“You didn’t tell?—”
Max cuts me off, “Tell Charlie? Of course I did. I knew she would get a kick out of it.”
“I thought you could keep your mouth shut.”
“I can. And so can Charlie. Your secrets are safe with us.”
“You really just asked her to marry you with zero lead-up?” Charlie asks.
She rests an elbow on the table and leans her cheek in her hand as she stares at me. I feel like an animal on display at the zoo.
“It was your husband’s idea.”
Charlie’s head snaps in the other direction. “You left that part out when you were telling me the story,” she accuses Max.
“I didn’t tell him to propose to her. He said he needed to get married, and I said, ‘How about Bliss?’”
Charlie turns to look at me. “I’ll admit, Max isn’t the best at explaining things sometimes. I can see how you went from point A to point B on this one.”
“Thank you.” I fold my arms across my chest. “And because of his bad advice, Bliss was completely shocked.”
“Bliss?” Sharon pipes up.
I didn’t even hear the squeaky door over our conversation. She sets a plate in front of me with two eggs, four pieces of bacon, and a pile of hash browns. She sets another plate down with biscuits and gravy.
“Are you interested in Bliss?” she whispers as though there are others in the café. It’s rarely empty at this time, but today it is.
“Well—I—it’s not a thing?—”
“She’s a nice girl. She’s tough as nails, that one. You could do a lot worse than her, you know,” Sharon explains.
“I know that. If she went out with me, I’d be batting way out of my league—that’s for damn sure.” I mean it too.
She’s smart and funny. And not nearly as available and willing as Max led me to believe. It only makes me like her more.
“I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you with her,” Sharon promises me before returning to the kitchen.
Just as the kitchen door squeaks closed, the bell above the café door chimes.
Glancing at the door and watching the newcomer walk in, I feel the bottom of my stomach drop out. I glare at Max, then give Charlie a pointed look, hoping they’ll keep their mouths shut because Hubert Jefferson, Bliss’s father, just walked in.
Max glances at the doorway, then grins slowly, and I debate about dragging him out of here by the back of his jacket.
But then there would definitely be talk. There was talk the last time we had a bit of a standoff.
I was standing under the mistletoe with Charlie.
In my defense, Charlie had told me they weren’t dating. And, yes, I knew Max was interested in her, so I thought it was fun to see his reaction when I danced with her. Max did a good job of holding in his jealousy—right up to the point when I led Charlie under the mistletoe. That ended with Max body-slamming me out of the way and kissing her himself. I still think it’s hilarious, and the small-town gossip has been that Max and I were feuding over Charlie.
If I dragged him from the café with Charlie sitting between us … there’d be no end of speculation.
Hubert closes the door behind himself and nods when he sees us. “Mind if I join you?”
“Pull up a chair, Jefferson,” Max says with a smile.
Hubert sits down, and Max nudges my boot under the table and mouths,Father-in-law, to me.
I have the restraint to not kick him in the shin—just barely. Charlie has a hand resting against her mouth, as though she’sin a thoughtful pose. I know better. She’s trying not to burst out laughing.
