“You know you can come and visit anytime you like,” Gloria said.
Lucinda smiled. “You’re so sweet. Thanks. But no thanks! I’m going to enjoy my retirement.”
“You’re too young to retire, Miss Lucinda,” Gloria said as Alex’s SUV drove up and parked in front of the storefront office next door. “What are you, twenty?”
Lucinda laughed. “Yeah I was twenty, alright,” she said, “twenty years ago.” Gloria laughed too.
As they were laughing, Alex’s bodyguard hurried out and opened the back-passenger side door. Oz, the first to get out, was always a striking figure wherever he went because of his height and muscular build and hair. And he immediately caught Gloria’s attention. She was shocked, because she remembered him instantly. Who could forget a man who looked like him? And she couldn’t help it. She gave him a curious look as she and Lucinda made their way up to the diner’s front door. He told her he was from Florida, but he never said he was from Apple Valley, Florida!
“But no, sweetie, you’re never too young to retire,” Lucinda was saying as Gloria was glancing at Oz. “Not ever, you hear me?”
Gloria smiled. “I hear you.”
Oz noticed Gloria, too, and gave her an undeniable assessing look himself. But he didn’t recognize her at first. Mainly because he was looking more at her body than at her face. But when he looked into her face, he was shocked, too. He stood erect.
“What the?” he inwardly asked himself. And when Alex got out of the SUV, he leaned toward him. “Who’s that?” he asked him.
Alex looked where Oz was looking. Gloria was, by now, unlocking the door of her newly purchased diner. “I have no idea. But I know Lou sold that diner. She might be the new owner.”
“You don’t say?” Oz leaned against the SUV, folded his arms, stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankles. “She’s hot.” He didn’t mention that he’d already met her and that she rejected him already.
“She’s a kid, Oz, come on. Don’t put her through all of that.”
Oz frowned. “All of what?”
“All of your bullshit. That’s what,” Alex said firmly. “Leave the lady alone.”
But Oz continued to stare at Gloria, and Gloria glanced back at him, as she and Lucinda disappeared inside of the diner.
Alex, realizing he was getting nowhere with his kid brother, nodded his head. “Okay, don’t listen to me. You never do anyway. But one of these days, little brother, you’re going to hurt the wrong one. And she’ll hurt you back. Mark my words.”
Oz looked at his brother as if he was talking Mandarin. A woman hurt him? He’d have to love her for her to hurt him.
But Alex was concerned about his brother’s lifestyle. Oz was hopeless when it came to women, and Alex wasn’t wasting another ounce of his breath trying to point it out to him. Alex, instead, began heading toward the door to his wife’s old office.
But Oz was still a little taken aback by seeing her again. He couldn’t remember her name, or much else about her either. He was more likely to remember the women he slept with, not the ones he didn’t. But he remembered that sting he felt when she turned him down. He remembered the embarrassment he felt when she didn’t want him. He remembered how he never felt that way before.
And that alone woke him back up, and decided he’d forget about her arrogant ass, as he hurried behind Alex.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Gloria and Lucinda were at the counter inside the diner unloading their boxes. “Are you going to keep everything the same?” Lucinda asked Gloria.
“No ma’am,” Gloria said, looking around. “I have painters coming right away. And new furniture coming to brighten up the place. That’s why I’m going to keep it close for the remainder of the month.”
“That’s three weeks,” Lucinda said. “Are you sure you want to keep it closed that long?”
“I don’t have a choice. There’re some wiring issues that have to be handled, and the painting, and I need to expand the office space in the back. I’m happy if they can do it all in three weeks.”
Lucinda smiled. “I know it needs repairs. That’s why I sold it as is. I’ve had sells that fell through over and over and I had been neglecting the place, to tell you the truth. I’m glad you have a vision for it.”
“Oh, I do.”
“Just remember it’s still a successful diner around here, with a loyal clientele. In the meantime, and if I were you, I’d keep the same workers employed, because the customers love them.”
“In other words?” Gloria asked.
“Don’t fix what’s not broken if having a successful business is your goal.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” said Gloria cheerfully. “That’s why I settled on your diner, rather than the other business I was looking at in California. Your business was still turning a profit, which is what I’ll need. I’ll keep as much the same, including the name, for now. Once they get used to new ownership, I’ll change the name then.”
“Good for you!”
“But eventually I’ll decide what kind of business I want it to be, and make those more substantive changes then.” Then she looked at Lucinda. “But you’re sure you’re ready to part with such a successful baby?”
“I’ve been ready, to tell you the truth,” Lucinda said. “I am so looking forward to my retirement I don’t know how to act!”
Gloria laughed. “I’m happy for you.”
“Thank you. But yeah, girl,” she said as they continued to unload their boxes, “I plan to enjoy this Florida sun for a change. And all of these Florida men, too? Honeybun, honeybun! I plan to have myself some fun!”
They both laughed.
But then Gloria asked the question she’d been wanting to ask since she first laid eyes on Oz again. “Speaking of Florida men,” she said. “Who was that guy out there?”
Lucinda was confused. “What guy out where?”
“Out front. The one with the hair.”
Lucinda frowned. “The hair?”
“He drove up when we were coming in.”
“Describe him.”
That was easy, Gloria thought. “He’s tall, like six-three or six-four. He’s very attractive. And very muscular too.”
“The kind of muscles that look like they could break a woman in two if she got underneath him?” Lucinda asked. “The kind of muscles that look like he would have the perfect equipment to take a woman to the moon and back again if she let him? Those kinds of muscles?”
It was an odd way to describe him, Gloria thought, but she smiled and nodded. “Yes, I think so.”
“And you said he has the hair thing going for him, too?”
“Yes, it’s rather long. Who is he?”
Lucinda smiled. “That can only be Odysseus. Odysseus Drakos.”
“Drakos? As in The Drakos hotel and casino in town?”
Lucinda nodded. “Yup. His brother is Alex Drakos, the billionaire. Alex is a friend of your cousin’s.”
“My cousin? You mean Uncle Reno?”