Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 65948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
“That’s Bain’s mom. My ex-mother-in-law,” I said as I got Hilary’s drink, too. “She’s sweet. I was sad to let her go when I kicked Braxton to the curb.”
“Hmm,” she said as she helped me get the drinks on the tray. “You need help?”
I shook my head.
It was four drinks since I knew Hilary and Bain also wanted water.
The rest I would have to take their drink orders.
Technically, I could probably guess what Braxton wanted, too. But I didn’t go out of my way to act like I knew, or remembered, anything about him.
It was easier that way.
“Diana,” Hilary breathed when I set her drink down in front of her. “Thank you.”
I grinned and placed two straws on the table, then watched as Bain reached forward and grabbed both of his drinks.
“Why are you taking mine?” Braxton asked.
“Because they’re both his,” I said at the same time that Bain said, “Because they’re both mine.”
There was a scoff from the girl at the table plastered next to Braxton, and I ignored it.
“What can I get you, Holt?” I asked Bain’s father.
“Tea with no lemon,” he answered, smiling softly at me.
God, they were all so sweet.
I wasn’t sure where the hell Braxton had come from.
“And you?” I asked the girl.
She was a girl, too.
She had to be eighteen at most.
“Water,” she said stiffly.
She knew who I was, obviously.
I rolled my eyes and looked to Braxton. “I’m guessing you want a DP, but I’ll let you think about it and bring you a water first.”
“Umm,” he said stiffly as I turned to leave. “Can we have that other waitress over there?”
“Absolutely fuckin’ not,” Bain answered for me. “I want to catch up with her. I’d have rathered her join our fuckin’ lunch. But since she can’t, since she’s working…” The way he said working made me want to smile. As if he was disappointed in Braxton for forcing me to do so. “She can just join us when she can.”
Ahh, Bain’s mouth.
I’d definitely missed that potty mouth of his since it’d been gone.
My smirk was small, but there.
“Well, then maybe I don’t need to be here,” Braxton’s new girl sniped.
Bain turned slowly, his glare focusing solely on her.
“This isn’t about you,” he said carefully. “This is about me. I haven’t seen her in six long fuckin’ years and I don’t really fucking care whether you want to have her as your waitress or not. You don’t like it, you can leave. There’s the fuckin’ door.”
The new girl blinked and her eyes narrowed hard on Bain.
“Telly,” Braxton said quietly. “Leave it.”
Telly obviously wasn’t going to leave it.
“You could always move to that section over there,” Shawna called. “I’ll take care of you and my girl Di can take care of him. There’s not enough space for him to sit down, anyway.”
That was true.
There was enough for four people.
Braxton and his girlfriend were sitting in one side of the booth, while Holt and Hilary were sitting in the other. Poor Bain was practically stuck in the middle aisle as he had pulled a chair up from a side table.
“I was here first,” Telly pouted.
Bain said something under his breath that sounded distinctly like “what the fuck” but he didn’t say anything in reply where she could hear it. Instead, he turned to me and said, “You know what I want, Luce. But, I want double, again.”
I did know what he wanted.
An avocado bacon burger with extra cheese, no onions, and extra pickles. Curly fries with the fire sauce and a slice of pie. But if he wanted double…
“Are you sure?” I asked him. “You look like you can’t hold that much anymore.”
He grinned. “I’ve lost a little of my extra weight. But I’ll make it fit.”
Extra weight.
Bain had never had “extra weight.”
He’d had bulk. As in, big muscles.
And though he still had muscles, they were just a different kind of muscles now.
Sleek and svelte.
More like a Lamborghini and not a Mack truck.
“Allll riiight,” I drawled. “What about you, Hil? Holt?”
“We’ll take our usual as well.” Hilary grinned.
They handed over their unused menus, then looked at Braxton expectantly.
“Usual.” Braxton handed his menu to his girl, then we all waited for the girl to peruse the menu before she said, “I’ll have a cheeseburger off the kids’ menu.”
I looked at her, barely containing my eye roll and said, “I can get it for you, but you might as well get the adult burger because I’ll have to charge you as an adult and not a child.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I can’t eat all of it.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that she’s gonna charge you what you should be charged, seeing as the kids’ menu clearly says for children under twelve. You’re over twelve, right?” Bain sniped.
Oh boy.
This was going to be a fun lunch for them.
When Bain didn’t like you, he didn’t hold any punches.