Page 44 of Sea Glass Serenade

“Hi, so nice to meet you.” Beatrice smiled at Hazel, seeming a little distracted as she took her coffee from Jacob.

“Nice to meet you,” Hazel stammered. “I—I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, Jacob.”

“Well, I didn’t not too long ago.” He turned to Beatrice with a grin. “Our relationship is very new. This is our what, fourth date? She lives pretty far away, so I have to travel back and forth to see her. I was just visiting her and some friends yesterday.”

Hazel felt a pit form in her stomach as she realized what Jacob’s day trip had been about. In a flash, she rememberedthe gift basket hanging over her arm, and she tried to drape her other arm over it casually to hide the contents.

“Well, that’s great.” She forced a cheerful smile onto her face. “I don’t want to keep you both from your date. I should get going.”

“What was it you wanted to talk with me about?” Jacob asked. “I can spare a minute.”

Hazel’s stomach did a somersault. “Oh, it’s not that big a deal.” She scrunched her toes together in her shoes tightly, hoping that she wasn’t blushing. “I—well, my washer was acting weird, but I—it’s probably nothing. It might just be one of those things that fixes itself.”

Jacob looked confused. “Well, can you tell me what’s wrong with it?”

Since there was, in reality, nothing at all wrong with her washer, Hazel just shook her head, smiling. “I’ll take another look at it first. I was just going to talk to you later because I knew I’d be passing by your office. Not a big deal at all. You two enjoy your date.”

She waved, doing her best to look cheerful and relaxed, and turned around and walked out the main doors. The second her feet hit the sidewalk, tears sprang into her eyes and she had to bite her lip to keep from crying.

She forced herself to walk slowly back to the car, since she didn’t want anyone to see her running away, especially Jacob and Beatrice if they followed her out of The Salty Spoon. She reached the car and climbed inside, letting the first few tears finally spill out of her eyes.

“What happened?” Alexis was sitting in the passenger seat, and she looked at the basket in Hazel’s hands with confusion. “You didn’t give it to him?” Then she looked up and saw that Hazel was crying and she gasped. “Oh, no! Did something happen? What happened?”

“He has a girlfriend,” Hazel sobbed, hiccupping a little. “She walked up to us just as I was trying to work up the nerve to tell him how I feel.”

She took a shaky breath, feeling relieved that she hadn’t gotten a chance to ask him out. As sad and disappointed as she felt, at least she didn’t feel embarrassed on top of it. Jacob had no idea that the basket had been for him.

And he never will know,she thought, the tears coming quickly again.I so wanted to give it to him. But I can’t now. It’s too romantic of a gesture to give to someone who has a girlfriend.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Alexis reached over and squeezed her sister’s hand. “I can’t believe he has a girlfriend. Since when? Who is it?”

Hazel shook her head. “I just want to get out of here. We can talk about it later.”

She turned the key in the ignition and handed the basket to Alexis. She didn’t want to look at it ever again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Alexis pushed open the doors of The Lighthouse Grill, feeling out of sorts. She’d just finished trying to console Hazel, who had still been crying on the couch when she’d left her. Alexis felt sad for her sister and frustrated that things had played out that way. She would never say it to Hazel, but she wished that her sister had had the courage to speak to Jacob about her feelings sooner. Then he probably would have said yes, and he wouldn’t be dating this Beatrice stranger from four towns away.

Alexis sighed, telling herself she needed to get her head in the game. It was going to be a long day for her. After she worked the lunch shift, she was going to work the dinner shift as well. She knew that that evening, the Rosewood Ladies Society would be coming in for their monthly dinner.

She grimaced a little as she made her way toward the kitchen, where she kept her apron and notepad. She’d served the Rosewood Ladies Society before, and they were notorious for being extra needy. Most of them were very nice women, but there were a lot of them, and they took up the whole back room. They always seemed to order things that required a lot of dishes, such as teacups, saucers, teaspoons, pitchers of cream, pitchersof honey, and the like. Additionally, they usually stayed for a very long time.

Alexis glanced at the clock, noting that her shift wasn’t due to start for another ten minutes or so. She wandered toward the office, wondering if Julia or perhaps Vivian was there working. She wanted someone to talk to, and she hoped that a conversation with one of her family members could help lift her spirits.

The door to the office was slightly ajar, and Alexis pushed it open curiously. Julia was seated at the desk, an almost empty mug of coffee at her elbow, typing away rapidly on her laptop. Julia was frowning as she worked, and she looked rather glum.

“Hey,” Alexis said, stepping into the office.

Julia looked up in surprise. “Hey! Sorry, I had no idea you were there.” She smiled. “Got lost in my work, I guess.”

“It’s okay. I know the feeling.” Alexis picked a stack of papers off a chair and sat down on it. “How’s work going?”

“Oh, fine. It’s work. How are things going with Hazel? Did she pick a time to tell Jacob how she feels about him?”

Alexis winced, feeling another wave of sympathy for her sister, and Julia gasped.

“Oh, no! It didn’t go well?”

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