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The rest of the customers trickled out of the restaurant. Finally, the last ones left, and the new hostess locked the front door. The servers and bussers got busy on their side work, and in the kitchen, Nico heard the cooks cleaning up, as well.
After the waitstaff finished their side work, they drifted over to the bar and Brady began to pour their drinks. He knew what everyone wanted, and Nico could see the crowd at the bar visibly relax as they sipped their drinks.
A couple of the cooks came out and asked for beers, and Nico stood off to the side with his ginger ale. After a few moments, he headed to the kitchen. Only Delia and Julia were there, and Delia was getting ready to head out.
“See you tomorrow,” she called to Julia, then waved at Nico as she slipped out the back door.
Finally, he and Julia were alone in the kitchen.
He related the story about Dawson hitting on Riley, and she shook her head. “Why am I not surprised?”
“I was,” Nico admitted. “Dawson recognized me from Zoe’s party. At the very least, you’d think he’d be afraid someone would tell Zoe. Which might mean he wouldn’t be invited to her parties.”
She shrugged. “Guess he doesn’t care. I think Zoe made it pretty clear she wasn’t interested in working with him.”
She leaned against the pizza counter, eating a slice of pizza. A smear of tomato sauce clung to the corner of her mouth, and Nico wanted to lick it off. Instead, he forced himself to back up a step, keeping Julia out of reach. “Another interesting thing happened with Dawson tonight,” he told her.
“Tell me,” she said, licking the sauce off her fingers.
Nico swallowed. “Please stop that, Julia,” he said quietly.
“Stop what?” she asked, frowning.
“Licking your fingers,” he said, his voice a low growl.
Holding his gaze, she stuck her thumb into her mouth, sucked for a moment, then pulled it out with a pop. “You don’t like me doing that?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. But her eyes twinkled as she watched him.
“You know damn well that I like it too much. Knock it off.” He swallowed. “I have some things to tell you about Dawson.”
The twinkle in her eyes disappeared instantly. “What? What happened?”
“He’s probably just a crank, but it pissed me off,” Nico said. He recounted how the toddler had spilled his apple juice. “Dawson didn’t even notice. He was looking at his phone while he walked.”
Remembering how Dawson had flailed after he slipped in the juice, Nico smiled. “I hurried over and managed to grab his shirt. It came out of his jeans, but he didn’t fall.” He shook his head. “He had an odd birthmark on his back.”
Julia tilted her head at him. “What do you mean?”
“It was really big. Purple. All the way across his lower back. He looked furious after I pulled his shirt out. Tucked it in immediately. Was kind of nasty to the kid’s parents, too.”
He didn’t realize until he’d stopped talking that Julia had frozen with a piece of pizza halfway to her mouth. She stared at him, wide-eyed. Puzzled.
Slowly she set the pizza back on the cardboard circle. “Tell me exactly where that port wine stain was.”
“Is that what it’s called?” Nico said. “A birthmark that color?”
She nodded slowly. “Yeah.”
“Dawson’s was at the small of his back,” Nico said, touching the spot on his own back. “From one side to the other.”
Julia sucked in a breath. “Wow. That’s such a coincidence,” she whispered. “I know what they’re called because my brother Jeff had a birthmark like the one you described.” She swallowed and tucked her hands around her waist. “I made fun of it once. I was probably six or seven years old. He hurt me really bad that time.”
