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“I guess we should focus on ordering before we start talking business.”
Gus’s voice jerked Bobbie back to the reality of the situation. They were here to discuss the legal case between the two families. There was nothing fun or upbeat about it.
Sighing to herself, Bobbie opened the menu and stared at the main page. The words seemed to run together. Ordering had become a gigantic pain since her doctor told her to start watching her diet. She had to find something healthy everywhere she went.
Grilled. Baked. Raw. Those were the words that her doctor said to look for on menus. Not a single one of those words was anywhere on the Cupid Ridge Diner menu.
“I miss the days when you could just order half a grapefruit and a coffee.” Bobbie sighed.
Oh. Had she said that out loud? Judging by the way everyone was now staring at her, that was a “yes.”
“That was a thing?” Marnie asked.
Bobbie glanced at the opposite end of the table. Gus was now staring at her. Something about the way he looked at her made her feel like she was on display. Like every word she said was being scrutinized.
What was that all about?
“People were convinced grapefruit was the key to weight loss back in the day,” Bobbie said, shifting her attention to Marnie. That was easier. Just pretend Gus wasn’t there. “And we won’t talk about how many of us thought cottage cheese was a diet food.”
“And frozen yogurt.” Gus laughed. “My daughters still think frozen custard’s good for them.”
Bobbie looked at him then. Their eyes met and held in a stare that shifted something in Bobbie. He was actually quite handsome. Why had she never noticed that before?
When she tuned back into the conversation, Marnie was speaking. “All this gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free stuff.” She shook her head. “Basically, if it tastes good, spit it out.”
“Or just eat whatever you want and admit that life is too short,” Gus said. He slapped his menu closed.
There it was—arrogance. For a few seconds there, she’d forgotten how annoyingly dismissive and condescending she’d always heard he was.
“Yeah, well, tell my doctor that,” Bobbie fired back, narrowing her eyes at him. “When you get to my age, it’s not about looking good. It’s about staying out of the hospital.”
“Or keeping the doctors off your back,” Gus said. “I don’t even want to talk about my numbers.”
He leaned forward, clasping his hands in front of him. Somehow, his words felt like a challenge, even though his eyes had a teasing sparkle to them.
Leaning forward, Bobbie met his stare. “I’ll bet they’re not as bad as mine. High cholesterol runs in our family.”
“It does?” Brendon looked over at her.
She’d explain that to him later. May as well get the legal stuff out of the way before she broke it to her kids that they might’ve inherited a history of heart disease. Between their father’s death from heart disease and her current cholesterol count, it was looking pretty likely.
“I’ll take the oatmeal with a side of fruit,” Marnie said.
Those words were music to Bobbie’s ears. Oatmeal with a side of fruit would be doctor approved. She nodded and ordered that exact thing.
As she handed the menu over to the server, she felt Gus’s eyes on her again. Out of the corner of her eye, she even saw him staring at her. Gus was around her late husband’s age, she recalled. They’d gone to school together. Of course, Gus and Thomas distanced themselves from each other, just as they’d have their own children do. Bobbie moved to town after meeting Thomas during a period of time when he was thinking about leaving Cupid Ridge and his family’s ranch behind forever, so she’d been late coming into all the Ludington-Knott drama.
Gus’s laugh seemed to surround them all, making it impossible to focus on anything else. “I should be embarrassed to say this, but I’ll take the breakfast burrito with sausage and bacon and a side of hash browns. Could you throw in some extra bacon for me, hon’?”
Hon’? Hon’? Had he just called this hard-working woman…hon’?
Bobbie should have jumped right up from her chair and given Gus Knott a piece of her mind. A gentleman did not call a woman who wasn’t his wife or girlfriend hon’. She’d raised her own sons better than that. She’d stand up right now and tell him if he was going to be disrespectful?—
“Well, now that’s done,” Gus said.
He leaned back in his chair and stared at his attorney with a smile. The server was still picking up menus, but he was finished ordering, so the rest of them should move on as well. That was what his body language said.
Yep. Gus was exactly the type of person she’d always heard he was.
