The kitchen door flapped open at the same time their names were called. Zoe breezed inside. They jumped apart. She stopped midstep, immediately thrown by what she saw—or thought she saw. Even she didn’t seem sure, drawn-on brows knitted and a frown on her mouth.
The question hung unmistakably in the air. What was going on?
Chapter Fifteen
“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Zoe asked.
“No!” Rosalie and Nick answered in unison. They glanced at each other. Rosalie wanted to kick herself.
Nick elaborated, clearing his throat first. “No, you’re not. I didn’t even know you were here.”
“Came in early to talk to you. I was looking to switch my days off.”
“Right, sure. We can go talk about that. Gimme a sec,” said Nick, untying his apron.
Rosalie hung back as the two left the kitchen. Though Zoe said nothing about what she had walked in on, the line in her brow said enough. She seemed to sense it was something.
Rosalie’s face fell into her hands. She hadn’t considered the possibility that someone would walk in on their cooking lesson. She hadn’t thought about potential consequences as she looked into Nick’s eyes and inched closer. As she allowed the magnetism between them to take control.
It was the risk of following her intuition. In abandoning rationale, she had left herself vulnerable to spur-of-the-moment mistakes. Mistakes like crossing a line and kissing Nick a second time.
Word around town traveled fast. If Zoe wanted to, she could spread what she had seen across St. Aster by the end of the day. Rosalie had decided to stop caring what others thought, but what about how town rumors would affect her reputation? How could she overlook how that would trickle down onto Remi?
She had endured St. Aster’s rampant gossip before. She still remembered what it was like; the arched brows and whispers. The scandalized stares as she ignored warnings and involved herself with Clyde.
The scandal was hot gossip for months. The Underwood girl, daughter of the haughty real estate agent Ms. Lacie, had fallen for one of the most troublesome guys on the block. Shame on her. Shame on her mother. Would she follow in Ms. Lacie’s footsteps? The bad relationship with Rosalie’s father was a black stain even years later. Would she wind up sixteen and pregnant?
Hardly any better. Just seventeen and married. Seventeen and run off several states over, shacked up with the bad boy who stole her heart. The pregnancy didn’t come until later, but when it did, it sealed the deal. Rosalie was on track to fuck up like the rest of the family.
Rosalie gathered her curls into a low, puffy ponytail. The more she analyzed the situation, keeping her past in mind this time, the more she knew she could no longer stick her head in the sand. While she refused to return to the overly cautious woman she had been, she couldn’t keep acting on impulse.
She needed to find a balance.
With her mind made up, Rosalie glanced at the kitchen clock on the opposite wall. In another hour, Ady’s was opening for the day. She would work her shift as usual, but by its end, she resolved to do what she needed to do. She was going to pull Nick aside to talk.
Business at Ady’s that day was the best Rosalie had seen since she started working there. The lunch crowd was steady and stragglers wandered in throughout the afternoon. Project Fixer-Upper was working. The renovations they had made thus far had improved the aesthetics of the restaurant. Now they needed to focus on the food and the business side of things.
At the end of her shift, Rosalie approached Zoe. They hadn’t exchanged words about what happened earlier, but she knew her coworker. Zoe was dying to know the scoop.
“You don’t need to pretend like you’re not wondering,” said Rosalie. She joined Zoe at table six as she wiped down the tabletop. “I know you want to ask about earlier.”
Zoe tossed her own rag over her shoulder and smirked. “Could you tell?”
“It’s nothing.”
“It sure didn’t look like nothing.”
Rosalie inhaled a shaky breath. “Zoe, I don’t need everybody around town talking.”
“Talking about what? As far as I’m concerned, ain’t none of it is my business,” said Zoe. She spotted the surprise on Rosalie’s face and her smirk grew. “Don’t look so shocked. I might like gossip, but I’m not about to air you out to anybody. What you and Nick do on your own time is your business.”
“Thanks, Zoe. I don’t even know what’s going on. I’m hoping to figure it out today.”
“Just don’t forget I don’t mind a juicy detail or two.”
The two waitresses traded laughs before Rosalie said her goodbye. She was crossing the dining room when Nick emerged from the back office. They both stumbled to a stop to avoid colliding. An immediate air of uncertainty hung between them.
Rosalie glanced at the truck keys clutched between his fingers. “Are you out for the rest of the day?”
“I was headed to pick up Maxie.”
“I was about to pick up Remi. Do you have a second to talk?”
Nick scanned the rest of the dining area. Rosalie followed him, noticing Zoe eavesdropping from table six. They turned back to face each other.
“How about we talk on our way to the school?”
Outside on the sidewalk, they almost split into opposite directions. He moved left toward his pickup truck and she moved to go right. They doubled back at the last second once they realized their error.
“How about we walk?” Rosalie proposed. She double checked the time on her phone. “We’ve got about thirty minutes ’til their class is out. It should take us twenty.”
“Good point. It’ll be easier to talk that way.”
They set off on the path that led from the restaurant to the elementary school. It cut through the center of town, a long sidewalk winding past shrouded cypress trees and its feathered branches.
Rosalie had spent the day rehearsing what she wanted to say. She only hoped her mind wouldn’t go blank. It was important for them to hash out whatever it was that had started to unravel between them. At his side as they strolled down the sidewalk, she chanced a glance at him, and then fired off with no preamble.
“Nick, what was this morning about?”
“You tell me.”
“I was hoping you would know. It feels like things have blurred.”
“Things have definitely blurred. That’s what I’ve been concerned about—I’m your boss. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. Sorry if I have. It’s on me.”
“It’s not just you. It’s me too,” said Rosalie firmly. “It’s like once I’m around you, I throw all sense out of the window.”
Nick released a throaty laugh. “Thanks. Exactly what I wanted to hear.”
“You know what I mean. It’s like I can feel myself getting carried away, but for some reason…I don’t care.”
“I know exactly what you mean. Probably because I feel the same way. Not sure if you realize it, but you’re kinda amazing. It’s been hard not to notice,” he said, sticking his hands in his pockets. He had shortened his strides to accommodate her smaller steps. “But I’m still your boss and I don’t wanna put you in that situation. It’s not fair to you.”