Page 30 of A Better Place

CHAPTER SIX

James

“So, what looks good?” I ask, hoping to break a little bit of the tension. I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable around me. I was honest with her when I said I was willing to be just friends. Even though I definitely wanted her to consider more, I just want the chance to get to know her. To figure out why she has invaded my every waking and sleeping thought since the moment I met her.

“Pizza. Definitely. That okay with you, Mom?”

“Hmmm?”

“Pizza. Sound good? Or do you want pasta?”

Carly smiles at her son. “No, bud. Pizza is good. It smells incredible in here, right?”

“It does.”

She turns her eyes to me and I shift in my seat, wondering if she felt me staring at her. She’s so beautiful I can’t help not to. “How did you know about this place? I’ve never heard of it before, and we’ve lived here for a few years now.”

“The owner, Stephan, called me to help salvage this place. It was in bad shape when I first visited. That was two years ago.”

“But, still no one knows about it?” Jack asks.

“Well, it’s still building, but it’s become really popular. Just not local. Which is different. Usually the locals are who flood the doors of small restaurants like this, knowing about them, but in this case, it seems that he’s attracted people from the city,” I tell them, motioning to the full restaurant.

“That’s pretty amazing,” Carly says, finally starting to seem more relaxed.

“It is.”

“You must be good at what you do.” Jack’s eyes take everything in before they land back on me. “Look at this place. It’s incredible.”

I shrug. His praise humbles me, even though he’s not the only one who tells me. “Nah, I just give them the tools. It’s up to the owners to do the hard work.”

“But still. How did you get into it?”

I lean forward, my forearms resting on the table. Jack does the same while Carly sits back in her chair, hands folded on her lap. “Well, my dream was always to own my own restaurant. I thought I was on my way to that, but my ex-wife had other plans. When my daughter, Lily, was just three years old, Nicole left a note. The only time I’ve heard from her since was when I received divorce papers through certified mail.”

“So, she just… left? You and your daughter?” Carly asks, straightening in her seat.

“Yup. It’s just been me and my Lily Bug for almost twenty years now.”

“Why couldn’t you open a restaurant then?” Jack asks.

“It takes a lot of time to own your own place, bud. Time I didn’t want to take away from raising her. I only chose restaurants to help makeover that were either close enough that I could visit them during the day or bring her with me in the evening. And if they were too far away, I made sure to visit only when I wouldn’t have to leave her or pull her out of school.” Putting my own dreams on the side burner never bothered me. I would have given up anything for Lily.

“Wow. That’s kind of incredible,” Carly says.

“What do you mean?”

“Not many men are willing to give up everything for their… well, for anything,” she says as a shadow seems to cross over her face.

“I don’t know about that. Good men are willing to set aside their selfish ambitions if it means their loved ones are happy. At least, that’s how I was raised.”

She narrows her eyes at whatever she’s staring at in the distance and rolls her lips together. “I suppose that’s true,” she replies, her voice soft.

“It is,” Jack says to her. “It’s very true, Mom.”

The look that passes between the two of them tells me that whatever happened in her past had everything to do with her ex-husband. I just hope it isn’t something that is so damaging that she can never recover from it.

Our waiter appears to take our order, but we’ve been so busy chatting that we haven’t even discussed what kind of pizza to order. Since I am possibly the least picky eater on the planet, I ask Jack to do it for us, reassured that he will know what his mom likes. Plus, I really want to see what his tastes lean to. Was he a typical sixteen-year-old boy who would order something simple like pepperoni? Or did he have more unique tastes?

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