Page 36 of The Promise Of You

Grace waves her hand in front of her nose. “Eww. I don’t want to know.”

Heat creeps up my chest. Yeah, no wonder he was upset at seeing me. He doesn’t want whatever he does in Boston to seep into his real life.

“Yeah. But this time, he admitted it.”

My pulse quickens.

Grace’s eyes widen. “He did?”

“I trapped him, he fell right in it. I might have pushed Colton in it too.”

The two throw their heads back as they laugh uncontrollably. I’m not sure I’m following anymore.

“We’re boring you with our gossip about Justin. Sorry.” Haley dabs her eyes as Grace checks her phone. “He’s got to be the last thing you want to hear about right now.”

“It’s fine,” I lie. “I just should probably get ready for the staff to get here any minute now.”

“Oh, honey. No. They don’t work today. Only Wednesday through Saturday nights.”

I try hard not to show my shock. “I’m sure someone’ll be in. The employee entrance in the back was unlocked. They might be running an errand.” And there’s the matter of the freaking mess in the kitchen. Surely that hasn’t been in there since… Yeah, it’s totally been there since Saturday night. The way everything was caked. And there were a couple of flies.

And the garbage.

“Crap.”

Grace takes my hand. “You need help, honey, you let us know.”

“Sure.”

She squeezes my hand.

“Um…?”

“You need help.”

“I do?”

“Garbage’s been rotting in here for days. Floors are sticky. You need help.”

“You can’t help me with that.”

“We know people who can.”

Oh. “I was thinking of having a little come-to-Jesus talk with my staff. Don’t want to be seen as doing their job. Make it a statement.”

“I like that.” She squeezes my hand again and smiles. “What if the health inspector comes in?”

Crap.

The front door flies open, two young guys darkening the entrance. “Holy shit, Grace! You didn’t say we needed hazmat suits.”

Grace lets go of my hand. “Boys. Language.”

“That was Trevor. I… brought hazmat gear.” Not-Trevor turns to me with two fingers to his head and a disarmingly cute smile. “Ma’am.” He pulls out a box of gloves.

Upon second look, the two very young men are identical twins with very different vibes.

Trevor pulls out his phone and does a sweep of the restaurant, walking toward the kitchen.

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