Down Too Deep (Dirty Deeds, #4)(83)

“There really isn’t a story. We were both servers…”

“Who made the first move?”

“I guess I did.” I chuckled at the memory. “She, uh…This place we worked at, you had to write your name backward and upside down on these paper tablecloths when you first introduced yourself, before going over specials and shit.”

“That sounds difficult. Backward and upside down?” Jenna lifted her hand and slowly traced her finger in the air. “I don’t think I could do it.”

“It was hard, but I got good at it. Sadie was terrible. She couldn’t get it down. So I started watching out and when people got seated in her section, I’d go over there first and write her name for her.”

Jenna smiled against me. “That’s sweet. I love a good meet-cute.”

My brow furrowed. “A good what?”

“How a couple meets for the first time…a meet-cute.”

“Did you just make that up?”

“No. People use it.”

“Who are these people besides you? Did my daughter teach you this phrase? This sounds like something Marley would say when she first started forming sentences.”

“Shut up.” Jenna giggled, and I laughed with her. “So you got together and talked about owning your own restaurant?”

“Eventually it came up. I majored in business to cover my ass. I didn’t have one fucking clue what I’d end up doing. During one of our shifts together, Sadie mentioned something about owning our own place and everything we’d do better than the management we were working under. We’d throw out ideas, trying to top the other person. Closer to graduation, I thought more seriously about it. Then it became something I had to do. I wanted it.”

“Did Sadie ever work at Whitecaps?”

“Not like I do or how you’re thinking. She was a financial examiner—that was her actual job—so yeah, she did stuff on that end…I mean, Whitecaps was ours. We were in that together, but she also worked a lot on her own. There were weeks where she’d work more than I did. Until she had Marley…”

I thought about how different Sadie became after that. Going from a woman who barely spent any time at home to one who hardly ever left the house. I remembered our conversation about her wanting to cut short her maternity leave.

“You were both workaholics,” Jenna concluded.

“Can we talk about something else?” I asked. She nodded immediately. “Sorry, I just…That’s basically the whole story anyway. There’s not much else to say about it.” That wasn’t entirely a lie. At least I’d given Jenna what she’d asked for.

“What do you want to talk about?” she said.

“You.” Her one visible cheek deepened in color with her flush. “Where did you go to school? I don’t think you ever told me.”

“I probably didn’t. I went to this little community college out in Denver. You wouldn’t know it.” Her gaze fell between us to a spot on the sheet. The corner of her mouth twitched.

“What are you thinking about right now?” I asked.

“I’m not thinking about anything.”

“And I’m not borderline obsessed with your rack.”

Jenna looked into my face and smiled. When my phone began to ring, she lifted her head and peered over at the nightstand. “Do you need to get that?”

I reached over and checked the caller. “It’s just my parents. I’ll call them back,” I said, hitting ignore. “They’re probably calling to talk to Marley anyway.” I settled against the pillow again. “Go ahead. Tell me what you were thinking.”

Jenna sighed, dropping her cheek against me. “I’m not sure I want to admit this, or if it’s even something I should think without anyone else knowing about it…”

“Well, now you absolutely have to tell me,” I said, pushing my frames up my nose. “I kept the glasses on for you, didn’t I?”

“Oh, I hadn’t realized your sight was something only I cared about.”

“Jenna.” I forced a serious tone. “Why are you such a liar?”

Her mouth dropped open. “How am I a liar?”

“You wanted me wearing my glasses because you like how I look in them. Your request had jack shit to do with my vision.”

I could see fine without my glasses, as long as I wasn’t trying to read something. She knew it too. I’d shared that information with Jenna before. And I knew exactly how she looked at me when I wore them, compared to when I didn’t. The difference was subtle, but it was there.

Jenna lifted her head and fought a smile. “I care very much about whether you can see properly. Even during intimate moments.”

“I was thinking about changing frames.”

“You better not.”

“No? Are you saying you prefer these? I thought it was all about my vision…” I grinned at her then.

She huffed out a breath and rolled her eyes. “Fine…but I do care about your sight, Nathan.”

“That’s sweet.”

“Thank you. It is, isn’t it? You’re welcome for that.”

We were both laughing now.

“Damn, you’re fun,” I said, stroking her cheek.