“Nothing. I don’t know. Ken and I haven’t talked about it. Maybe just relax or catch up on some sleep.”
“You didn’t sleep well last night?”
Cameron looked down and shook her head.
“Neither did I,” she shared softly.
Lacey then bit into her final piece of bacon and caught sight of Jessie in the corner, rolling her eyes and motioning to the camera people to lower their cameras.
“So, you’re open normal hours on Sundays?” Kennedy asked River.
“Usually, yeah. Sometimes, I might close early if I have to because I don’t have the staff or because I’m taking a day off, but that’s rare. Sundays are busy days for us. The whole weekend is. We get a lot of foot traffic because of all the surrounding businesses, so people just walk by and…”
Lacey tuned out the rest of what River was saying, not wanting to hear her talk about her shop one more time this weekend. Even at home, it was practically all River wanted to talk about. It was this candy or that, how busy they’d been, an issue with someone or something, an order she needed to make, or, really, just about anything related to that store. Lacey didn’t talk to River much about her own work. For the most part, she drove places, massaged, made some small talk with the client, and drove again. That was about it. She supposed it just wasn’t all that interesting to River because River also didn’t ask her about it much outside of the standard ‘how was work’ question she tossed out at the end of the day when they saw each other.
“So, breakfast is over, and the cars are outside. You’re all free to go whenever,” Jessie announced, standing up.
“Over? We haven’t even finished our coffee,” Kennedy said, lifting her cup as if to prove a point.
“Fine. Finish your coffee.”
“Are you setting up outside or something?” Cameron asked.
“No, I’ve given up,” Jessie replied. “You’re not giving off the vibe I needed andhaveneeded this whole weekend, so I’ll make the most with what I’ve got. We’ll wrap up with the group shot of this breakfast with some music and maybe a message about the charity. If you two don’t mind, though, I’d love to just get one shot of the two of you telling people how much fun you had this weekend.”
Jessie looked at Lacey and then at River.
“Oh. Sure,” Lacey said on their behalf.
River just nodded.
“Great. Thanks,” Jessie replied. “I’ll set them up in the living room. Whenever you’re ready.”
“We don’t have to rush,” Kennedy said.
“Yeah, we can hang out for a little while longer,” Cameron added. “We don’t have to be out of here until noon. I heard Jessie talk about it.”
“Noon?” River asked. “I can’t stay until noon. I have to be at work by two.”
“Oh, I don’t mean that wehaveto stay until noon; just that wecouldif we wanted to.”
River looked over at Kennedy and said, “I can’t. I would if I could, but Calista needs me there at two.”
“It’s okay,” Kennedy replied.
Lacey looked down at her coffee cup and tried not to be hurt by the fact that River had just turned to Kennedy Gannon and not her.
“Um… Lacey, do you maybe want to do the thing with River for Jessie and then, I don’t know, get in one more game of air hockey before we have to go?” Cameron asked.
Lacey looked up and smiled at her.
“Sure. Is that okay, River? We’ll still be home in plenty of time.”
“Oh, yeah. Totally,” River said. “Want to do the thing for Jessie now?”
“Yeah. I’m done eating.”
They got up from the table, leaving Cameron and Kennedy there, went into the living room, and sat on the sofa, waiting for Jessie to tell them what to say and do. River’s arm went over the back of the sofa how it used to whenever they snuggled up on the couch at either of their places, but she didn’t touch Lacey’s shoulders. Lacey, for her part, turned in toward River slightly and placed her hand on River’s thigh, which flinched a bit when she did, but Lacey didn’t remove her hand because they were on camera.
