by Lily Kate
Chapter 33
LEXI
The gang has been here for a lot longer than I expected. There’s a buzz in the air, whispers, and the sensation that something is going on without my knowledge.
That’s why I’ve escaped into my office for a minute with the excuse that I need to powder my nose. There are a few things wrong with this. First of all, nobody powders their nose anymore, least of all me.
But when nobody blinked an eye at my powdering the nose excuse, I knew for a fact they were so distracted they couldn’t even focus on the words leaving my mouth. Peeking out from around the corner, I see Lucas, Brad, Sasha, and Kitty all dive their heads into a huddle.
When Sasha’s eyes flick up toward me, I yank my head back just in time and take a few deep breaths. Part of me wants to sneak out and eavesdrop, and the other part is just plain confused.
The last time Kitty kept a secret from me was during the planning of my surprise twenty-first birthday party. My birthday’s not for five months. Whatever’s happening out there feels far more urgent.
I busy myself tidying up the office. I won’t be able to keep my mouth shut once I step out there and see their heads snap to attention, so I’m trying to burn the nervous energy. Closing time is in one hour, so I just need to hold out for sixty minutes.
The door opens, and I fly against the back wall, a hand to my chest. “Brad! Ever heard of knocking?”
“Sorry.” He flinches, but it doesn’t stop him from entering the room and closing the door behind him. “Listen, Lexi—”
“I know, Brad. I know it was you.”
An uneasiness settles across his face, further proving my point that there’s something happening out there right now. The whispers and the heads bent together. He’s trying to figure out exactly what I know.
I decide to have a little fun with him. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice all of you coming here at once? That’s not an accident.”
“We always come here for dinner. We have a group text chain, and you’re on it. You knew we’d be here.”
“Yes, but you’ve been twitchy all day. You’ve never eaten so many carbs in your life.”
“I came in here to check on you.” Brad cleverly changes the subject, takes my hand, and leads me to the couch. “Are you okay?”
“You told Leo to come here and apologize, didn’t you?”
“I asked him.”
“Politely?”
“Not in so many words.”
I reach over and squeeze his hand. “You didn’t have to do that, you know.”
“I know, but he did owe you an apology. It was a cheap shot for him to come after you. I still feel horrible that I ever put you in the position where you entered into my business world.”
“It’s fine, Brad. Really. In fact, maybe it was a blessing in disguise.”
“How do you figure?”
“Well, it opened my eyes. I am barely holding onto this lease, and it’s not healthy.”
“What? People love your restaurant! The place is always busy.”
“It’s an expensive location, and I just... I don’t want to raise the prices. These people are my friends. They’ve been coming here for years.”
“It’s business, Lex.”
“That’s exactly what Leo said,” I say, just a little too sharply. “And I get it. I understand the logic, I really truly do. But at the end of the day, it’s my choice.”
He bows his head slightly. “It is.”
“And it made me realize that at some point or another, things are going to get shaken up. Even if Chris isn’t selling to Leo, he’ll sell to someone else. And that someone else will want to raise rent—because it’s business.”
“Lexi—”
I hold up a hand. “But this whole event made me realize that it doesn’t matter. We’ll be okay. I’ll be okay. I’ll open a new location, or I’ll try something new. Maybe I’ll even start looking around for a new spot before Chris retires—beat the next guy to the punch. Maybe I’ll—”
“Before you do any of that, listen.” Brad leans in, silencing my next explanation with a neat kiss to the lips. “I have something to tell you.”
“I don’t care, Brad. It’s over. Leo’s gone—we don’t need to talk about this anymore.”
“This isn’t about Leo, this is about you.”
I’m a little taken aback, and I adjust myself on the couch as I wait for the other shoe to fall. “Me?”
“There was a chance Leo wasn’t going to back down. A chance he might’ve tried to take this to court, or go through with the deal anyway and snatch this place out from under you.”
“I already told you, I—”
“I said I’d fix it, and I wasn’t sure that I could. Which is why I needed some help.”
“Is that what you all are whispering about? I don’t need pity, Brad. You should know that better than anyone else.”
“This isn’t pity, this is...” He trails of, and there’s a hint of awe in his voice that has me suspicious.
“What is it?”
“Your customers love you. I’m going to let them explain.”
“My customers?”
“Come on.” He grabs a hold of my hand and pulls me toward the door. “Now this—I didn’t have to do any arm twisting for this. When your customers caught word of what was happening, this came together on its own.”
He pulls the door open, and I follow him out. There in the diner is a wash of people. The water aerobics crew, and the men in uniforms. Cole the fireman waves from behind the bridge club, and Sasha and Kitty are interspersed between the Italian chess family. Lucas has himself surrounded by the grandmothers. Rick stands near the back, and even Luis has poked his head out from the kitchen.
The second I step out, they begin to applaud. Smiling, whistling, the room is filled with the sounds of celebrating, which makes absolutely no sense. There’s nothing to celebrate.
“I didn’t need to fix the problem,” Brad says, just for me. “You fix your own problems.”
“But—”
“Just by being who you are.” He eases an arm around my shoulder and dusts a kiss across my forehead, which earns extra cheers from the grandmothers. Even Lucas doesn’t look completely disgusted at our PDA, which is impressive.
“What is this?” I ask, directing the question to nobody in particular. “Why are so many people here?”
Barb takes the lead, stepping forward and patting Lucas’s arm on the way. She clears her throat, waits until all the attention is on her, and then grins. “When we heard that someone might buy this place out, we got worried.”
“Worried?”
“Where else can we go for ladies’ breakfasts? You have the cheapest prices, the best food, and you never kick us out for ordering only orange juice.”
“So, we all chipped in,” one of the uniforms says, joining Barb at the front. I recognize him, but I’ve never gotten his name. “You never charge us full price, and you’re always giving us free food or coffee.”
“We talked to the landlord,” a water aerobics lady adds in, “and we’ve raised enough for the down payment on this place.”
From the very back of the room, another figure marches forward. It’s Chris, and he’s holding a slip of paper in his hand. He shuffles, slowly, until he reaches my side.
“Take a look,” he says, handing over the paper. “If you want this place, we’ll see if we can’t get it into your hands.”
“No,” I say, in complete denial. “It’s too much. I don’t even want to think about the cost of it. I’ll never be able to carry the mortgage.”
“Mortgage is less than rent,” Chris says. “With a down payment this size, it’s yours if you want it.”
“But—”
“Stop arguing,” Barb says. “We all just forked over the amount we should’ve paid you in the first place. You give us so many sales it’s a rip off. We all know it, and now it’s our chance to return the favor to you.”
“We also w
ant to keep the place running,” one of the bridge guys says. “Finding a new spot for the weekly game would be a nightmare. This is central to all of us.”
“I...” I look down at the paper. I can’t even focus on it. In the back of my head, I’m well aware there are hundreds of details, logistics, and itty-bitty business items to even consider before making this a reality.
But that’s not the point.
“Thank you,” I say, my voice shaking more than my fingers. I’m rattled from head to toe, and the pounding of my heart is about to knock me flat on my back. I reach out a hand to Brad and steady myself. “It’s too generous of you, and I can’t tell you how much the thought means to me. I really—”
“Just tell us you’ll keep this place open,” Barb says. “That’s all we really want. And for you to be happy, of course, but that goes without saying.”
“Well, thank you.” I give a shaky breath, then a smile. “Minnie’s isn’t going anywhere.”
Epilogue
LEXI
I wave at my parents, blowing kisses toward them as they pull out from the curb of our apartment complex. They wave back, grinning as they cruise away from airport drop-off duty. Turning back to my brand-new, very tan husband, thanks to a gorgeous week spent honeymooning on Fiji, I raise an eyebrow. “Have you heard from anyone since we landed?”
“Not a soul.”
“I texted Lucas to see if he could pick us up, and he ignored me. Didn’t even say no!”
“Maybe they’re busy.” Brad swings an arm over my shoulder and rolls me in for a quick kiss. “Who cares? Lucas would’ve wanted to hang out afterward, hear about the trip, yada yada. I’d rather have you to myself.”
“Seriously?” I look up into the handsome face staring back at me, those chocolate eyes set against the golden glow of his skin. “How do you have any energy left?”
“We’re still on our honeymoon,” he says. “We’re not technically home yet.”
I glance up at our old apartment complex. We’d decided to stay here for the short term, though we had upgraded our digs. We hadn’t moved far—one floor up, to be exact, into a more spacious two-bedroom with a nice big balcony.
“Fair enough,” I agree. “Then again, I’m really excited to be home. You still have to carry me over the threshold, you know.”
“Oh, I know.”
“Actually... I’ll make you a deal. If you carry my bag inside, I’ll spare you the hassle of lifting me up.”
He barks a laugh, grabs my bag, and leads the way toward the front of the building. We push the doors open and pull to a fast stop.
“You’re kidding me.” I stare ahead at the elevators, both of them looped into one big mess of caution tape. “What is happening?”
On the doors are posted various versions of Out of Service warnings.
“You know what this means.” Brad’s eyes twinkle as I catch his gaze. “I’m not walking up eight flights of stairs with both of our bags.”
I sigh. “We’re risking the service elevator?”
“Unless you have a better idea.”
Thankfully, my new husband is big and buff and strong because I have no desire to drag my bag an inch further. We’ve been traveling for nearly twenty-four hours, and I’m ready to be home.
Brad makes my bag look like it’s filled with feathers, though it’s most certainly not. I might have shoved a coconut in there from the beach because it looked like Lucas’s head. Cheaper than a souvenir.
The service elevator dings its appearance. Brad hauls our stuff in first, holds the door open for me, and then presses the button for our new floor. When it begins ascending, he leans against the wall and gives a happy sigh.
“The place where it all began,” he says, surveying the space. “I’m starting to love it in here.”
“Technically, it all began when you moved next door as a kid.”
“But the good stuff began after we met here.”
“You mean, the part where we began sleeping together.”
“Well, that is a giant perk of this new-fangled relationship we’ve got going.”
“New-fangled? It’s not so new anymore.” I drop my purse to the floor and step across the colossally slow-moving elevator to nestle into the nook of his arm. “You’re stuck with me now.”
“Thank God.”
Just then, the elevator jerks to a stop. “I spoke too soon,” I whisper. “I didn’t mean literally.”
Brad’s trying to hold back a bark of laughter, but it doesn’t work. His eyes sparkle, and finally, he gives up all pretense of remaining calm.
“I really just want to be home,” I say. “I’m tired, and gross, and—”
“You’re not gross. You’re sexy, and you should relax. We have all day. Neither of us have to be back to work until Monday.”
Thanks to our friends, both of our businesses have been well taken care of in our absence. Sasha, Kitty, and Rick all pitched in to manage the restaurant, along with a newly re-hired Theo who had begged for his job back with the promise to actually work this time. It’s a good thing I believe in second chances.
Bradley has spent this past year building his new gym—kitty-corner from the diner. As it turned out, Chris had a few properties in the area and was happy to unload one of them on Brad.
I can wave to my husband from behind the counter, and he can wave back from his front desk. It’s gooey sweet and annoying to just about everyone else, but I happen to love this arrangement.
Lucas is still playing hockey, and he ended up bringing a few guys from the team to work out at Brad’s gym. That brought a wave of ladies to sign up who enjoy watching the hockey pros sweat and smell disgusting.
I have no complaints because after the gym, all those sweaty guys shower off and pile over to the diner with all of their groupies. Business has never been better. People say we’re lucky, and I have to agree.
Except with elevators. Somehow, our luck seems to run out in elevators. This elevator in particular.
“I can’t believe both elevators were out,” I say. “On the one day we need them.”
“Maybe it’s a sign.”
“What sort of a sign?”
Brad lets the bags sag to the floor as his hands find their way to my waist. He traces the skin peeking out from between my halter top and my jeans, sending little shivers that ease the grumpiness from my system.
Then his hands travel up and over my back to the bare skin of my shoulders. Before I know it, he’s untied the string of my halter top and pressed his mouth to my neck.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I murmur, not quite wanting this to stop. “We’re in public.”
“Nobody can see us here. Don’t you think it’s fitting? Christening the place where this all began? I did warn you this might happen.”
“Brad, we shouldn’t—”
His lips travel from my neck to my collarbone, and I hiss in a breath.
“What was that?” he says, running a hand over my breasts, his thumb teasing through the thin fabric as it falls down to reveal a swatch of skin. “Do you want me to stop?”
“How are we still able to be turned on?” My leg wraps around his as my arms circle his neck. I press my forehead to him, savoring the slow burn in my stomach, the desire for him reignited. “We’ve been in bed for a week.”
“Like I said, this is still technically our honeymoon.”
“Take off your shirt.”
He slips out of that baby in record time, his hands coming to land on the snap of my jeans. The button comes undone to reveal a bright pink, festive pair of lacy panties. I was going for the island vibe. Apparently, it worked.
“You get sexier and sexier every damn day,” he says. “Which is alarming because I already can’t focus at the gym.”
“Stop talking and kiss me.”
He obeys, hooking his hands under my behind, then toppling forward as my back crashes into the wall and his hands rove over my sides. I tug him closer, he holds me tighter.
>
My fingers dig into his back, his lips brush my neck. He nips at my chin, caresses my skin, and then lifts me so my legs wrap around his waist.
“We shouldn’t be doing this. Bradley, we should...”
“Not be doing this.” He finishes my sentence, then runs his hand over my hip. “Wrong. Think of it as a productive use of our time.”
“What?”
“Consider it practice for baby making. You always said you wanted kids, right? We’re married now, and we have our businesses and our apartment, so... why wait?”
“Okay, but I think we could manage five minutes until we get to our apartment.”
“We’re stuck. We’re just using our time wisely—”
He’s silenced as the elevator jerks to a start.
“How’d it do that?” I ask, petrified. “We never pressed the button.”
“Or called for help.”
“Or—”
“Shit! Tie my shirt. Tie my shirt, Brad!”
The strings from my halter top are dangling, and Brad is completely naked from the waist up. I struggle to button my jeans and tie my shirt at the same time, which means neither get done by the time the doors slide open.
I realize what’s happening just a second too late.
The hallway is filled with balloons, and faces are staring back at us. Staring into the elevator and watching the shitshow that is me and Brad trying to get dressed. These are faces I recognize. Faces like my brother, Kitty, and Sasha.
“Oh, look,” Brad mumbles. “Your parents.”
I freeze, clutching my shirt to my body as Bradley wraps his around me like a towel. Our audience also has apparently lost the ability to speak until Kitty lets out a giant snort of laughter and breaks the silence.
“Surprise!” she calls, joined weakly by the rest of the group.
My brother looks like he might vomit, and I deftly avoid my father’s eye contact.
“What were you guys thinking?” I hiss as Sasha steps into the elevator and ties my halter top strings. I button my pants while Bradley slips on his shirt, and then I gather up my purse. “I mean, thank you, but seriously?”
