“I don’t know if I’d call it a dinner party.”
“It’s dinner, and you’ll have fun.”
“I feel like I’m deserting both of you, spending so much of my weekends over at his house.”
“Don’t be silly.” Olivia waved that away. “Your mother and I like knowing you’re with a good man. And you need to spend time with people your own age. Make friends. Friends are part of the roots, too, baby, and keep what grows happy and healthy.”
“Mom and I have our monthly book club, yoga classes, the shop, now the café. It’s fun to grab lunch with a girlfriend. We both make time for that.”
“And tomorrow afternoon we’re heading over to Tom and Ida’s potluck cookout. Where we’ll eat too much and gossip the day away.” Olivia sighed with pleasure. “We’re not old fogies yet who need looking after.”
“And we have the magic doorbell. I love that thing.”
Shaking her head, Morgan glanced at the back door camera. “I know. I don’t understand it, but I know you do.”
Spreading her hands, Audrey smiled at Morgan. “I got an alert last week and watched FedEx deliver a package to the front door. It’s like a secret window.”
“The sun’s fierce, the gardens are beautiful, that damn frog makes me smile every time I look at it, and we’re all going to get our party on. That’s a good deal, girls. Let’s embrace it.”
* * *
Morgan promised herself to do just that. Embrace it.
On a busy Friday night at Après, she enjoyed the work, the crowd, and looked forward to a Saturday hike, a Sunday gathering.
“We’re going to switch, Bailey.”
“Sorry, what?”
“I’ll take the backbar.”
“Oh, but—”
“I’m right here if you need help, but let’s see how it goes for an hour.”
“Are you sure?”
“I wouldn’t say so if I weren’t.” Morgan nudged her forward, stepped back. “You’ve got the stick.”
And she did fine, just fine, so Morgan let the hour run to ninety minutes.
“That’s the way it’s done.”
“I forgot to be nervous.”
“You’ve only got a few weeks left before you go back to school, so let’s have you do two hours for your next shift with me. Now take a break. You earned it.”
Satisfying, she thought as she filled orders. Satisfying to teach somebody how to do a job, and do it well. Not for a career, not in Bailey’s case, but to earn a solid paycheck until she forged that career.
“You let her handle it.” Opal stopped by the bar. “You got out of her way and let her handle it. When I’m wrong about somebody or something, I say so right out loud. I had you wrong.”
“There might’ve been some of that on both sides.”
“Yeah, might’ve been. Two summer specials, fizzy water on ice, double Bombay tonic.”
“Coming right up.”
“I’ve got a nephew just turned twenty-one. He’s working in the Lodge kitchen the last six, seven months. Doesn’t much like it, but he works. If he wanted to train at the bar, would you take him on?”
“If Nell approves the change, I’ll take him on.”
“Good.”
She didn’t expect to see Miles until she got to his house, but he walked in at closing.
“Worked late.”
“I’ll say.”
“We’ll get your bag out of your car. You can ride with me.”
“Then my car’s here where I’m not.”
“We’ll get it tomorrow. You’ve got your hiking boots?”
“As requested.” She shut off the lights on what she considered an excellent shift. “I got a call from a friend today,” she told him as they walked out.
“Oh.”
“Sam. He and Nina … they’d gotten serious. He loved her, was on the brink of asking her to move in with him when it all happened.”
She stopped at her car, took out her bag.
“You’ve kept in touch?”
“Yeah, and he has dinner with Nina’s family at least once a month. He wanted me to know he’s met someone.”
In his car, he waited until she’d strapped in. “Is that a problem for you?”
“No. God, no. He’s been seeing her for a couple of months now, and it’s, well, gotten serious. So he wanted me to know. He’s a really good guy, Miles. I’m happy for him. It’s been nearly a year and a half—that hit me. It feels longer in some ways, then in others like yesterday. Her name’s Henna. She’s a paralegal. She has a cat named Suzie she spoils, likes old movies—like, really old black-and-white movies—and reading thrillers.”