cheek. “Seriously, you’ve made him one happy camper, which makes those of us who love the guy happy, too.” Moving with her typical quickness, she started for the door of Colbys, where the party had been held. “And we’re all hoping you can do something about his wardrobe. He wears the ugliest shirts any of us have ever seen!” Still smiling, she pushed through the door into the evening.
The moment her future sister-in-law was gone, Jane plopped down onto the nearest chair and covered a yawn with her hand. “Getting married is exhausting.”
Hayley started gathering up the glasses scattered around on the tables. “It’s not the getting married part that’s exhausting. It’s the wedding itself and all of the busyness leading up to it.” She shook her head when Jane started to push to her feet. “No, no, no, my friend. The only reason I agreed to have your bachelorette party here was because you promised to pretend you didn’t own the place and agreed to let your employees be guests, not workers. You’re not helping me clean up.”
Jane collapsed back into her chair. “I could overrule you, you know. I am the bride as well as the owner of this establishment.”
“You could.” Hayley stacked the glasses on a tray and carefully carried them behind the bar, rattling them only a little as she went. “But why? This is one time in your life when you can let your friends do things for you. So let us.”
“There is no us,” Jane pointed out. “There’s only you, since you refused all the people who offered to hang around and help clean up.”
Hayley set down the tray and flipped off the country music that had been playing over the sound system all night. The sudden quiet was welcome. “Sam would have stayed to help if she hadn’t gotten called in for duty.” Hayley had seen Jane operate the dishwasher behind the bar often enough that she figured she could manage it herself. She began loading glasses onto one of the racks. “Casey’s going to be here to pick you up in a few minutes anyway.”
“But if you need help, you can check—”
“—with Jerry,” Hayley finished, glancing across to the open doorway that led to the restaurant side of the bar and grill, where Jane’s cook was still at it. Even though it was past closing time for the grill, the lights were still on over there and with the music turned off in the bar, she could hear the rattle of dishes and murmur of voices from his late-night customers.
“Okay, so maybe I am a bit of a control freak,” Jane admitted. At the sound of the door opening, she turned and looked over her shoulder.
“Did I actually hear the words ‘control freak’ come out of your lips?” Casey asked as he entered.
Hayley didn’t bother trying to hide her smile as she bent over to slide the rack into the dishwasher.
“You heard nothing of the sort,” Jane countered blithely. “The brightness of your neon orange shirt has affected your hearing. Speaking of... Your sister wants me to do something about your shirts.”
“Admit it.” Casey leaned over his fiancée and kissed her before pulling her to her feet. “The only thing you want to do about my shirts is get me out of them.”
“Save it for the honeymoon,” Hayley told them. “My innocent ears can’t take any more.”
“Please.” Jane rolled her eyes and ducked under Casey’s arm to come around the bar. “Are you sure you don’t want—?”
“Get out of here.” Hayley gave her a hug and a push. “The party is over, so go home. I’ll make sure everything’s locked up.”
“I know. I just—” Jane closed her mouth when Hayley pointedly looked at Casey for help. “Fine. Fine!” Her friend tossed up her hands and went back around the bar. She took the costume tiara that Sam had mockingly insisted she wear during the party and fit it back on her head before joining Casey.
“Think it suits me?”
“Well, you’re already the queen of my heart,” he drawled, nearly frog-stepping her to the door.
“Oh, brother.” Jane sent Hayley a look as they left, but Hayley knew just how deeply in love the two were and once the door finally closed behind them, she couldn’t help but sigh a little.
Not with envy. She wasn’t envious of her friend’s happiness.
But she couldn’t help being even more acutely aware of her own solitary life in the face of all of that happiness.
Blowing out a breath, she peeled off her high-heeled boots and wiggled her stocking-clad toes as she went around to each of the tables, picking up paper plates and crumpled napkins and dumping them in a trash bag.
“Looks like you got left holding the bag.”
She startled, jerking around at the sound of the deep voice, and somehow managed to spill the trash she’d just collected. She spotted Seth standing in the doorway to the grill. “What are you doing here?”
He held up his plate and fork as if it should have been obvious. “Jerry’s got good pecan pie. And I was hungry after working a double.”
She hadn’t seen him since she’d tried to chase after him at the wedding shower the week before, and she felt as foolish now as she always seemed to feel around him. “Well, the restaurant might have stayed open to serve you, but the bar’s closed.”
“I gathered that from the girly-looking Closed for Private Function sign taped on the wall.” He took a few steps closer anyway. “Didn’t know that Colbys was fancy enough for private functions.”
She crouched to scoop the plates and napkins back into the bag again. “I threw Jane’s bachelorette party here.” She grimaced when her fingers sank into an unfinished piece of cake but scooped as much as she could into the bag. She wasn’t about to tell him that she was the one who’d fashioned the pretty signs. “There’s more room for a party here than at my place.” Particularly with her grandmother still in residence. And Jane had insisted that if she had to have another party in her honor, she wanted it held someplace where she was extremely comfortable.
Hayley rose and wiped her sticky fingers on another paper napkin that she added to the bag. “What did you mean last week—” she pushed the words out before she lost her nerve “—about being a gentleman?”
He forked another bite of pie into his mouth, not seeming surprised by her abruptness. “I said I wasn’t.”
She finally looked right at him and felt the usual lurch inside her when she did. He was wearing blue jeans and a snug black T-shirt with SECURITY printed in white block letters across the front. “What you said before you left the Clays’ party last week. I had the sense you were implying something. I just don’t know what.”
His vivid blue eyes narrowed slightly. “Afraid you’ll have to clue me in, Dr. Templeton.”
She frowned at him. “Don’t call me that.”
“It’s what you are.” As if he were perfectly at home doing so, he went behind the bar and grabbed a towel and a bottle of spray cleaner. Then he came back around to where she’d dropped the trash and smoothly knelt to wipe up the bits of cake that had landed on the floor.
Feeling
