One of the guys blurted out, “I’m sure I’d enjoy those biscuits much better if you fed them to me naked.”
Ugh…jerk. This guy is a piece of work. Instead of saying what she really thought Jade took the politically correct way out. “Oh…come on now, then the rest of my customers might get a bit jealous, and we can’t have that.” She unloaded her tray and continued to smile through all the cat-calls and flirting, dreading every second of it. She hated spoiled insignificant, rich guys, and this table was full of them. She definitely deserved an Oscar for the feigned interest she showed, always being courteous and careful not to do anything that could be mistaken for reciprocating their flirty attempts. After a few minutes of banter back and forth with the rowdy bunch, Jade pushed a piece of hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear. With as much enthusiasm as she could muster, she spoke. “I’ll be back to take your orders in just a bit.” As she took a few steps away from the table she couldn’t help but hear one of the men say, “Do you see the ass on her?” She would have rolled her eyes, but it would have caused her too much pain.
Jade placed her empty tray on a hostess station before moving on to table two. She checked her watch. One hour and forty minutes left. It felt as if she’d been on the floor for two hours already. Jade looked down to her order pad and pulled it out of her apron pocket, while greeting the new arrivals. “Good evening and welcome to Mario’s Steak and Seafood. May I take…” When she looked up, the smile on her face froze, and the words died on her tongue. Jade gazed into four sets of eyes, but one pair of iced-blue ones were all too familiar. She hadn’t seen them for almost ten years. Before Jade could recover, her own eyes widened, and her hands trembled slightly as she held her pen over the pad. It couldn’t be him, not him. Jade blinked rapidly and swallowed deeply before attempting to find her voice so she could do her job. She squared her shoulders, then cleared her throat. “May I take your order?”
Chapter 3
“Cricket?” His voice was warm like honey. Cole Thornton, live and in person. He was obviously just as surprised to see Jade as she was to see him. It had been nine years, six months, three weeks and two days since the last time she’d seen him, in the flesh at least. He’d been all over the newspapers and magazines for being some kind of wiz in business. In person, she could see that he had grown out of his boyish good looks and into a ridiculously sexy man.
The wind had been completely knocked out of her, but somehow she managed to speak. “It’s Jade…now.” Her voice gave out as she spoke her name. She nodded her head up and down, while she nervously cleared her throat. “Jade.”
His dinner companions were looking at her a more curiously. The blonde beauty with the perfectly white teeth, straight nose, and clear blue eyes seemed to be the only one brave enough to ask what was on everyone else’s mind as she looked from Cole to Jade. “You two know each other?” She said her tone incredulous.
Never breaking eye contact, Cole answered, “Yes. This is Cricket.” He noticed an almost imperceptible cringe from Jade when he called her by her nickname. “I’m sorry, old habits die hard. I mean Jade.” Saying her name felt awkward as he tried it out. “We grew up together.”
The blonde pasted on an insincere smile. “Oh, childhood friends. How…nice.”
Jade didn’t miss the icy undertone in her voice. She glanced back down at her order pad before looking up again. She needed that extra moment to get past the shock of seeing Cole. It was obvious that blondie was very uncomfortable. Now, with the pounding in her ears at epic levels, Jade did what she would normally do in a situation like this. She attempted to diffuse the situation and spoke as if running into Cole wasn’t a sucker punch to the gut. She laughed a little. “Yes, we knew each other… seems like a lifetime ago.”
His eyebrows furrowed together as if he didn’t like her response. “Yes, it was a long time ago, but Cricket and I were thick as thieves.” This time it wasn’t an accident when Cole emphasized her childhood name. His lopsided grin slowly spread across his face as he continued to stare and reminisce. “We were as close as brother and sister until I moved away and we lost touch.”
Jade pressed her lips together. Lost touch? Really? Is that how he remembered it? She hoped her internal battle didn’t reflect on her face, giving away what was actually going through her mind. Take a breath Jade.You can do this. She could now add nausea to the long list of ailments she’d been suffering through tonight. All Jade wanted to do was get away from this table and his piercing blue eyes as quickly as possible. In her current state, she couldn’t handle seeing Cole. Hopefully, Natalie or Brenda would switch with her. She rocked back and forth on the heels of her feet. Her voice was elevated more than usual as she spoke. “Right! Thick as thieves. Speaking of which, Chef Mario has a fantastic first course called Pirate’s Treasure. It’s a seafood medley of shrimp, the finest crab and lobster you’ll find this side of heaven, prepared with his very own fondue recipe. It’s a popular item here. Can I
