Page 2 of The Beachside Cafe 6
All of this was approved of by Cameron, Jaymee’s now-fiancé. Not only was Carmine more than a decade older than Jaymee, he was a little old Italian man who wouldn’t hurt a hair of Jaymee’s head. And he was there if Jaymee got lonely in that huge house she still owned.
She was planning on getting out of that house. But for now, she was content to let Carmine stay in the adjoining apartment. When the time came, she was prepared to put it on the market.
Jaymee and Bob ended up talking more about the business of real estate and how difficult it was to start up a successful business. Bob was impressed with her success and told her so.
“The economy keeps fluctuating from one direction to the next. My brain is a little tired from trying to keep up,” Bob said, lifting a beer bottle to his mouth and taking a sip. “Don’t you think?”
“Absolutely. I don’t think I would be as successful as I am if I hadn’t let other people advise me,” Jaymee replied. “I don’t think people should think they know everything about business. There are so many different aspects of it. I mean, if I didn’t have an accountant, I know for a fact I wouldn’t be as successful. My books would be a complete mess. I just don’t have a mind like that. I’m better at solving things. Puzzles, riddles, things like that. I didn’t realize that until recently though. After Doug’s passing, as a matter of fact. I mean, I didn’t know he was gone at that time, when I realized it. But hewasgone.” She stopped, realizing she was rambling. She would end up telling him the whole story if she wasn’t careful.
“So what are you doing now besides running the café?” he asked.
“My partner and I, I’m engaged to him and I’ve joined his private investigation company.”
Bob’s eyebrows shot up. “So you’re a private investigator now?”
Jaymee grinned. “Yes. He already was. We worked together to solve the situation with Doug. So I joined his company.”
“The situation with Doug?”
Jaymee shook her head.
“You don’t want to tell that story again, do you, Jaymee?”
Jaymee turned her eyes to see Cameron had come in, flashing a smile at her that made her heart beat harder.
TWO
Cameron was the one who ended up telling Bob the story of how Doug went missing, they found some mysterious vials of liquid, followed clues and eventually discovered who it was that had killed the man, where he was and what was going on at the Intersectional Dynamics Laboratories.
Bob hailed a taxi to get back to his hotel and told them he would take a taxi back after he had some rest and sobered up a bit.
After he left, Jaymee and Cameron went outside together to enjoy the evening sunset together.
The seats began to fill up as the dinner crowd began to show. Jaymee and Cameron stayed at their little table in the corner outside on the veranda. Every now and then Carmine would check on them to see if they needed anything.
But Jaymee didn’t need any alcohol or food or anything else, really. What she wanted was seated right across from her. She got a pleasant thrill from watching his face when he wasn’t looking at her. His high cheek bones, blue eyes, sculpted chin. He could be a movie star, hands down. A leading man. He had classic good looks.
Jaymee was glad he was the kind of man that didn’t know that. At least, he didn’t seem to have an ego bigger than anyone else’s, even though he could have. He was a wealthy man, money that actually belonged to his family and was in turn passed to him upon the death of grandparents and other rich relatives.
Cameron was handsome, wealthy, and strong at heart. He had a compassionate heart and an intelligent mind. How Jaymee was fortunate enough to be marrying him was beyond her. It had to be divine intervention. She’d spent 22 years married to a man who barely knew she was alive. And now she had someone as magnificent as Cameron.
Jaymee was blessed, beyond a doubt.
“So I’ve been thinking,” Cameron said, staring down at the cocktail in one hand. “We should have our wedding out here on this deck.”
Jaymee looked around, quietly assessing his suggestion in her mind. “Well, I guess we could. How many people are we going to have though?”
“I did tell you my grandmother is going to make you a wedding dress, right?” Cameron pulled his phone from his back pocket and touched the screen. “Let me pull up the picture she sent me.”
Jaymee was holding her breath on that one. She had already chosen her wedding dress. She was fairly sure Cameron already knew that. They had narrowed down almost everything for the ceremony and reception except a few things – one of them being the guest list and location. Most people might have done those right away. But it seemed to Jaymee they agreed on nearly everything, so she wasn’t worried about getting it all in place by their wedding date.
He finally turned his phone around and showed her the picture of the dress. It was the most hideous thing Jaymee had ever seen. Lots of bows, lace in the wrong places, it looked very uncomfortable. She sucked in her breath and her eyes widened instinctively. There was no way she could have kept herself from having that reaction.
“Oh… oh my…” she breathed.
Cameron’s smile was huge. He turned the phone back and looked at the picture. “I know. Isn’t it amazing? She’s working her fingers to the bone on it.”
Jaymee felt a little sick to her stomach. “Oh, Cameron, that… is so nice of her.” She thought maybe she might cry. How was she going to get out of this one? She didn’t want to hurt Cameron’s grandmother. But there was no way she was going to wear that dress.
