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It took her a second to realize she must have missed something. “Dinner?”
Tommy chuckled. “Yeah. Dinner. Me. Beth. Drew. Nicole and Jeff. You could invite your sister, too. I’m sure Beth wouldn’t mind.”
“What wouldn’t I mind?” Beth strolled into the dining room, carrying the vacuum.
He didn’t miss a beat. “If Grace and her sister joined us for dinner tonight.”
A smile lit up Beth’s face. “Of course I wouldn’t mind. Grace, we’d love for you and your sister to join us.”
Grace felt backed into a corner. She wanted to make an excuse, to say no, but it wasn’t in her. There was something about her that wanted to please. She’d always been that way. “I’ll ask her.”
“I can use my charm on her if you want,” Tommy said. “I can be very persuasive when I need to be.”
She’d seen it firsthand with their customers. All the regulars loved Tommy. He knew all of them by name and made each one of them feel special. It was something Grace envied, but she’d never have his outgoing personality.
Before she could think of something to say, Beth did. “I think she can handle it all on her own, can’t you, Grace?”
A wave of gratitude for her boss washed over her. Beth seemed to understand her shyness even if Tommy didn’t. “Yes.”
Because she’d said she would, Grace called her sister and asked if she wanted to go out to dinner with Grace’s coworkers and some of their friends. She’d no sooner gotten the question out when her sister told her she’d call their mom about watching Taylor and asked what time they needed to be there, which was how Grace found herself sitting at a table with her sister, Beth, Tommy, and a bunch of people Grace didn’t really know all that well.
She knew Drew. Kind of. He’d stopped into the café a few times to see Beth, but given her timid nature, Grace hadn’t said much more than hi to the guy.
The lack of knowing anyone didn’t deter her sister. Gabby jumped right into the conversation. “Grace said you two recently got engaged. Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” Drew said, taking Beth’s left hand in his. He kissed the ring on her finger. “It took me a while, but eventually I wore her down.”
Beth rolled her eyes. “Maybe I just wanted to see how far you’d chase me.”
He leaned in, his lips a breath away from hers. “To the moon and back.”
Grace’s chest constricted watching the exchange. The love Beth and Drew had for each other rolled off them in waves. It was a precious gift, one that had been taken away from Grace all too soon. She hoped they both knew how blessed they were and didn’t take what they had for granted.
When their food came, the conversation turned to some outreach work Drew and his friend Shawn, who’d also joined them for dinner, were doing at a local school.
By the time she and her sister headed home, Grace was ready to drop. It had been almost a year since she’d socialized so much and it was exhausting.
“Are you okay over there?” her sister asked as they drove toward Grace’s house.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You did well tonight. I’m proud of you.”
Grace glanced over at her sister, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Thanks.”
Gabby laughed. “I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just... it was good seeing you get out of the house and enjoying yourself a little. You’ve been a bit of a recluse since you’ve been back.”
“I get out of the house. I work five days a week.”
Instead of responding to what Grace had said, Gabby went a different route. “I know it was hard on you, losing Kurt. I can’t say I know how you feel, but I know he wouldn’t want you to be miserable for the rest of your life. He’d want you to be happy.”
“I know,” Grace said, looking out the window at the passing houses. If only her sister knew exactly what it was Kurt wanted her to do—how he wanted her to get on with her life. But that wasn’t something she could share with Gabby. “I’m working on it.”
***
Chapter 3
Alexander had plenty to keep him busy for the rest of the week. An Army buddy of his had made a call and got him an interview with a company that might be interested in having him do some consulting work. If he was going to stay in St. Louis long term then he was going to need a job.
