Page 37 of A Very Oceanport Christmas
"How's it going out there?" he asked while ladling waffle dough onto the iron.
"Going fine. Livvy and Mary just came in."
"Yeah? That's nice. Say hello from me."
"Will do." I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before walking out again. On my way to the girls' table, I grabbed a set of menus for them from the counter. I'd never waited tables before, but it was starting to feel natural, although what I enjoyed the most about this job was helping David. "Here you go, girls," I said, putting the menus in front of them. "Order whatever your hearts desire. As long as it's on the menu," I added with a wink.
Mary laughed. "I used to work here, you know."
"I have a vague memory of you telling me to get the hell out."
Mary shook her head at me. "You'd been taking up that table for hours. At least now I know you were doing it just to ogle David. You should have parked your ass in his section."
I shrugged lightly. "It was a busy day, there weren't a lot of tables to choose from. David says hi, by the way."
"Tell him we say hi too," Livvy chimed in. Then she lowered her voice just a bit. "How's he doing these days?"
"He's doing fine."
"I bet he is," Mary said. "With you around. Honestly, I'm glad you guys have finally stopped dancing around each other."
I hid a grimace. Jesus Christ, had our mutual attraction been obvious to everyone in this town but us? "We're also very glad."
"I'm sure David can use the distraction around the holidays," Livvy said, half her attention on the menu instead of me.
"It must be tough," Mary agreed.
Some of my good mood drained away from me at the reminder of what David had gone through while I'd been away at college. Could I ever make up for that?
"You came back at the best time," Livvy said, lifting her eyes from the menu.
Had I really? "I should have been here all along," I said, wrapping my arms around myself. I probably shouldn't have said that. Not here and not now, but I'd never been good at hiding my thoughts. Hell, even my most-guarded secret--my feelings for David--had been painfully obvious to everyone but the target of my desires.
"Don't beat yourself up," Mary said, laying a hand on my arm. "You're here now, that's what matters okay?"
"Yeah," Livvy agreed. "At least David can focus on something else now. Maybe that was the push you two needed to finally get together," she mused, then quickly slapped her hand over her mouth. "Not that what happened to his mom wasn't awful."
I blinked at her. Was she trying to imply that the reason David was finally pursuing a relationship with me was because he needed to distract himself from the tragedy of his mom's death? Was that why he had jumped in head over heels? Why he was moving so quickly?
He'd told me it was because he'dalwaysbeen in love with me, but maybe...
Maybe that wasn't all there was to it.
Suddenly, doubt made my stomach turn.
"Are you okay?" Mary asked.
"What? Yeah. I'm great." I licked my lips.
"You seemed a little out of it for a moment," Livvy said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."
"I'm great," I insisted.
"That's good then." Her eyes flickered to my stomach. "How's the baby?"
"The baby is great too." I rested a hand on my belly. The little one had been active all night, but had finally settled in the morning, when it was time for me to get up. Of course. He was going to be a little troublemaker, I could tell. I didn't mention that to the girls, though. Instead, I glanced around the ice cream parlor. There had to be more work for me to do. "I'll be back to take your orders in a minute, okay?" I said to my cousin and her girlfriend, and then I went over to another table with a family who seemed ready to pay.
And I tried very hard not to think about whether I was using work to distract myself from thoughts of David the same way David was using me to distract himself from thoughts of his Mom. Because that wasn't what he was doing.
