Page 47 of Pierced Pages
The server placed a mimosa in front of each of them, then took their orders. Crab cake eggs Benedict for Jen and one egg over easy with bacon and sweet potato hash for Morgan.
“Excellent impromptu decision to come here,” Jen said before taking a sip of her mimosa.
“My wild ideas turn out good, admit it.”
“Oh, you won’t hear any complaints from me.”
Morgan smiled and leaned back in her chair, taking in the giant live oak shadowing the patio. Oakview wasn’t a small town, but it wasn’t exactly a big city either. It had a few nice restaurants, but this was the only place in a twenty-mile radius that served brunch.
“We still going back to my place after this?” Morgan asked. “Or do you have stuff to do?”
“I just have to swing by to get groceries on the way home, but other than that, I’m good for the afternoon.” Jen furrowed her brow. “How’s Reginald so far?”
Morgan had taken him to the emergency vet the evening before after he suddenly started limping. The good news was that nothing was broken, and he didn’t have any hiddenpuncture wounds. The bad news, other than the hefty bill for X-rays, was that he needed to be kept still for at least a few days, then monitored after that. And since you couldn’t explain to a cat that they weren’t allowed to jump on counters and dressers, he needed to be confined to a large wire crate temporarily.
Needless to say, he was not pleased with that care plan.
“About as well as you can imagine. Still limping around in the crate but no worse. I, on the other hand, might suffer some damage from all the glaring.”
“Can he come out of there at all? Auntie Jen wants to give him some love.”
“Probably not yet. Another day or two, and he can have supervised outings just in my bedroom.”
“Poor guy,” Jen said. “I’ll swing by to visit early in the week sometime.”
“He’ll appreciate that, I’m sure.”
“Next up on the brunch agenda… how’s the wedding prep going? Got any more bridesmaid or sisterly obligations that have popped up?”
Morgan took a sip of her mimosa and thought back to what she’d already told Jen about. She’d been so busy with that and Reginald and just life stuff that she couldn’t remember what they’d already talked about.
Except for the one glaring event she’d left out so far.
“I have to pick up my dress tomorrow morning,” she said. “And yes, I forgot and am late. And no, Felicia is not happy about that.”
Jen shrugged. “It’ll fit perfectly, I’m sure.”
Jen’s eternal optimism was a massive selling point in their friendship. She soothed Morgan’s skeptical edges, shaped by a lifetime of bumbling through things—like forgetting to pick up her dress—and screwing them up.
“But other than that, I’m free of duties until the rehearsal and dinner Friday. Not looking forward to that.”
“Is that somehow worse than the wedding itself?”
Morgan thought for a second and took another sip of her mimosa, savoring the cold orange juice while she pondered that question. Or at least pretended to ponder. She knew the answer already.
“They’re both equally insufferable.”
Jen grinned. “But you’ll have company for the wedding.”
“Sure,” she said. “We haven’t talked much since last weekend.”
It wasn’t entirely a lie. They hadn’t talked much at the park. Morgan had made sure she’d made a quick entrance and exit.
What she hadn’t made sure of was telling Jen about it.
“You mean since the sort-of-kiss.”
“Yes, since that,” Morgan said, trying to squash the butterflies bouncing around at just the mention of it. “She texted me mid-week to thank me for the dress. Again.”
