Page 41 of Long Story Short

Josie opens her eyes and tips her chin down to look at the server. He stares at Josie with a wide grin, sending a pang of jealousy through me, even though I know it’s completely unwarranted.

“I’d love a sparkling water,” she answers, giving him a warm smile that doesn’t help the irrational jealousy I feel.

“Two of those,” I say, clipped, grabbing the menu that was placed in front of me earlier and focusing on it to distract myself from the way the server admires Josie.

Not that I blame him. I was just admiring her myself before he walked over.

“Can I also have an orange juice?” Josie asks.

“My pleasure,” the server responds.

A strangled sound leaves my throat, but I continue to look at the menu like it’s the most interesting thing in the world.

“I’ll be back with your drinks and give you time to look over the menu.”

I don’t respond as I look over the brunch options. My stomach growls as I try to decide what I even want. I’m so hungry that anything sounds good right now.

“Is the menu really that interesting?” Josie asks with a teasing tone to her voice.

I rip my gaze from it, happy to find that the server is nowhere in sight anymore, and I focus on Josie. “There’s just a lot to choose from,” I offer.

Josie gives me a knowing smile as she picks up her own menu. “Mm-hmm. What sounds good, then?”

“You” pops into my mind, but I bite my tongue, knowing that isn’t the appropriate thing to say right now.

My mind blanks over what I even read on the menu. I was too focused on the way the server was looking at Josie that I didn’t even register my options. The chef changes it daily, so anything could be on there. To buy myself time, I let my lips spread into a casual smile. “You go first. Tell me what sounds good.”

TWENTY-THREE

JOSIE

My gaze drifts over the menu as I try to decide what I want for breakfast. To be honest, all of it sounds delicious. I stopped by Pembroke the other day when I first got to the Hamptons, just to check it out, but I didn’t eat. After having the chocolate cake that Tyson brought over, I’m realizing that maybe I need to make a point to eat at Pembroke more often.

“It all sounds so good,” I answer Tyson, almost forgetting he asked a question in the first place. “I’ve never had truffle scrambled eggs before, but now I’m really considering trying them. Or a lemon meringue Belgian waffle? That sounds incredible.”

“I agree with you there.”

I keep looking over the menu, adding more to my list of choices that sound amazing. “How are we going to decide?” I ask as my stomach lets out a loud growl. I can’t help it. Reading over all the options is making me hungrier by the second. I don’t even know if I want something sweet or something more savory. Am I in the mood for a breakfast food or lunch? With it being brunch time, I can have either option, and that’s a dangerous amount of freedom I’ve been given.

Tyson takes so long to answer me that I look up from the menu to find his gaze already on me. He sets his menu down as a mischievous grin grows. “What if we order everything?”

I try not to gawk. “We can’t order everything. That’s way too much food.”

He lifts a shoulder. “You’d be surprised how much food I can put down. I’m absolutely starving, and I can’t decide what I want.”

I bite back a smile as I tug my bottom lip between my teeth. I can’t decide either, but I don’t know if it’s necessary to order everything from the menu. “Tyson, we can’t order the entire menu.”

“We’ll only order off the Chef’s Menu. That’s much smaller, and it gives us the chance to try everything.”

I look over my shoulder for a moment, wondering if it’d be weird for us to order it all. The Chef’s Menu is limited…

When I look back at Tyson, I find the grin still on his face as he stares at me with a lifted brow. “I can already tell you’re going to say yes.”

I shake my head. “What is up with you? You ordered way too many coffees this morning just to find one I liked. Now you want to order far more food than we can eat just because I was struggling to decide. You know you don’t have to do all this, right?”

He nods. “I know that.”

My pulse spikes at the way he looks at me. His smile falters for a moment, and it looks like there’s more he wants to say, but he keeps it to himself.