Page 106 of The Nanny and the Hothead
And holy blast from the not-so-distant past!
Her eyes went wide as she read the names at the top of the tickets.
Something Bryan
Cliff
Forget about slowing down and taking a breather! Her pulse skyrocketed as she stared at the handwriting, and the adrenaline came back with a vengeance. Her mouth grew dry—because, of course, it would at this very moment.
Do not freak out! Do not freak out!
She found her water bottle and chugged a few sips before returning to the tickets.
Something Bryancould mean anything. And there had to be hundreds, perhaps even thousands of Cliffs in the Denver Metro Area.
“It is not your old idiot boss. It is not the douche bag you dated,” she murmured.
What were the chances?
Okay! Go time!
Get the orders out, then get on with the day.
She leaned out the order window. “Order up for Something Bryan and Cliff,” she called, in a singsong voice, praying two strangers would amble up to the window. It could be two kindly gentlemen who raised chickens and planted trees.
She scanned the square. There were a few people left, but nobody looked her way. A thread of relief wove its way through her pounding heart. The customers could have left. The sandwiches were free. It wasn’t like they were stiffing anyone. Maybe thisSomething BryanandCliffhad to get back to work.
“That’s me!” called a voice she recognized. A voice that had droned on about BASE jumping, and Cliff, the douche bag, ambled up to the window, followed by…
Oh no!
“My name isSuttonBryan, notSomethingBryan” her jerk of an old boss corrected in a grating tone as he joined Cliff at the window.
Her heart stopped beating. Okay, it didn’t actually stop. But if it continued beating at this accelerated pace, there was a good chance she’d pass out.
Crap! Crap! Crap!
How could she have missed them?
Maybe it wasn’t that hard.
She’d been immersed in her work. It wasn’t like she was expecting to run into the last two people she ever wanted to see on this earth. The pair must have been waiting just out of her view alongside the truck, a little past the order window. But one thing was undeniably true. This was some next-level crazy karma stuff. Libby, when she was back to her Zen-master self, would be all over this. But that didn’t help her now.
Think! Think! Think!
She took another swig of water. Maybe they hadn’t seen her. She’d been photographing Mitch across the square. There had to be a way that she could still get out of this without them recognizing her.
“Excuse me? But you got my name wrong,” Sutton Bryan snarled, banging on the ledge of the order window.
She gasped at the sound. Whipping around, her jaw dropped as she drank in Sutton Bryan’s bulgy-eyed bullfrog expression. Then she slid her gaze to the left.
Could a person die of mortification?
Of all the Cliffs that must live in Denver, why did this Cliff have to be here, smiling like an idiot next to her snarling ex-boss?
What she wouldn’t do for a real cliff! She’d happily fling herself off one of those than deal with these two.
“Charlotte, is that you?” Cliff asked, shielding his eyes to get a better look, even though the jerk was standing in the shade.
