Hometown Love (Love on the North Shore #2)(19)
At one time she’d dreamed about Mack Ellsbury asking her out. None of those invitations had been because he wanted to repay her. “I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think either of us is dressed for going out.”
Rather than respond, he focused his gaze on her, starting at the top of her head and traveling down. Under his intense inspection, the self-consciousness she’d just begun to control returned full force, and she fought to not fidget.
“You look great to me,” he said, his voice taking on a new degree of warmth. “There’s not a speck of paint on you.” Mack stepped closer.
Unable to maintain eye contact, Jessie glanced away. “You might want to look in the mirror before you decide to go out.” Although he’d stayed clean for the most part, he did have some paint on his baseball hat as well as on his left bicep and t-shirt.
Mack glanced down at his clothes then back up. “I don’t see anything.”
“Check your left arm right about here.” Jessie showed him the spot on her own arm since touching him was out of the question. “And on your back there’s a spot, too.”
“That’s nothing. Come on. People have showed up at Masterson’s looking much worse. I’ll change my shirt and we can go.”
She had no good excuse. She’d already said she only planned to go home, and she was hungry. At the same time, though, showing up at the restaurant together might just send the rumor mill into action.
“After all your help, Jessie, dinner is the least I can do.”
Whenever someone did her a favor, she liked to repay them, so she understood Mack’s sentiments. “Okay.”
Ellen, Mr. Masterson’s granddaughter and the hostess at Masterson’s Restaurant, greeted them and whisked them to a table on the patio. The usual Saturday night dinner rush hadn’t started, but still, several of the tables inside the restaurant and on the patio were occupied. Originally a small diner opened in the 1950s by Lou Masterson, the restaurant had grown over the years. Now, the once-tiny diner could seat about two hundred people and had an additional banquet hall attached.
“I’m so hungry everything on the menu sounds good. What are you ordering?” Mack asked.
Jessie lowered the menu and looked at him. “I should go with the grilled chicken salad, but I’m leaning toward the Portsmouth pie.”
Salads made great additions to meals, but they weren’t a meal, at least not to him. “What’s that?” He’d only glanced at the menu, assuming it hadn’t changed since the last time he’d eaten dinner there. He didn’t recall anything called a Portsmouth pie.
“Look under seafood. It’s one of the new dishes they added last winter. It contains shrimp, scallops, and lobster.”
Mack raised the menu again. Perhaps it warranted a closer look. Sure enough, several new dishes filled each section of the dinner menu.
“Mack Ellsbury, I heard you moved back.”
Mack glanced up and saw Brendan Michaels at their table. A fellow classmate, they’d played on a lot of the same sports teams as kids. Even back then, Brendan had been a pain in the ass, always picking on the kids he didn’t like. Once, in high school, he’d given up sports and taken up partying. Mack hadn’t seen the guy since their last high school reunion and had no desire to catch up now.
“Hey, Brendan. Moved back last week.”
Brendan slapped him on the back and Mack caught a whiff of beer. “Well, welcome back. We should catch up sometime.” Without another word, he headed off to a corner table where his older brother and sister in-law sat.
“He hasn’t changed, has he?” Mack put his menu off to the side.
Jessie placed hers on top. “No. I think a lot of people wish he’d move somewhere else. Earlier this summer he even got into a fight with Sean.”
Sean had never been one to get into fights so Mack was curious what could have provoked him. Before he could ask about it though, their waitress appeared.
While they waited for their appetizer, they discussed the recent happenings in town. Then when the buffalo tenders, one of Mack’s favorite appetizers, arrived he pushed the plate toward Jessie so she could take one.
“So, if you weren’t here tonight, what would you be doing?” Mack grabbed the last buffalo tender from the plate between them. While Jessie had eaten one or two, he’d more or less polished off the entire appetizer himself.
“Depends.” Jessie stirred her ice tea with her straw. “A few months ago, I would’ve been up to my eyeballs with everyone’s taxes. When it’s not tax season, I sometimes visit my grandparents and dad. Occasionally I do a girls’ night out with Kelsey and Maryann. But most Saturday nights, I stay home and watch a movie.”
It didn’t escape him that she hadn’t mentioned a boyfriend or dating. Had Sean threatened every guy in town against asking Jessie out? The guy had always treated Jessie as a second sister. Rather than ask her about her romantic life, which really wasn’t any of his business, he latched onto something else she’d mentioned. “You’re an accountant?” From behind him, the waitress came back to remove the empty appetizer plates.
“I double-majored in management and accounting. Besides running the store, I take care of the accounting for Peggy Sue’s and The Hair Cottage. Then, during tax season, I do taxes for a bunch of people.”