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The bright neon cow appears before us, flashing to indicate we’ve arrived at our destination. I pull in beside Katherine’s corroded truck and climb out of my own truck.
“I hate that she drives around in that thing,” Eli speaks, mirroring my own thinking, yet it’s the same thought we share each time we lay eyes on that cursed truck.
“You know what she says every time I try to convince her to get a new one,” I say.
“I’m not going to outlive a new car,” we chorus in unison, mimicking Katherine’s tone as I pull open the door to the restaurant. “What’s the sense of buying a new one?”
Twangy country music filters toward us, pertly but softly. A tiny pixie-haired woman with a sprinkling of freckles grins at us from a hostess booth.
“Hello! Welcome to the Staked Steak,” she chirps. “How many are in your party?”
“We’re meeting people,” I explain.
“They’re over there.” Eli cranes his neck over the petite hostess.
“Okay then.” She steps aside, and we move through, heading toward the table where Katherine and Rose sit, head-to-head, giggling like children.
For a moment, I just want to pull out my phone and take a photo of them for posterity, the image so sweet, it needs to be captured. But Eli’s already sitting down, and they part before I’m able to grab my phone from my pocket.
It was a stupid thought, anyway.
“Finally!” Katherine exclaims with a flourish. “We were about to start eating without you!”
I glance at my watch and arch an eyebrow. “We’re early.”
Katherine winks at me. “I know. Sit down, darling.”
Grinning, I take my seat and nod at Rose, who offers me a warm smile. She looks stunning in a simple black shirt, open to reveal just a tease of cleavage… that I’m not looking at, anyway.
I snatch up my menu and stick my face in it, noting that Eli is most definitely looking at Rose’s chest. I can’t fault him for that. Her tits are impressive.
“Thank you for inviting us out tonight, Katherine, but before you go on and make a fuss out of things, I’m telling you now that I insist on paying,” Eli tells her.
Katherine’s scowl is so dark, the entire place seems to flicker.
“Now I know you were raised well, Eli, because I knew both your parents before they retired to Florida,” she barks at him. “Manners were quite important to them.”
Eli swallows his smirk, but I let mine linger on my face.
“When someone invites you to dinner, and you accept, you do not fight them for the bill. It’s rude,” Katherine concludes. “Enough on that nonsense. I won’t hear another word on the matter.”
“Your parents are in Florida, Eli? I didn’t know that,” Rose says to him, clearly trying to change the conversation.
She leans forward to show pure interest, and I commend her body language. I note her smoothness, and my smirk widens as I stare at my menu, but Eli jumps at the opportunity to avoid another tongue-lashing from Katherine.
He nods, setting his full attention on the sexy blonde in front of us.
“They left two years ago. The winters were getting really hard on Mom’s hips and Dad’s lungs. They come back occasionally to make sure I’m not messing everything up, though,” he jokes. “Even though I was raised on the ranch and brought them both into the twenty-first century.”
“They’re just protective of what they built. I know your granddaddy did the same to your daddy after he handed over the reins,” Katherine tells him kindly.
“You know full well that it’s not just that,” Eli sighs, flipping his menu over.
Rose stares back and forth between her grandmother and Eli, waiting for elaboration, which Katherine eventually provides. She keeps her eye on the menu. “Eli used to be a firefighter.”
The table goes deathly quiet, and Eli’s shoulders tense.
Most people begin gushing when they learn of Eli’s former profession, but Rose cautiously sits back as if she can sense that his retirement was not planned.
