“Good,” he said, relaxing. “I’m glad. One day, we’re both going to have an entire evening off, and we can go somewhere nice out of town. “
“I’d enjoy that, but really, don’t worry about it,” she assured him. “As long as I get to spend time with you somewhere we can sit back and chat, I’m happy. The atmosphere at the bar’s perfect, even with Vanessa shooting smirks at me.”
He grinned at that as he pulled out of the parking lot. Vanessa was Caroline’s other best friend. She and Hannah had had a rocky relationship in the beginning, but gradually figured out how to get along. Vanessa wasn’t exactly an easy person to be friends with, but she had a good heart, and had proven more than once to be a loyal friend to have. She was Caroline’s opposite, but in a way, it was refreshing. Sometimes Hannah needed someone to tell her outright when she was being stupid instead of dancing around the matter.
She had a feeling Vanessa would probably tell her that she was being stupid for dreading this dinner party so much. While she was envisioning a stuffy, awkward evening filled with stilted chitchat, realistically it would be nothing like that. If these were people both Caroline and Dean liked, they had to be pretty decent, and she doubted Caroline would invite her if she didn’t think she would enjoy it. Still, a dinner party, to her, was synonymous with painfully boring.
The drive to the bar didn’t take long, and when she got out of the car, she could hear the crowd inside, full of laughter and the occasional cheer when a goal was scored in whatever game was on the television. She gave a tolerant roll of her eyes as they went in. Sports had never been her favorite pastime, but her father and her brother were both obsessed with various teams, and she’d grown up with Super Bowl celebrations and weekly televised game nights. She found watching people’s reactions to the games more amusing than the games themselves, and teased her father and brother relentlessly whenever they got upset over something the team they weren’t rooting for did.
Ben’s eyes flicked to the TV as they walked inside, but even though she knew he liked sports, his attention refocused on her almost immediately as he led them to a booth in the back, where it was quieter. She grinned at him, and he gave her a knowing smile back. They had already had the sports discussion, and he knew she wouldn’t appreciate being ignored while his eyes were glued to the television, not while they were on a date.
“Sorry, I didn’t remember it was a game night,” he said as they sat down.
She shrugged. “I really don’t mind. It’s easy to tune out this sort of crowd.”
He made a soft noise of agreement as he looked at the menu. She glanced at her own, double checking what sauces they offered for their wings. She was in the mood for something deep-fried, and couldn’t wait for a platter full of sauce-slathered wings and crispy breaded dill pickle slices.
“I thought I spotted you come in,” a familiar voice said. She looked up to see Vanessa approaching them, their usual drinks in hand. She set the drinks down on the table and then grinned at them. “You two make such a cute couple.”
“Darn right we do,” Hannah said, grinning back at her friend. “How has your night been?”
“Busy,” Vanessa said, huffing. “It always is on Fridays, though. You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to this weekend. I’m going to do absolutely nothing.”
Vanessa sounded so thrilled with the idea Hannah had to laugh. She wished that she had had weekends off herself, but for now she only had every other Sunday off, with a floating day off during the week as well. Maybe one day she could have more than one day in a row off regularly, but that would only come once they had more experienced chefs on the payroll.
“What can I get you?” Vanessa asked.
“Pickles,” Hannah said quickly. “Lots of fried pickles, and a plate of your honey-jalapeño wings.” She pushed her thoughts of the restaurant away as Ben gave his order. Her schedule might be busy, but all that meant was she needed to enjoy her time off even more.
Chapter Two
At precisely seven o’clock on Saturday, Hannah pulled up alongside the curb outside of Caroline and Dean’s house with a resigned look at the handful of unfamiliar cars that were already there. She was still exhausted from her shift earlier that day, and would really rather not have had to hurry home to get ready for the dinner and then rush back out, barely having had a chance to sit for a moment. Still, she had promised her friend she would go, and she wasn’t about to back out now.
She shut her car off, then pulled down the visor mirror to check her makeup, which she had been in a hurry when she put on. After carefully wiping away a smudge, she decided that it was good enough. Even though she had changed after work, she was still wearing much the same sort of outfit, with her black slacks, a button-down blouse, and sensible but fashionable flats. She had let her hair down from the ponytail she kept it in while she was working, and had halfheartedly curled the ends. It was about as good as it was going to get after spending the last seven hours on her feet.
Satisfied that she didn’t look as exhausted as she felt, she made sure she
