“And I shouldn’t have mentioned Chicago.”
“Definitely not. Why did you?”
“I’ve thought about it. About my mom.” He reached for her hand on the counter.
She let him take it, but she didn’t squeeze back. This new information explained a lot.
“What can I do?” he asked. “Tell me what you actually need.”
Jo considered this. What she needed was money, time, and a healthy dose of luck. Blue couldn’t give her any of those things.
But there was one thing.
“Come to the launch tasting,” she said. “When I pull this off, and I will, I would like for you to be there. Because you believe in what I’m doing.”
“I’ll be there.”
“And stop suggesting I sell my diner and move to Chicago. I don’t have winter clothes.” She sighed. “And bring me more cornbread.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “The cornbread?”
“It was good, but don’t let it go to your head.”
Maybe they didn’t solve anything tonight, but they didn’t break anything either.
Jo closed her laptop, and Blue walked her to her bike. The night was warm, and the stars were out over Summer Street.
“I love you,” he said. “Even when I say the wrong thing.”
She murmured the words back to him.
“Let me take you home.”
“I need the fresh air. If anyone threatens me, I’ll run them over with my bike.”
Blue managed a smile. “Please don’t. I’d have to file a report.”
She pedaled home to Sunshine Avenue. His words spun in her mind. Sell the diner. Come to Chicago.
She unlocked her yellow door and stood in the kitchen for a moment, looking at Mamie Rose’s dishes in the cupboard. She needed to talk to her grandmother.
As for the diner, she wasn’t selling, she wasn’t leaving, and she certainly wasn’t giving up.
10
Blue watched the crew pull into the station parking lot from the break room where he was having coffee and filling out paperwork. Unfortunately, it was too late to call in sick.
“You’re up, Blumenthal.” Lieutenant Torres dropped a production schedule on the table beside his coffee. “Make the department look good.”
“I wasn’t the only one on that calendar. Isn’t there someone else who could do this?”
“So noted. They’re setting up in the lot, so go introduce yourself.”
He hadn’t finished his coffee, so Blue took his cup with him. It was a new one Jo had given him before their relationship blew up.
He walked outside to meet the team he would spend the day with. The producer was a fast-talking woman named Danice who shook Blue’s hand, looked him over, and said, “This will be great. You look even better in person, but you need some makeup.”
“No, I don’t.”
