Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Jeremiah wrapped his arm around my shoulders, then looked at the waitress with a tight smile that clearly said he wasn’t happy about something.
“Mr. Jeremiah,” she stuttered, catching the tight smile and looking more than a little off kilter because of it. “Can I get you something to drink to start off with?”
We all placed our drink orders, then looked at Haggard and Easton expectantly.
“You’re already seeing someone?” Rachel hissed, sounding outraged, as if she hadn’t seen us together at the power company a few days ago.
I looked at Jeremiah, wondering if he was going to allow her to make a spectacle, but he crossed his arms and didn’t look at me.
“Yes,” Jeremiah drawled, sounding bored. “There was a waitlist.”
The woman in front of me hissed in a breath. “She’s half your age, Jeremiah.”
“She’s not half my age,” he said at the same time I said, “I’m not half his age.”
I was more than old enough to make decisions on who I dated, and age became irrelevant to me once I’d grown up and hit the age of eighteen. But this woman didn’t need to know that.
My age, and how well I aged, was none of her damn business.
She leaned forward and placed both of her hands on the table, her fingers touching a fork that I knew I would be sending back to get clean replacements once she left.
That’s when Erich showed up, coming out of the kitchen looking flustered as fuck.
“What are you doing here, Gracelynn?” Erich asked, looking slightly miffed.
That’s when I finally understood what was about to happen.
Shit was going to implode, right here, right now.
“I was told that there was a problem…” Jeremiah was spoken right over when Rachel screeched, “Is this the woman that you wanted to introduce me to? Is she your girlfriend, Erich? Or did your father steal your girlfriend?”
Erich looked even more pissed now.
His mother had just announced in front of half the dining room that I’d once been with the son, but now I was with the father.
Upgrade, if you asked me.
There was a soft snickering sound from someone on my left, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off the woman in front of me. The woman that was clutching a knife in her hand as if she was about to wield it.
“Mother, now is not the time or the place for this,” Erich snapped, putting Rachel in her place like only he knew how to. But his eyes. They were looking around the room as if he was nervous about something. As if something was going on in that room, and he didn’t want the world to know what it was. “You know that there were extenuating circumstances. And let’s not play. You’ve already met her. If this is a show for your friends, do it somewhere else. I have a restaurant to run.”
God, he’d use that self-righteous, you will listen to me or else tone. And I hated it. He’d done it with his kitchen staff, and me a time or two. And it was degrading. As if he felt like he was so much better than you and had so much more knowledge than you ever would, that it would just be better for all involved if everyone listened to him immediately.
“How about y’all listen to me, and you listen to me right now,” Jeremiah interrupted whatever the hell Erich and Rachel were doing. “I just got wind that there’s some shit rollin’ through this place that I’m not down with. So for now, this place is shut down until further notice. Until you can buy me out, there will be no restaurant.” Then, to the room at large, he said, “Folks. I’m sorry to say this, but the restaurant is closed until further notice. Meals are on me tonight.”
People started to get up and mill toward the door. But Erich shouted, “What the fuck are you doing? You can’t close my restaurant!”
“Can, and did,” Jeremiah disagreed. “And unless you want what I’m about to say aired out in front of half the town, I suggest you allow them to leave.”
There was a fuming silence, and then Erich, for once, was quiet.
He crossed his arms over his chest and glared hard at Jeremiah, as if he wanted to cut his throat out with his salad fork. One that his mother looked like she was ready to provide him.
People filed out quickly now.
And when I say quickly, I mean they all but ran out of the room as if they were scared about what would happen if they stayed.
The moment the doors were closing behind the last staff member—yes, every last one of them left, too—Erich whirled around with a look of abject anger on his face.
“You have no right!” he yelled.
Jeremiah crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Erich to calm down.