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The ladies nodded. Charlene figured it was better to keep people wanting more than to have them get sick of it. There was a fine line there, and sometimes it was hard to see the boundary.
“We’re here to have some of whatever you made today, and we’re hoping you would join us for a bit because we had something we wanted to ask you.”
“Okay?” Peyton said, giving Charlene an uncertain look, like she couldn’t imagine what Charlene would want her to sit down and talk about.
“Don’t worry. We’re not going to ask you to do anything hard. I actually think you’re going to thank us.” Charlene figured she’d be thanking her on her wedding day, but she might even be thanking her today, because they had something that she was pretty sure Peyton was not going to be able to refuse, no matter how much she didn’t like to get out of her shop.
“Sounds good. I have a tater tot casserole, and I’ll bring you all a piece. If no one else comes in, I’ll sit with you for a bit too.”
If Charlene thought she could get away with it, she’d go over and lock the door. But that would be pretty obvious. And one thing she didn’t want to be was obvious.
The ladies had removed their coats and hung them on the hooks beside the booth while Charlene slipped out of hers.
As she turned to hang it up, she saw Owen putting his coat on and slipping unobtrusively outside.
Maybe she wouldn’t have to worry about locking the door. Maybe Owen was going to post himself as their guard.
Charlene smiled to herself. That kid had a good head on his shoulders. Although, her smile slipped a little as she figured that he also was pretty desperate to have a father.
Well, she was going to do her best for him.
The ladies had barely gotten settled in their booth when Peyton came back, holding a tray with four plates and four cups of coffee.
The coffee was certainly welcome on a morning like this morning, and while the tater tot casserole would not meet with her doctor’s approval, it smelled heavenly, and Charlene’s mouth started to water.
Maybe if her plans came to fruition, Peyton would end up living thirty minutes from Sweet Water, and she might close her bakery and bookstore.
So she would enjoy the tater tot casserole today. It might not be good for her heart, but her taste buds would not be complaining.
They passed around the plates and coffee, and Peyton set some creamer on the table before putting the tray on the counter and sliding a chair from one of the tables over to the end of the booth.
“You ought to start serving some of that fancy coffee you get in the big city,” Vicki said as she stirred half a cup of sugar, more or less, Charlene judged, into her coffee.
“You should charge more for people who measure their sugar with a feed scoop,” Charlene mumbled.
Vicki pretty much ignored her as she grabbed the creamer, pouring out almost half of her coffee onto her saucer and filling the rest up with creamer.
“I’m sorry,” Peyton said as she watched Vicki doing surgery on her drink. “I forgot you don’t drink coffee. I’ll try to remember to serve you tea next time. Although, I could bring it now if you’d like?”
“Don’t worry about it. I almost have this stuff edible,” Vicki said as she stirred what looked like very dark milk in her mug.
Charlene faced the door, and she could see Owen outside, stomping his feet on the sidewalk. It wasn’t the bitter cold of mid-January, but she figured they’d better get this conversation moving.
“While we have your attention, we had something we wanted to talk to you about,” she began, thinking that was a pretty good opening.
“So you said,” Peyton replied, and Charlene had an inkling that maybe Peyton wasn’t quite as naïve as what she had hoped she was. Maybe she’d been talking to some of the other people in town and knew that sometimes the Piece Makers didn’t just make quilts.
Charlene slapped on her most charming smile and tried to stir her coffee with a complete air of innocence. “We know you love books.”
“I do,” Peyton said easily, glancing over at the tall bookshelves, some filled to the brim and running over with books stacked on top and, in a few places, stacked on the floor.
“And something that someone who loves books can never resist is more books,” Kathy said, almost as though she were reading it from a teleprompter.
Charlene loved her, but she was almost as bad as Teresa when it came to needing to be a little bit devious.
Nothing unethical, just...coloring the world with her own markers, instead of using the crayons they’d been handed.
That’s how Charlene liked to think about it.
