Page 5 of The Hampton Beach Café 3
"Luca is waiting!" she called over her shoulder.
Alex caught up with her and playfully batted her shoulder. "What are we having for dinner then? Burgers?"
"Only if they can be like, two or three times the size of regular burgers but also only one layer of bread...and with extra sauce, and toasted under the grill."
He laughed. "So, pizza?"
"Exactly, you're so smart."
THREE
“So, I know this is a big decision…" Lucinda said slowly and calmly, like she was talking to a small child, "…but it has been suggested that we have a Fourth of July party, event, thing."
Frances cocked her head to one side. It was only two days from now, but they really wanted to get in as much of the tourist crowd as possible. Not that they weren't run off their feet as it was. Their regular early morning coffee and menu planning in the kitchen was well underway, and Alex was already poking around in the fridge to get started.
She noticed Lucinda open her mouth to start speaking again, but Frances could see she was right.
"Sure, sounds great," she said. "We'll get Vincent to mix up some sparkler red, white and blue milkshakes. Pity we can't open the back garden. Maybe that should be the next project."
"What!?" Lucinda exclaimed. "That's the quickest you've ever made a decision! No graphs? No spreadsheets? No risk management spiel?"
Alex burst out laughing as he emerged from rummaging in the fridge. "Dang…you got boring after high school. Remember when we used to throw dice to decide where we would go?"
Looking appalled, Lucinda's gaze snapped from Alex to Frances and back again. "Excuse me? Explain?"
Laughing as well, Frances turned in her seat to face Lucinda.
"We used to go for nighttime adventures," she explained, noticing her friend start to wiggle her eyebrows suggestively. "Shut up. Walks! We went on walks! We knew every corner of town so we started out flipping a coin, but then that got boring, just left or right options, so when we found a fancy set of dice at some renaissance fair in Boston, we assigned different things for each side. We had twenty-one options now…turn around, cross the street, turn left, go home––stuff like that. All entirely up to chance."
The look on Lucinda's face made her laugh even harder. It was hardly scandalous, but Lucinda's expression would have been at home on some trash reality television show.
"You did whatever the dice told you to, without question?"
"Yeah, until about four in the morning, then we'd have to turn back or we'd get caught. I'm still amazed we never got in trouble..."
Lining up the eggs and milk in the order he'd need them, Alex scoffed.
"My mom called your mom and told her you'd stayed over after studying," Alex said. "She trusted us."
Wait, Mrs. Lockwood had covered for her––without her even asking?
"What do you mean?" she asked.
Alex shrugged. "She knew you didn't always have the best time with your dad and your mom worked so much she was exhausted. My parents always figured, at least if we were together, we weren't out getting in trouble alone."
"No, getting in trouble together!" Lucinda laughed.
Frances shrugged. "Not really. We were more like melancholy outsiders than real troublemakers."
"Not Prom Queen?" Lucinda teased.
"Hardly," Frances responded. "That was Clarkson and whoever he decided was the flavor of the month."
"Until you," Alex said quietly. "Until now, at least."
Turning away before Frances could meet his eyes, Alex bit his lip as he measured milk into a large jug.
Mouthing the word 'sorry' at her, Lucinda stood to put her music on, but a heavy rapping on the front door drew all their attention––especially after the intruder incident.
