“We’ve been competing to see who can earn the most tips,” Lucas said, coming to Sid’s rescue. “She’s been kicking my ass.” After hugging his mother, he moved behind the bar. “You need some water, Dad?”
“I’d rather have a beer, but doubt your mother will allow it,” Tom grumbled. “Make it an iced tea.”
“Unsweet,” Patty said.
“Coming right up.” Lucas snagged a glass from behind the bar, filled it with ice, then topped it off from a pitcher to his right. “I bet the nurses were happy to see you go.”
“Ha!” Patty said. “He’d charmed every last one of them. Even Bruce. But your father wasn’t too keen on Nurse Bruce giving him a sponge bath.”
Tom grumbled again. “That was not going to happen.”
Patty laughed, then turned to Sid, who stood a few feet behind the older couple. “I hear you and Lucas have been lighting things up around here,” she said.
Sid sputtered and Lucas rode to the rescue again. “We’re getting along just fine. Sid has a way with the customers you wouldn’t expect from someone used to bait, tackle, and tool boxes.” He smiled when her expression turned to defiance. That was his girl.
“I have to make up for Lucas’s lack of service skills.” She shot him an evil glare. “Just yesterday he offended an innocent group of little old ladies.”
“Those women were drunk and disturbing the other customers. They’d have been dancing on the tables if they could have gotten their walkers up there.”
Sid plopped onto the stool next to Tom. “Only Miss Frannie had a walker. And they were just having a good time.” She rested her arms on the bar. “I liked them.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” he said, sliding a glass of sweet tea to his mother. Sid would be one of those old ladies someday. Drinking, swearing, and challenging everyone around her. Part of him thought she’d look cute with glasses on the end of her nose, shaking her geriatric moneymaker.
“You two sound like an old married couple,” Tom said, chuckling into his tea. After taking a drink, he addressed Lucas. “What do you think of the place?”
Lucas blinked, unprepared for the question. “What do you mean? The restaurant?”
“Yeah,” Tom said, leaning forward, then flinching back. “Damn stitches.”
“You need to be home lying down,” Patty scolded.
Tom bristled. “I’ve been cooped up in that hospital for a week. I’ll climb back into a bed when I’m ready.” Lucas had never heard his dad snap like that, and fully expected his mom to snap back. Instead, she rubbed his arm and held her tongue.
Strange.
“Yes, the restaurant,” Tom said, picking up the conversation again. “You’ve been gone long enough to see it with fresh eyes. What do you think of it?”
Lucas looked around, taking in the neon signs and empty tables. Upon agreeing to run the place, he’d thought of the job as filling drinks and keeping the staff going. He hadn’t even considered analyzing the actual business.
With a shrug, he said, “I think it runs like a well-oiled machine. The staff is capable. Customers haven’t complained about the food or service since I’ve been here.”
“The drinks have come out a little slow,” Sid said, shooting him a challenging look, daring him to fire back.
“That’s something I have to give you credit for, Dad,” he said, keeping his eyes on Sid an extra second before turning to his father. “I can see now why you had the heart attack. A long day in court is nothing to working behind this bar. I think you need help.”
“You volunteering again?” A corner of Tom’s mouth curled up, but something in his eyes said he wasn’t kidding.
Lucas broke eye contact, grabbed a rag, and started wiping down the bar. “Not this time. You’d better get home before the crowd rolls in and you try to weasel your way back here. I’d hate to see Mom drag you out by your ear.”
“He’s right,” Patty said. “If you don’t want to lie down we’ll set you up on the porch. I’m sure once the locals find out you’re home, they’ll be coming around to console and commiserate.”
Sid hopped off her stool. “Let me help you to the car.”
Tom moved slowly to his feet, then wrapped an arm around Sid’s shoulders, dwarfing the tiny woman beneath his six foot five frame. Lucas thought she might buckle under the weight, but Sid moved with little effort beside his weakened father. A man he’d thought of as a superhero once upon a time.
No one liked to think about the mortality of their parents, including Lucas, so he pushed reality to the back of his mind. “Mom,” he said, sliding up beside her once his dad was out of earshot. “I’ve never seen Dad talk to you like that. Are you okay?”
Patty sighed. “I’m fine. It’s a side effect of the heart attack and surgery. The doctor warned me he’d be a bear for a while. Feeling weak and vulnerable isn’t easy for any man, but especially not your father.”
Lucas gave her a hug. “Everything is going to be okay,” he said, not sure if the words were for her benefit or his own.
“Yes, it will.” Patty gave him an extra squeeze before pulling away. “He’s my life, you know. I’m not sure what I’d do without him.” Tears floated in her eyes and Lucas’s heart clenched. Just thinking about life without his dad made his mind revolt. There was still too much ahead—weddings and grandchildren and holiday gatherings— that Tom needed to be a part of.
“That man will outlive us all,” he said. “In a few months he’ll be behind this bar barking orders and keeping the tourists in check.”
“But maybe he shouldn’t be.” The words were spoken so softly, Lucas almost didn’t hear them. “I know he loves this place, but I can’t let it be the death of him.”
Lucas slid a finger beneath her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “We won’t let that happen. Let’s just get him healthy for now and cross that bridge when it comes.”
His mom gave his hand a squeeze. “You being here means the world to him. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
“Make me your roast and potatoes with homemade slaw, and we’ll call it even.” Lucas dropped a kiss on his mom’s forehead. “Then I’ll whip up my latest specialty—chicken marsala. I found an amazing recipe, then gave it a kick to make it even better.”
“I guess that’s one good thing about you being away from home. You have to feed yourself. Joe’s version of cooking is ordering a pizza.” Patty walked with Lucas to the door. “About Sid’s outfit? Is that for your benefit?”
“Not going there, Mom.” He tried to shuffle her out.
“You could do a lot worse,” she said, stopping just inside the door. “She’s rough around the edges, but you could use a woman like Sid. You’ve gotten too polished up there in the city.”
“If you keep this up, I can be on the next ferry out.”
“Fine. Fine. But that girl has had a thing for—” Just then, the front door flew open, cutting Patty off and sending her headfirst into Lucas’s chest.
“What the …” Sid came around the door and spotted them. “Sorry, Mrs. D. I didn’t know you were there.”
Lucas righted his mom. “I’ve got one parent down, let’s not take out the other, huh?”
“I’m fine,” Patty said. “We shouldn’t have stopped so close to the door like that.” Patty lifted her hand to Lucas’s face, pulling him down to drop a kiss on his cheek. Then she tapped his chest and smiled. “You’ll figure it out. You’re a smart boy.” With that, she left the building.
“What are you supposed to figure out?” Sid asked as the door closed behind Patty.
“I have no idea.”
By noon, Sid began to question the effectiveness of the plan. Lucas’s eyes remained on her face whenever he deigned to look her way, which wasn’t often, and she’d done so many laps around the dining room, her inner thighs were starting to chafe. Cutting the squats down to once a week might not have been the best idea.
They hadn’t talked about the kiss on the beach, Sid’s blatant invitation to sex, or Lucas’s reluctant yet firm refusal. In fact, the man seemed to be using the same tactic she was, pretending nothing had happened.
