The lull between the lunch and dinner rushes are when I can catch up on accounting, budgeting, and ordering—all the boring stuff that comes with managing a restaurant. My father started this place years ago, and when he retired, I took my rightful place as manager to keep it running.
I grew up here. Powell’s Draught was my first job, and I learned everything about running a business here. I love it, though it’s hard work. It’s my family’s, and if I have any say in the matter, it’ll be here long after I’m gone.
“Mind if I run out and meet Matt for a late lunch?” Olivia asks.
“Not at all,” I tell her, smiling. She’s been dating Matthew Raine of Alpha Force Elite for some time now, and they’re madly in love.
“See you in an hour, then.” Olivia grins at me and grabs her jacket. With a wave, she heads out.
Thinking about her and Matthew immediately makes my thoughts shift to Alex Knight, the commander of the special forces military group and my former lover. It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve seen him around here. He and the guys used to pop in almost nightly for after-work beers, but as the other men in the group began finding love, I’ve seen them less frequently. That’s a good thing, mostly, but it means I haven’t been able to keep as close of an eye on Alex as I’d like to.
Our relationship ended a few years ago, but we’ve been on the outskirts of each other’s lives since. We tried to stay “friends,” but I can’t say that’s what we are. He comes out with the guys as a show of camaraderie, not because he particularly wants to. To say things are awkward between us would be a gross understatement. And it also makes me sad as hell.
A huge wave of sadness rolls over me, and I drop my pen beside my laptop to run my hands over my face. It’s been three years. I should probably move on. But I can’t. I love Alex Knight with my heart and soul. I always have, and I always will.
I met him when he was a brand-new sailor in the Navy. When he finally realized a life dream and became a SEAL, it was one of the proudest moments of my life. But then the reality of loving someone in the military who has to go to war sometimes slapped us right in the face. The things he saw, the things he did, haunted him, threatened to break him. Even though he did his duty—he even earned a Silver Star for his brave actions during one deployment—it still affected him. And it got worse with every deployment.
I know he let me go because he thought it was the right thing to do, for a lot of reasons. I know he needed to work on himself and heal. But it still broke my heart then, and it breaks my heart now. I always believed love was enough to heal anything. Maybe I’m wrong.
That’s what makes me saddest of all, and probably why I can’t let him go—our love was real. It was strong. It was otherworldly. I belong to him. He belongs to me.
This wasn’t supposed to happen to us . . . was it?
Before I really start flying down the old, familiar rabbit hole of trying to figure out the whys and hows and whats, which will ultimately have me in tears, I’m saved by the bell when my cell phone rings.
A little surge of surprise goes through me at the caller ID. Casey Knight, Alex’s younger sister.
When we were together, Casey and I always had a wonderful relationship. She was truly the little sister I never had, and I loved our growing friendship. I looked forward to the day when I’d get to call her sister for real.
We still occasionally keep in touch. I even helped her find a job when she first moved to town at a hip college bar. I wanted to hire her to work at the Draught, but she didn’t seem too keen on working at a place her brother frequented, especially since she was living with him until recently.
“Hi, Casey,” I say. “How are you?”
“Hey,” she responds in her typical bubbly way. “I’m great! I was calling to see if you wanted to go to dinner with me tomorrow night.”
“Dinner?” My surprise increases. It’s been a long time since Casey and I hung out. “I’d love to see you, but do you think, um, Alex would mind?”
“I don’t think he’ll have a problem with it whatsoever,” she says. “Besides, just because your relationship with him is over doesn’t mean ours is, you know.”
“Well, good point,” I say with an awkward laugh. It does seem a little weird, but I do miss Casey’s energy and light. “Okay. I can ask Olivia if she minds running the ship tomorrow night. What were you thinking? Sushi, maybe? Tacos?”
“I was thinking Cristo’s, actually,” Casey replies.
My jaw drops open. “Oh! Wow. Um, fancy. I’d love nothing more than to eat there, Case, but to be honest, it’s a little out of my budget.”
“Don’t worry! It’s my treat.”
I pull the phone away from my ear to stare at it in disbelief for a moment. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’ve gotten a ton of makeup jobs lately, I’m doing awesome, and I really want to do something nice to thank you for helping me when I moved to town.”
“You don’t need to thank me for that,” I say, flabbergasted. “We were almost family once.”
“We’re still family, dammit,” she says stubbornly, “and maybe I don’t need to thank you, but I want to thank you. I want us to get dressed up super fancy and have a delicious meal and champagne! We have a ton to catch up on. You work hard and you deserve it, and I miss hanging out with you.”
I can’t stop my eyes from getting a little misty. “I miss hanging out with you too.”
“So, is it a date?”
I smile, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Okay. It’s a date.”
When I hang up, my heart feels a little lighter.
3
Knight
As I’m parking my car Thursday night, my phone buzzes with a text from Casey.
Running a little late. Meet you out front?
I reply back. No prob. See you soon.
She’s been texting me all day, driving me a little nuts but also making me smile. This dinner is clearly very important to her. She told me what to wear—a black suit and white shirt, no tie—and what time to be at the restaurant, making sure I knew to meet her out front, which makes her latest text all the more irritatingly funny.
Yes, sister. Out front. I got it the first thousand times you mentioned it.
I’m not sure what the big deal is, but I don’t know if there’s some rule about going in as a whole party when you’re dining at a place as nice as Cristo’s. I exit my car and pause across the street from the restaurant. The windows are tinted, but even from the light-strung awning and brick façade, this place screams upscale. I worry—again—about how Casey can afford an outing like this, but I remind myself—again—that my little sister is a grown adult, and if she wants to do this for me, I should let her.
I start across the street once traffic is clear. The fall night is crisp, the air clean. It’s just a little chilly. I crane my neck to see if Casey’s around, strolling a few feet one direction, then the other.
“Alex?”
The voice behind me stops me in my tracks. I’d know it anywhere.
I slowly turn around and suck in my breath.