Page 78 of You Were Invited
Ellie shoved Julian towards the booth. He made to sit in the empty side of the booth, but Ellie beat him to it; she didn’t scoot over an inch.
“Sorry.” Ellie grinned, tucking a hand under her chin. “Don’t want to keep turning my head to talk to both of you... It’s been a long day.”
“Yeah…” Julian agreed, tight-jawed.
In disbelief, Annie numbly took the towel that Ellie handed her over the table. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “T-thank you.”
“Sit, hun,” Ellie chirped, her tone light despite the crystal-clear command running underneath. “You’ve been on your feet all day.”
Julian looked down at the table as he muttered to Annie, “May I?”
Annie nodded and scooted over. She thought her heart was going to stop as Julian’s weight sunk into the seat beside her.
twenty-nine
Now I know which girl Teagan was talking about...
Hackles raised, Julian sat next to Annie, who scooted as close to the wall as she could. She did not touch him as she dabbed at her wet clothes with a towel. Her hands shook, but he pretended not to notice.
“Annie saw our commercial.” Ellie smiled at the both of them, hands clasped on the table.
“Yep, that I did.” Annie’s voice was thin, almost brittle. Her eyes were on the tabletop.
“Hmm,” Julian grunted, arms crossed over his chest as he sat back in the booth. He mad-dogged Ellie. He wasn’t sure how to feel about someone who’d rejected him, but he certainly wasn’t love-struck at that moment.
Ellie snickered and said to Annie, “I think he’s a little upset that I’m forcing him to take a break.”
“Is that right? It is pretty busy...”
“You know you have a hard worker when they fight you in order to keep working.”
“There’s more chores in the back,” he muttered, shifting in his seat. “Dishes.”
Ellie kicked him in the shin. “They can wait.”
He winced and glared, but she only smiled and flashed her eyes at Annie, whose attention had drifted to the window overlooking the parking lot.
Fine, I’ll play along. Just long enough to prove there’s nothing left to save.
He cleared his throat. “I’m just glad to see lots of smiling faces.”
“It’s beautiful,” Annie said, “but I didn’t expect it to be anything less than that.”
Ellie smiled, hand on her cheek. “This turnout was phenomenal.”
Julian tried to stop the unease in his gut from tying his stomach into knots. It wasn’t working.Why didn’t Annie tell me she was coming tonight?
Ellie adjusted in her seat and pulled out her phone.
“I want a photo for social media. Gotta show ‘em who did all the hard work.”
Annie scooted to the side.
“Nah-ah! C’mon, scoot in.”
Annie finally looked up at Julian, albeit from the corner of her eye. She was a captive in the booth and couldn’t very well run away.
“Put your arm around her like you’re not afraid of her.”
