Table of Contents
Bacon & White Cheddar Burgers with Spicy Mustard Relish
The Perfect Catch
Copyright @ 2017 Crown Media Family Networks
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereinafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-947892-09-5
For more about the movie visit:
www.hallmarkchannel.com/the-perfect-catch
Chapter 1
“Order up, Jess!”
The call from the kitchen jolted Jessica Parker from her lovely, distracting daydreams. She tore her gaze from the dessert display that she’d been lazily spinning, where the day’s featured sweets made slow, endless rounds—just like Jessica’s life had lately. She surveyed the almost empty diner and then found herself glancing outside to see an equally barren sidewalk. She sighed. There weren’t even any patrons on their way in.
It was a beautiful spring afternoon. Framed by the plate glass window, Parker Falls, Ohio didn’t exactly buzz with activity, either. Sure, it had a certain small-town charm—tree-lined streets, the spinning merry-go-round in the park, the sprinkler just outside making a perfectly timed circuit in its quest to keep the grass picturesquely green—but small-town charm wasn’t translating to the rush of business that Wesley’s Hometown Diner needed right now, and it certainly wasn’t inspiring Jess to do much more than daydream.
Jess shook herself and turned, heading across the floor of the diner. She passed her fellow waitress, Nina, coming from the kitchen with an order balanced on her arm. Jess pushed through the kitchen’s swinging door and hustled inside. She scooped two plates up from the pass-through as Cal slid them in, and then frowned at the contents with a look of confusion.
“Blue plate and a hot dog?” Jessica said with a laugh. “Didn’t I put in a grilled cheese and a wedge salad, Cal?” There were only a few occupied tables in the whole place. Had she bumbled the order?
Cal, her faithful cook, shrugged and shook his head. “Take one guess.”
Suddenly realizing what must have happened to her table’s food, Jessica turned and weaved through the diner, bemused. Despite the mere trickle of business and the myriad concerns that were piling up lately with the day-to-day operations of the diner, Jess found herself smiling as she moved through the restaurant, balancing the plates on one arm as she paused to right a tilted old photo on the wall. Just before easing up behind Nina, she flashed an even brighter smile at a customer. Jess saw Nina squinting, paused near a table of customers. The order for Jess’s table was balanced precariously on the arm of the other waitress, and Nina was using her free hand to adjust her glasses.
Jessica moved next to Nina and whispered, “Nina, hon. Wrong table.” Nina, with a huff, allowed herself to be gently turned ninety degrees toward a different table nearby, where she delivered Jess’s pilfered grilled cheese and salad.
“Here ya go,” Nina said brightly, though Jess knew that her
