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Captain Morgan grabbed my purse that I had sitting on the counter and left, leaving me no choice but to follow.
“Whiner?” I asked quietly.
“Apparently I bitched and moaned too much about coming here,” he muttered darkly as we walked toward the seat.
There was already a chick putting the extra leaf in the table, and another pulling up an extra chair.
I was sat on the end between Riel and a woman that I should know the name of but didn’t.
I sat down and offered her a smile.
“I should know your name,” I admitted as I reluctantly took my seat. “But I can’t remember.”
She smiled sadly. “My name is Piper. I grew up with Luca.”
I nodded once.
That was where I knew her.
Luca had a lot of friends that he’d grown up with, and if I wasn’t mistaken, Piper had a twin and a younger sister that looked exactly like her.
“Nice to see you again,” I lied.
It wasn’t nice to see her.
In fact, it brought up the painful memories of the last time that I had seen her.
Luca had taken me to a party at the ‘compound.’ The place where the men of Free and their families had lived. I’d met a ton of people that day, and Piper, if I wasn’t mistaken, had been a major influencer in Luca deciding to sign on for another four years of service to the Navy.
And look where that got him.
I shut off that vicious thought in my head, knowing that it would take me nowhere good.
Seriously, if there was one thing that I knew I didn’t need to do, it was play the blame game.
Piper didn’t realize that she’d influenced Luca at all.
And even then, Luca was a grown-ass adult when he’d re-upped.
Piper nodded her head soberly.
“It’s good to see you looking well.” She nervously fidgeted with her shirt.
I did snort at that.
“That was a good one,” I snorted. “Well.”
Piper scrunched up her nose.
“It was… I don’t know what to say,” she admitted. “I’m sad. Sad for me. Even sadder for you.”
Her eyes flicked to the man beside me and I saw her shudder.
That didn’t make me happy.
In fact, it made me stiffen my spine and look at Riel with a look of annoyance.
“What are you getting?” I snapped.
Riel shrugged. “I don’t know.”
I tapped the menu. “You should probably look then. I’m ordering when the chick gets here.”
Riel snorted and opened his menu.
And that was when the waitress showed up with a tray of drinks.
My mouth watered at the sight of the sweet tea.
I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in hours.
Twelve of them, as a matter of fact.
I was still waiting on that lunch break that Dr. Cromwell had promised.
But the dick head had taken not one, but three hours for his own, effectively taking Hunter’s and my lunch break.
When he’d gotten back, we’d been swamped due to a seven-car pileup on the interstate.
When it’d finally cleared out, it’d been time for us to go home.
“What can I get you to drink, ma’am?” the waitress asked.
I looked at Riel’s sweet tea and pointed. “Same thing as him.”
Riel was in the process of taking a drink and grimaced.
“You can have mine,” he suggested. “As long as you don’t have a problem with drinking after me. That’s way too sweet.”
I chuckled then.
“Luca used to have to get a quarter sweet, three-quarters unsweet here. I’m fairly sure that they put half a pound of sugar per ounce,” I teased, then tilted my head. “Try that.”
Riel ordered that as I took his sweet tea and gulped half of it down in one swallow, not caring if he’d drunk out of it or not.
Then a thought occurred to me.
Malachi had loved sweet tea. The sweeter the better.
When had that changed?
“And are y’all ready to order?” the waitress asked.
I held up my hand. “I am.”
She moved closer to me, farther away from Riel, and stared at me as she studiously avoided making eye contact with the man at my side.
I rolled my eyes in annoyance.
But gave my order anyway.
“I’ll have a steak smothered in onions and mushrooms, a loaded baked potato, extra butter and sour cream. Go ahead and give me extra cheese, too, just in case.” I took a deep breath and continued my order. “I want a side of macaroni and cheese, a side salad with extra boiled eggs, and a sidekick of grilled shrimp.”
There was a long, silent pause as everyone at the table digested what I’d just ordered for dinner.
“That’s quite a bit of food,” the woman on the opposite end of the table said. “Where do you put it all?”
I shrugged.
“This is my first meal today,” I admitted. “I was at the hospital from about six this morning until just now. I think I might’ve gotten one single candy bar in. And it wasn’t even one I liked.”
