He smiled. “This is nice.”
“It is. Even if it is a hospital cafeteria.”
He laughed. “Sorry about that.”
“Nothing to be sorry for. I know you’re working. How’s your day going?”
“All right.” He took a bite of the bread she’d given him. “I’m off tomorrow. You want to go to that art festival in town? It’s today and tomorrow. Might be nice to walk around.”
She nodded. “I’d like that.” She hesitated to ask the next question, but she really wanted to know. “Heard anything from your attorney?”
He’d just taken a big bite of ziti. He nodded and held a finger up until he swallowed. “He’s working on it, and he sounds optimistic, but nothing concrete yet. I’m sure he doesn’t want to get my hopes up, you know?”
“Right.” She gestured at the ziti with her fork. “This really isn’t bad.”
“Told ya. How’s your day going?”
She tipped her head back and forth. “Good and less than good.”
“What’s the less than good?”
“Gave a friend some not great news about her stepdaughter. It’s a whole thing. The stepdaughter is suing her father and stepmother, mostly, I think, because the father has a lot of money. But also because she’s being motivated by her boyfriend, who knows that the father has a lot of money. They’re both wannabe influencers and trying to gain clout.”
“Yikes, that’s not good. Is the stepmom one of the women from your book club?”
“Yep. They’re such nice women. Essie, the stepmom, she rented a cabana at the pool yesterday and I really just wanted to do something to say thanks for including me. As you can imagine, she was upset by the news I had to share with her, which was all about the boyfriend, whom she knew next to nothing about.”
“Yeah, I can see how that would be upsetting.” He forked up more ziti, conspicuously ignoring his salad. “So what’s the good news?”
Maude leaned forward, wiggling her brows. “You’re never going to believe this, but I’m building a website for Blaise Monroe.”
“Cool! Oh, hey, I think I met her. Sort of. Her dog tripped me.” He laughed and wiped a little red sauce off the corner of his mouth. “My house is near hers. How did you meet her?”
“She’s in my book club,” Maude said with a slight shimmy of her shoulders, like it was no big thing that she was now friends with a supermodel.
“That is one seriously impressive book club. I’ve already met Cece and I know she’s in it. Who else?”
“So Essie, who I mentioned. She’s a retired middle school principal and her husband, Frank, he owns some big paper company. And a boat, apparently. And then there’s Paige Wheeler, who is a big influencer on TikTok.”
Ollie’s brows went up. “She’s a TikTok influencer? How old is she?”
“Why?” Maude chuckled. “You think only hot young things can be social media influencers?”
“No, no, just curious. It is a little outside of the norm, though, isn’t it?” He shook his head. “Actually, I wouldn’t know. I don’t have the time to be on social media.”
“Paige does pretty well for herself.”
“That’s cool. But doing the website for Blaise is even cooler.”
“Thanks.”
He was staring at her. Well, not exactlyather. More like…at her chest. She was about to say something when he pointed.
“Is that—that can’t be the same shirt you got at the concert.”
She grinned. He’d remembered. “It is. It’s a cherished piece of my wardrobe.”
“Wow.” He was smiling now, too. Still at her T-shirt, but she understood. “That’s such a blast from the past.” His gaze lifted to meet hers. “That was some night, huh?”
