the woman scribbled on a pad and didn’t glance up.
“Swiss.”
“Got it. And you, sir?” This time the woman looked at him and for just a second, he thought she seemed familiar.
“The same. Except I’ll have ice in my drink, please.” For an instant, he thought he saw recognition in the woman’s eyes as well. Now that was going to nag at him.
“Are you all right?” Liz stretched her hand out and gently covered his for too short a moment.
“Yes, sorry. I was distracted.”
“Still worrying about Stuart?”
“Actually, no. I think we’ve got that all worked out. Though it was a relief to discover his burns weren’t severe enough to keep him in the hospital, so tomorrow we’ll meet at the commercial location and see how fast we can get him back in business.”
“It was fascinating watching you work.” Pushing back in her seat, Liz pulled her hand away, something he instantly regretted.
Stretching for the water glass to give the hand missing her touch something to do besides reach for her, he chuckled softly. “You never watched anyone talk on the phone—a lot?”
She chuckled. “It was more than that and you know it.”
Just then the waitress appeared with their colas, promising their food would be ready shortly.
She reached for the drink. “You stepped in to help. You were as concerned about the waiters as you were for the owner. But, more importantly, you seemed to accomplish more in a few hours than most people do in a few weeks or even months.”
“I could say the same for you.”
“That I talk a lot on the phone,” she teased.
“Touché. I meant it’s fascinating watching you work. At the spec house, you walked in, you saw a problem, and you fixed it. And fixed it well.”
Chuckling softly, she grabbed a fork and fiddled with it as she spoke. “You cannot compare redecorating a little with saving a man’s business and keeping a slew of people from the unemployment line.”
“I don’t know. It shows that maybe we’re not very different.”
Her brows knit together the same as they had a moment ago.
“It was pretty obvious you love what you do.”
“Most of the time.”
“Uh, oh. That doesn’t sound good.”
“Well.” She blew out a sigh. “I love what I do, but some clients are very frustrating.”
He reached for a spoon and fiddled it between his fingers. “Remind me to keep you away from the people who work with me.”
That had her laughing, he was happy to see it.
She shook her head. “I have this one client. The man’s new wife hasn’t got the design sense of a spider building a web. She wants to take a grand old house and turn it into a new century modern mess, mostly in purple.”
“Purple?” Not one of his favorite colors. For the next few minutes, she shared her frustrations with the trophy wife, her lousy taste, and all while trying a new venture in Houston.
“That’s why you’re here?”
“I love working in Dallas. It’s a great city. But I miss not being closer to Emily. Her business degree brought her to Houston and my art degree took me to Dallas. Emily happily bought a cute little house in an equally adorable suburban neighborhood and I gravitated to a loft in Uptown with all the other under thirty Dallasites.”
“Not to mention the nightlife.”
“Bingo.” Her smile held a hint of all the fun he suspected she’d had through the years. “But, as the years go by, and adulting gets busier and more complex, it’s harder and harder for either of us to make time for the drive, and I’ve grown tired of waiting for them to do something about the proposed bullet train.”
“You’re not the only one tired of waiting.”
At that moment, the waitress reappeared with two plates. Setting a plate in front of each of them, she straightened and smiled at them. “Will you be needing anything else?”
Liz snatched a still hot chip and glancing at the condiments to her left, nodded. “I’d love a little mayonnaise, please.”
Lifting the warm burger bun, Devlin glanced at the still sizzling burger. He’d forgotten how delicious these burgers were. It had been eons since he’d been here. Lifting his head, he smiled at the waitress. “Looks perfect.”
As soon as the woman walked away to tend to another customer, Liz bit into her burger and Devlin would have sworn her eyes almost rolled back into her head. “I know these are good, but they’re better than I remember.”
Lifting the massive burger to his mouth, Dev took a bite. She was right. He had forgotten how good the fire-grilled burgers that were actually still bigger than the bun tasted.
“So,” Devlin set his burger down on the plate, “tell me more about this Houston venture.”
“I’ve got an opportunity to expand my business into Houston.”
“Which would bring you closer to your sister?”
She shrugged. “If it works out. I just don’t know if I’d be spreading myself too thin.”
As she explained, he nibbled on his chips and realized that the more he heard, the more he hoped it worked out for her. What he didn’t know was if he wanted her here for Emily, or for himself?