Page 29 of Colorado Christmas Carol
Duke chuckled. “My companion says any place with a full parking lot must have terrific food,” he said, nodding toward Essa. “She’s a chef.”
“Well!” the woman said, impressed. “Where do you work?”
Essa told her. “We’re not big, but we do a big business on weekends,” she added with a smile. “I wish we had someplace like this! It’s amazing!”
“Thanks. My husband and I drove through here and had lunch one day, and the owner said it was a shame he’d have to close because his cook quit. We had both just retired, and we had our bonuses. So we bought it, hired a cook who wanted to live here, and the rest is history. We’re always full! It’s such a blessing! You try living on what you get for retirement,” she added firmly.
They all laughed with her.
* * *
The menu was incredible. It was New York City-type dishes, very high class, with homemade bread and specialty homemade ice cream and pies and cakes.
“This is incredible,” Essa remarked as she took the first bite of her steak. “Perfectly cooked, beautifully marbled, perfect seasoning!”
Duke laughed. “I can’t comment on the cooking, but the food is lovely.”
“Oh, yes!” Mellie enthused, chowing down on a hamburger and homemade fries.
“Peasant,” Duke muttered at her. “I raised you to appreciate good food!”
“Hamburgers are wonderful food,” she shot back, with catsup staining her cheek.
Essa laughed, taking her own napkin to dab at the child’s cheek. “You look like you’re wearing war paint,” she teased.
Mellie grinned back at her and took another bite.
Duke, watching and listening to the conversation, felt his heart jump. His wife had never liked Mellie. She would never have done something like Essa just had. And it was so natural, not a contrived thing, not with any ulterior motives. Essa really liked the child, and it was obvious. Mellie returned that affection. It delighted him even as it unnerved him. He did not want to get mixed up with a woman. He’d had the cure. Or so he thought . . .
CHAPTER5
All too soon, they were back at the hotel. Mellie wished Essa a good night, hugged her quickly, and went upstairs to the room she shared with her dad to watch a cartoon movie on pay-per-view.
“Nothing rated above PG, or you’ll have trouble,” Duke warned.
She just waved and kept walking.
“Oh, she’s a mess,” Essa said with a grin, watching the child go up the staircase. “You’ve done a great job with her.”
He stuck his hands in his pockets and studied her quietly. “You love kids. But you don’t want to get married and have some of your own?”
She gave him a droll look. “I’m everybody’s big sister,” she told him. “If somebody’s girlfriend dumped him, here’s my shoulder. If his wife is cheating on him, here’s my shoulder. If he can’t get a special girl to date him, here’s my shoulder. That’s me.”
“You can’t be the age you are and not have a single proposal of marriage.”
“Well, I did have one,” she said. She grinned. “But he was six years old, and his mother wouldn’t let him buy me a ring.”
He chuckled.
“Besides, I have these nightmares . . .”
His eyebrows arched.
“I mean really bad, howling nightmares,” she added. “There was this one about a tiny little boy being beaten by a woman. She was wearing black pj’s, like those martial arts people wear, and kicking him. He vanished. Then there was an older boy, but he was sturdier. She was hurting him. He ran away. He was older and he went back. He found something. He went mad. He had a weapon . . . his face was a skeleton. But when he turned around, it was . . . it was me.” She looked up at him to surprise an expression on his face that she couldn’t understand.
“When did you have this dream?” he asked.
“Last night. I almost came down and canceled today because I’ve had hardly any sleep. It was one of those three-dimensional nightmares that you wish you could forget.”
