Page 100 of The Moment Promised

I walk in after my mom, allowing Finn to grab my hand as we take our usual booth.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my favorite customer and employee,” Pete says, walking toward our table with a bright smile plastered to his face. The most prominent creases in his skin are the crow’s feet and smile lines, as if he’s spent the last seventy years smiling. “And you must be our Adeline’s mom.” He offers a hand to shake, and my mother takes it happily.

“Marsha.” She smiles.

“Pleasure to meet you, Marsha. I’m Pete.” He sets a menu down in front of my mom, leaving the table bare in front of Finnand me. We know that menu on the backs of our hands, but we stick to half meat lover’s, half cheese.

But Pete already knows this.

“Well, well, well. I see the ‘engagement’ stuck,” Pete says to Finn with a wink, noting Finn’s arm loosely resting over my shoulders.

“Yessir, it seems to look that way,” Finn says, squeezing me a little with pride.

We haven’t talked about the future. What will happen when he goes back to school, what will happen to my mom and Jason… Everything still hangs in the air. I try to focus all my attention on the here and now. I can’t help but feel doomed. How can this possibly end well? How will I survive if it doesn’t?

“Yeah right! If I hadn’t made a move at the campsite we wouldn’t even be here right now.” I point a finger into Finn’s chest, and he playfully tosses it aside with laughter.

“I made a move way before that, love. You were just too wrapped up in yourself to realize it.”

I scoff.

“Pete, back me up.” Finn snaps his fingers, looking to Pete expectantly.

“Hey, hey now.” Pete holds his hands up. “I’m just here to look pretty and make pizza.”

“Adeline, didn’t you say Finn kissed you after he ‘proposed’?” My mom joins in on the conversation, remembering what I told her a month ago while we bonded before she left for rehab.

“Yes but—” I start.

“Aha! See, I did make the first move. Point made. We will have a large meet lovers, Pete.” Finn eyes me as if he just won some unspoken game. “Go heavy with the mushrooms.”

I hate mushrooms.

“I guess I’ll need my notepad after all.” Pete digs into his apron, pulling out a small note pad and grabs the pen frombehind his ear. “I guess all that time away changed the fiery one’s appetite?”

“Nope. Finn’s just being annoying. Mom, what do you want?” I nudge Finn’s side. He mock winces. There, now who’s had the last laugh?

“I’ll have the chicken parm, please,” she says, handing Pete the menu with a polite smile.

“When should I expect to see you back at work, lava girl?” Pete asks easily.

It would be so easy to take this job again and fall into the endless loop of unhappiness I spent so much time in. But maybe comfortability isn’t the best thing for me anymore. Being happy is an endless process, and now that I’ve had a taste, I’m not willing to give it up so easily. This is the part where I put myself first. “You won’t.” I smile.

Pete slowly nods his head, a smile curling his lips. “Good.”

Finn raises an eyebrow at me. I smile and pull my shoulders back. I have no idea where to go from here. My life is a blank canvas and I plan on filling it with every color.

“I expect to be invited to the wedding,” Pete says, walking toward the kitchen.

I turn bright red, but Finn is at ease. He gently tugs a strand of my hair. I scooch even closer to him, sagging against him and letting his arms wrap around me.

Pete is back, balancing three cups of water. “Here you ladies go—woah!”

A little girl on roller skates knocks into Pete, sending the last cup of water spilling all over my phone.

A middle-aged woman runs after the little girl, followed by a much older woman who comes straight our way.

“I’m so sorry about that, Addy!” Pete says, handing me his rag that rests on his shoulder.

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