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“Surely you can trust your employees to take over for the day,” Mom says. “We’re here to see you.”
I notice that Ida doesn’t jump in to shoo me out the door the way she would if Chase was doing the asking.
“I honestly can’t, Mom. I’m sorry. We have a wedding tomorrow that we’re getting ready for.”
“Dinner, then,” Evan says, rubbing his hands together. “The four of us will go out, on me. It’ll be great.”
My first instinct is to say no. To stand my ground. But I find myself nodding. “Okay, that sounds fine with me. I’ll be done here at six, and I can meet you.”
“Wearing that?” Mom demands, eyeing my simple T-shirt and jeans. “Evan will want to take us somewhere nice, Summer.”
“You look great,” Evan assures me. “Trust me, there’s no place in town that requires formal attire. We’ll see you soon, Summer.”
And with that, they open their umbrellas, sending water spraying all over the place, and waltz back out the door.
It’s as though a mini typhoon just came through the place.
“I’ll grab a mop,” Sharla says with a sigh. “Evan annoys me.”
“Join the club,” I murmur, just as the door opens again, but this time it’s Jeannie, the manager of Mama’s Deli, just down the street. She doesn’t come inside but sends me an apologetic smile.
“I don’t want to get your floor all wet, Summer. I have a lunch delivery for you from Chase.”
At the mention of his name, joy rushes through me, washing away all the annoyance from just a few moments ago.
“Oh, thank you!” I hurry around the counter to collect the brown paper bag. “I’m sorry you had to come in the rain.”
“Oh, it’s fine. It actually smells really good out there, but I can feel fall in the air. Okay, I’d better get back.”
She waves, and then she’s off once more, running through the rain.
“Where is Chase today?” Sharla asks. “And where’s Lily?”
“They’re together, out at the ranch,” I reply as I unwrap a turkey on rye. I much prefer this to lunch with my parents. “He’s working on his new shop.”
“In the rain?” Ida asks.
“It’s his day off, and he wants to get a start on it.” I shrug and take a bite. “He said he’d keep Lily in the truck as long as it rained so she didn’t get cold. I offered to bring her here, but he wanted to hang out with her today.”
“Am I the only one who thinks it’s the sweetest thing that he’s kind of adopted you and your dog?” Sharla asks with a sigh. “It’s super adorable.”
“I agree. And Lily loves him. Half the time, she’d rather be with him anyway.”
“You can trust a man who’s good with animals,” Ida says with a wise nod. “Animals know who the assholes are. Now, speaking of assholes, why are you going to dinner with Evan?”
“Because I’m going to shut this down, once and for all. Evan claims to understand that we’re just friends, and then he pulls this? No. And my parents can’t just show up here, act like complete snobs, and disrupt my life like that. It’s rude, and it’s disrespectful.”
“So, you’re going to put them all in their place,” Ida says with a proud grin. “Good girl. I wish I could be a fly on the wall for that.”
Surprisingly, the thought of the confrontation doesn’t make me nervous at all. If anything, I’m anxious to get this over with.
“Hey there, beautiful,” Chase says in my ear. I just closed up the shop, and now I’m headed over to Ciao, on foot, because it really did turn into a nice day after the monsoon earlier.
“Hi. How’s it going out there today?”
“It was wet for a while, but the sun came out, and now we’re plugging along. I’ll head home if you’re done.”
“Actually, my parents surprised me today at the shop, and I agreed to meet them for dinner. I hope you don’t mind.”
