The Birthday List(43)

“Looking forward to it.” Finn smiled. “It was nice to see you again.”

“You too.” Cole looked to Kali and a sleeping Max. “Bye, kids.”

Kali ran over and hugged his knees. “Bye, Cole!”

With one last wave good-bye, Cole and I turned and crunched along the gravel toward where we’d parked our vehicles.

“Thanks again for going with me. It was fun.”

“You’re welcome.”

We reached my car and I stopped by the trunk. “So, what’s next?”

“How about dinner?”

I hesitated. When we were spending time together for the list, I had an excuse to see Cole. But dinner? The way he’d asked seemed much more like a date. But before I could think of a dodge, Cole spoke up first.

“It’s just dinner, Poppy.”

Just dinner. He was right. I was making more of dinner than it needed to be. “Sure. Any night next week you’re free, just let me know. We can either eat at the restaurant or go somewhere else.”

He grinned. “Not a lot of restaurants can compare to yours. In fact, I’ve pretty much lost my appetite for anything not served in a jar.”

I smiled. “Then I’ll see you next week.”

“It’s a date.”

Just like the last time he’d said those three words, my heart jumped.

And maybe one day, the stitch of guilt that came with it would go away.




“Hey!” I greeted Cole as he came striding into the restaurant.

It had been three weeks since the carnival, and Cole had become my favorite dinner companion. If we weren’t eating together at the restaurant, he’d meet me at Brad and Mia’s after my ukulele lessons.

Three weeks, and there had been only a handful of times when we’d had dinner apart.

The way my breath hitched when he smiled didn’t scare me anymore. I enjoyed the tingles he could conjure with the slightest touch. And I’d started to crave the way he sent my heart into overdrive with a heated stare from those green eyes.

It was a rush being around Cole. A rush I was learning to enjoy.

“You’re here early.” Not that I was unhappy to see his handsome face, but it was hours before our normal seven o’clock dinnertime.

“Change of plans.”

My smile fell at the frown on his face. “Uh-oh. Is everything okay?” I tensed, hoping he wasn’t here to deliver bad news about Jamie’s case.

“Remember I told you last week that I found a drive-in movie theater?”

I breathed a sigh of relief that he was here about the list, something he’d become nearly as dedicated to finishing as I was. “Yeah. Can you not go next weekend? Do you want to reschedule?”

“Something like that. We’re going now.”

“Now? I can’t go now.” I was needed at the restaurant.

“It’s now or never. I checked their schedule today, just to make sure we were on track for next weekend, and saw on their website that they’re closing early for the summer. I guess there was some sort of emergency in their family and they aren’t showing anything until next summer. Tonight’s their last night.”

“What? No!” The drive-in theater that he had found was the only one in the state, three hours from Bozeman in a small town called Lewistown. If we couldn’t make it to a movie there, then finishing that item on Jamie’s list was going to get a whole lot harder.

“We need to leave,” he checked his watch, “in ten minutes.”

“Shit.” I threw my hands in the air. “I can’t leave in ten minutes. Molly has the kids tonight and I’m the one closing.”

“What about Helen?” Cole jerked his chin to the part-time college student Molly had hired a couple weeks ago. Helen was clearing a table and blushed when she spotted Cole looking her way.

“She’s never closed by herself before.”

“Do you think she can do it?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. I guess so.” I’d trained her to close but most nights either Molly or I were here to help just in case.

“Then let her. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Uh, my restaurant could burn down.”

He grinned. “That’s a risk you’re going to have to take if we’re going to make the previews.”

I sighed, weighing my options: trust my employee, or let Jamie down.

It wasn’t much of a choice.

“Okay, we’ll go. But I need a few minutes to walk her through it all.”

Ten minutes later, Helen was thrilled to be running the show tonight and I’d called in the other part-time worker just in case. The two of them should be able to handle the Friday night dinner rush, and I just hoped that I’d made enough food to last until tomorrow morning.

Walking out of the kitchen, I slung my purse over my shoulder and joined Cole by the counter. He was talking to a man who must have come in while I was in the back.

Not wanting to interrupt, I just smiled, but the stranger pulled me into their conversation.

“Hi.” He held out his hand but his eyes went to my chest. “How do you know Cole?”

Before I could answer, Cole stepped in. “This is Poppy Maysen, my girlfriend. She owns this place.”