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More silence.
Then, she screams at the top of her lungs. “Livvy!”
Her banshee-like wail startles the shit out of me, that’s how unexpected it was. Cripes, how does Livvy work with her?
“What is it, Jewel?” Livvy asks as she runs from the back of the store. She’s soaked, almost from head to toe, and is wiping her hands on her smock.
“Wes, hi,” she says, a shy smile growing across her face.
There’s my beautiful girl.
Shit. Did I say that out loud?
“Livvy, we got good news from our attorney. Come by later tonight and we’ll celebrate.”
She clasps her hands together and jumps up and down in her rubber boots. “No way, that’s incredible. Is he getting the temporary injunction?”
“It looks like it. Keep in mind it’s not a done deal, but we’ll take whatever victory we can get, right?”
She closes her fists and squeezes her eyes, and shimmies like she won the damn lottery or something. “I don’t care. It’s a step in the right direction.”
From the back of the shop, I hear a dog whining.
“Oh crap. I’m grooming someone’s pup. Gotta go,” she says, and runs to the back of the store, leaving wet footprints behind her.
I turn back to Jewel. I feel like I need to say something to her but I come up empty.
“She’s gonna be a while,” she says, nodding toward the back of the shop. “She’s gotta do the anal glands yet.”
I’m pretty sure that’s my signal to go.
30
WESTON
I was planningfor a low-key after-hours celebration for Livvy, the guys, and me, but to be honest, we just don’t do low-key. Top-shelf liquor and gourmet vegetarian hors d’oeuvres are how we roll. And when Livvy walks in, her dog grooming duds long gone, she looks damn good in a swingy little red dress and high heels. It’s not that she isn’t attractive all the time, but tonight, seeing her all cleaned up after a dirty day in the shop, she’s positively glowing, like she showered in something special, something that promises the ethereal glow I see before me right now.
She walks into EastSide, and the guys greet her warmly, taking turns kissing her and taking her by the hand to the kitchen, which she’s never seen. She waves to me where I stand on the other side of the room, and I watch her face light up under the attention of the guys.
I’ll admit my feelings for this woman are more than just physical, even if that’s how they started. I respect her. She’s scrappy as hell, always ready to put up a fight for what she believes in.
When the rest of the restaurant staff is gone, we open a bottle of champagne and hold our glasses up for a toast right there in the freshly-cleaned kitchen.
“To Livvy. We would have made no progress if not for you,” Owen says.
She does an exaggerated curtsey. “Yeah, I’m just the rainmaker here, aren’t I?”
Enzo shrugs one shoulder. “Don’t sell yourself short, beautiful. We wouldn’t be where we are without your work.”
“I have to say, Jewel gets the credit. She’s the one who got the ball rolling with the developer’s violations. Ya know?”
“Cheers to Jewel. We owe her a bottle of champagne, for sure,” I say.
I hope I’m not the one who has to deliver it to her. Just saying.
We gather our kitchen stools around one of the stainless-steel prep tables, and sample the goodies Enzo’s team made us, including truffled custard in egg shells, cheese puffs with black garlic and fennel pollen, and compressed watermelon and tomato terrine.
“I guess you guys never eat normal appetizers, like pigs in a blanket? Chips ‘n dip?” Livvy asks.
