by Lacy Hart
“He came over to the table after you got up to dance,” I said to her. “He had come into the bakery earlier today. I gave him a donut for free because he forgot his wallet.”
“He’s pretty handsome, Kelly. Good idea to give him a free donut.”
“Stop it, Jodie. He’s just being nice,” I said to her, sipping my drink again.
“If he just wanted to be nice he would bring you a dollar tomorrow for the donut,” Jodie remarked. “He wouldn’t be buying us drinks unless he wanted to make an impression on you. You’ve been out of the dating pool too long.”
Damian came back to the table with the drink for Jodie and handed it to her.
“Thanks,” she said with a smile. “So Damian, are you here on vacation?” Jodie asked.
“Sort of,” he said cryptically. “I’ll be around for a few weeks. I came down here to relax with some friends. Actually, they are probably looking for me now since I wandered away from the table. I should probably get back to them.”
I was feeling a little disappointed that he wouldn’t be staying around longer.
“Thanks again for the drink,” I said to Damian.
“It was my pleasure,” he said, smiling at me. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again. Your bakery was wonderful. I’ll definitely be back in there, with money next time, I promise. It was nice to meet you, Jodie. Good night Kelly.”
Damian gave a casual wave as we watched him walk away from the table. His jeans hugged his body perfectly, and I found myself staring like I hadn’t stared at a man in a long while.
“Oh, you’ll be seeing him again, Kelly,” Jodie said with a laugh. “He’s completely into you.”
“I think you’re reading way too much into this,” I said to her.
Our waitress came back over to the table, and I asked her for the check so we could settle up.
“That guy who was with you paid your tab,” she said to us. “Good guy. He paid for your drinks then gave me a fifty dollar tip. You can bring him around every weekend, Jodie.”
Jodie turned back to me and grinned.
I looked over to where Damian had walked to, but there was no sign of him anywhere in the crowd.
Captain Caraway kicked in with “Caught Up in You” as Jodie and I grabbed our purses to head back out.
I hope I do see him again, I said to myself.
7
Damian
I wandered back over towards where our table was, glad I had got and gone over to Kelly, even if it was just to spend a few minutes talking with her. It gave me the start I needed, and I was sure I was going to make time to go and see her again tomorrow at the bakery.
James and Shannon still weren’t back to our table, so I went over towards the back of the place to where the pool tables were to see if I could find them. Sure enough, there they were, laughing it up as James was getting ready to put the finishing touches on winning another game. James had just expertly knocked in the eight-ball with a series of tricky banks to win when I arrived at the table.
“Won again, I see,” I said to James as I finished off my bottle of beer.
“He’s like a Jedi master of pool,” Shannon said, clearly miffed that she lost again. One thing about Shannon is she hates to lose, whether it is pool, the lottery, or anything to do with business.
“You ready to go, boss?” James asked as he hung up the pool cues and someone else moved towards the table.
“Whenever you guys are.” I watched Shannon down the rest of her drink. She wobbled a little as she moved away from the pool table, and James quickly grabbed her arm to hold her up.
“Hold on there,” James said, wrapping his arm around her waist to guide her. Shannon looked over at James and gave him a smile.
“I’m fine,” she said to James but didn’t push herself away from him either.
“I think now is a good time for us to go,” I said to both of them. I saw the back door of the restaurant, and we decided to head out that way instead of working our way through the front. I had hoped to go out the front to see Kelly one more time, but it would have to wait until tomorrow.
James guided Shannon back over to our car in the lot, and she rested up against the side of the car while we got the passenger side open. James helped get her in her seat while I got in the back. As he leaned over her body to help her get her seat belt on, I saw Shannon lean into James’ neck as if to give him a kiss.
“Hmmm, you smell nice,” Shannon said to him as James pulled away and closed the door.
James got in behind the wheel and started the car to get us back home.
“How much did she have to drink?” I asked.
“Apparently more than she should have,” James replied. “I thought she could handle her booze better than she can I guess.”
“You know,” Shannon said loudly, turning to face James, “I’m sitting right here. You could just ask me how much I had to drink.”
“How much did you have to drink, Shannon?” I said to her.
“A lot, I guess,” she said with a giggle.
Luckily it was just a short ride back to the house because no sooner had we gotten inside the gate and were headed towards the garage when Shannon yelled at us.
“Stop the car, I have to puke,” she said as she opened the passenger door just short of the garage. James slammed on the brakes and seconds after the door opened I could hear Shannon spewing vomit onto the driveway.
“Well, that will be fun to clean up in the morning,” James said with a sigh.
Shannon and I got out of the car as James finished pulling the Lexus into the garage. I kept a close eye on her to make sure she was okay, and she did drift a few steps as she threw up one more time in one of the bushes outside the front steps.
“You okay?” I asked her, putting my hand on her back.
Shannon looked up at me, her eyes barely open, with a small trail of saliva running down her chin.
“Peachy,” she said to me as she turned and threw up again.
James came out of the garage to meet us and helped Shannon up the front steps as I opened the door and shut off the alarm.
“I’m going to get her into her room,” James said to me as I followed them down the hall.
“Good idea.”
I watched James open her door and take her inside. I walked down the hall and into the game room, going to the bar to make myself a vodka martini. By the time I had shaken the martini and poured into my glass, James was walking over towards the bar to sit with me.
“All taken care of?” I asked him.
James laughed a little.
“Yeah, she’s in bed,” he said to me. “I’ve never seen Shannon like that before. It was kind of fun to see her loosen up a bit, but she’ll be feeling it in the morning.”
“No doubt.” I took a sip of my martini, feeling the cool, crisp vodka on my lips.
“Oh, I almost forgot. ”James got up from the bar and went back down the hall. Moments later, he appeared with a basket in his hands. He placed the wicker basket down on the bar. I could see it was filled with various pastries and treats.
“What’s this?” I said to him, looking at the basket.
“A couple of ladies dropped it off this afternoon while you were sleeping,” James said to me. “They said they were from the local bakery on the boardwalk and wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood. It’s pretty good stuff; I had a muffin from there this afternoon. Shannon had it put in her room. I think she was hoping to snitch what she wanted before you got it.”
“Were the ladies a couple of blondes, about the same height, one with big brown eyes?” I asked him.
“Well, they were blondes, but I didn’t notice anything about their eyes. One of them kept staring at me the whole time.”
“I was at the bakery this morning,” I said to James as I reached into the fridge and grabbed a beer for him. “And I saw them at the restaurant tonight. In fact, I went over and talked to the one with the big brown eyes when I saw her.”
“Really?” James said as he took a draw of his beer. “They both were pretty cute, but it sounds like you are more interested in Brown Eyes.”
“Her name is Kelly,” I said to James. “And yes, I am interested. There was something about her when I first saw her at the bakery. I wish I had gotten to talk to her longer tonight, but her sister was there with her, and it seemed like she was looking for a way out of there.”
James almost spit out some of his beer from laughing.
“What’s so funny?” I asked indignantly.
“I’m sorry, boss,” James said as he wiped his chin. “It’s just hard for me to imagine that you get flustered about talking to anyone. You talk to CEOs, presidents, heads of state, and thousands of people all the time without any trouble. You’re telling me a petite blonde throws you off?”
I picked up a chocolate chip cookie from the basket and bit into it. It was just the right texture, the right amount of softness with the perfect number of chips in the bite.
“We’re not all as tough as you are, James,” I said to him, taking another bite of the cookie.
James reached into the basket and grabbed one for himself, taking a big bite out of it.
“Wow, these are good,” he said to me. “So, are you going to go see her again? It would probably be gentlemanly of you to go and say thanks for the basket.”
“It does give me the perfect excuse to stop by there again in the morning,” I told James. “The only problem is that they are so busy in there that I am sure I won’t get time to talk to her. She’s the owner, and I think she works in the kitchen mostly. I could go there, and she might not even be able to speak to me.”
James took a long sip of his beer and placed the bottle down on the bar.
“Do you want me to walk you through this?” James asked me.
“What are you talking about? I don’t need you to hold my hand and take me there, James, if that’s what you mean.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said. “I can give you some pointers though about how to approach everything. It sounds like you might need some help.”
“I don’t need to get tips about talking to women.”
“You’re right, you shouldn’t,” James replied. “But it looks like you do. Look, you want to make a good impression on this woman, right? Then you want to make sure you seem confident when you go to talk to her. Just be yourself and relax about it. You don’t have to get yourself all worked up. Go in, thank her for the basket, and ask her if you can take her out somewhere for dinner, or drinks, or something else.”
“I realize this shouldn’t be a big deal for me,” I said to James. “So why do I have a knot in my stomach just thinking about it?”
James smiled at me again after he finished his beer.
“I know you just met her, but she obviously has struck a nerve with you. Sometimes it happens that way when you are attracted to someone.”
I glanced over at James with a serious look on my face.
“It’s been a long time for me since I have found anyone I was attracted to right away like this, maybe since I was in college. I don’t want to seem like a bumbling idiot and blow it right off the bat.”
“You’ll do fine,” James said as he stood up and yawned. “I think I am going to head off to bed. I’ll check in on Shannon to make sure she is okay. Hopefully, she’s just sound asleep already.”
“Goodnight, James, and thanks,” I said to him, raising my glass.
“No problem, boss,” he said to me, giving a wave before heading down the hall.
I polished off the rest of my drink, rinsed the glass in the bar sink and left it to dry. I walked back down the hall and could hear loud snoring coming from Shannon’s room. I laughed to myself as I went by and headed up the stairs, trying to do so quietly so I wouldn’t wake her. I was pretty sure Shannon was going to be miserable in the morning.
I got to the top floor, and instead of going into the bedroom I went outside onto the patio to sit for a bit. The wind had picked up a little bit, and I could see some lightning in the clouds off in the distance out over the ocean. A storm was moving in that hopefully would cool off some of the humidity that was around right now. I could hear the waves picking up and hitting the beach more strongly than they had earlier in the day. I walked over to the railing and looked down and could see the outside portion of the pool with its solar lighting around it dimly lighting the area. The lights gave off enough that I could just see out onto the beach a few yards. I could hear the echoes of some kids running along the beach further down, and there was a hint of flashlights moving off in the distance.
My thoughts turned back to my brief interactions with Kelly today and how much I enjoyed seeing her and speaking with her. I knew I wanted to see more of her and hoped she felt the same way about me. Now it was going to be a matter of making it happen.
8
Kelly
I’m not sure how long my alarm was going off for, but Alice had stopped waiting patiently for me to get out of bed and was now licking my face and breathing heavily on me, making sure I would pry my eyes open and notice her. When I looked at my clock and saw it as 4:15; I jumped up out of bed, let Alice out the back door, and then took the fastest shower I had taken in a long time to get myself ready for the day. By the time I was dressed and had let Alice back into the house, it was creeping closer to 5 AM, and I knew I had to get going.
Sundays were often the busiest days at the bakery as people were coming and going from the rental homes for the week and looking for an easy place to grab some breakfast. The locals knew they could get their Sunday treats as well for their after-church meals. We usually had a steady stream of customers from 7 AM right through to closing, so getting everything prepared early was key to helping the day go well. Me showing up late was not part of the plan.
I sped over to the bakery on my scooter, getting it moving as fast as I could. That included making a few nifty maneuvers along the way to avoid a turtle I saw at the last minute working its way across the road. I got to my usual parking spot, locked up, and quickly climbed the steps to the back entrance. I pulled the door and it sprang open, letting me know Mom had arrived before me and unlocked the place to let everyone in.
“Sorry I’m late,” I shouted out as I pulled my apron on to get things started. Jodie, Alex, and Mom were all involved in their tasks for the morning, but they looked over at me as I washed up and pulled some gloves on to start working.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I saw them all staring at me.
“Nothing,” Alex noted as she got ready to put some cookies in the oven. “Jodie was just telling us about your night last night.”
“What about it? We had fun, and it was a good night out to decompress a bit.”
“She was talking more about Damian, “ Alex shot me a grin as she bumped one of the oven doors closed with her hip.
“Who?” I responded, trying to concentrate more on getting the pastries ready to start baking. It was then it dawned on me just who they were talking about.
“You remember,” Jodie added. “The handsome guy who bought our drinks last night. The one who was chatting you up and flirting with you.”
“I would hardly call it flirting, Jodie.” I kept working at some of the dough, probably more vigorously than I needed to, while trying to concentrate on work.
“He said he was going to stop back in,” Jodie said as she came over and stood next to me. “ If he shows up this morning, then you’ll know for sure if he just likes donuts or if he has something else in mind.”
“Can we get to work please and stop worrying about who will or won’t come in this morning? We have to open in ninety minutes and have a lot of work to do,” I said curtly, hoping to get everyone focusing on something other than my social life.
“Yes, Ma’am,” Jodie said, snapping to attention.
Mom and Alex started loading up the display cases and got everything ready for the coffee service while Jodie and I kept working on
baking. I was sure Jodie could see I was a little put off by all the ribbing this morning.
“Hey, Kelly, relax. I was just teasing you,” Jodie said to me. “You're taking this way too seriously.”
“Me? You’re the one who felt the need to talk about it to everyone. So some guy bought me a drink and talked to me. You were out there dancing and flirting, and no one was talking about that.”
“Because that’s what I do all the time,” Jodie told me. “You rarely go out and when you do you don’t talk to anyone but me. You talking to a guy is news in this family. Stop getting all bent out of shape about it. I’m your sister; I’m allowed to give you a hard time. It’s my job.”
