Page 5 of Dear Henry, Love Edith
“Yes.” He snapped his gaze back to the waitress. “Both. The usual. Whatever you normally put on it will be fine. And I’ll take a burger.” He handed back the menus, then chugged several gulps of water.
“So you’ll never believe this,” Angela said, dropping back into her seat with a flourish. “Marsha Derby fired her daughter’s wedding photographer. Apparently due to some sort of hush-hush scandal. Nobody’s talking. But now she wants us to take on the contract. Can you believe it?Marsha Derby.I’m telling you, honey, this has been the craziest day of my life.”
She picked up her water glass, frowned into it, then set it back on the table. “I need to get together with Chad to start planning the shots. The wedding is less than two months away. It’s going to be at their villa in California.Their villa.We do this right, we will never have to worry about clients again. Oh, my word. We have so much to do to get ready. I’ll bet Chad isfreakingright now.”
Angela took a breath and searched the diner. “Where is that waitress? I hope she didn’t screw up my order. I mighthave to get it to go. You understand, right? This is just such a huge break for us. Wow, okay. I’m sorry. Enough for two seconds about me, right? What’s going on with you? How was your day? Is your knee back to normal yet?”
“It’s—”
Her phone pinged and she let out a gasp. “I told you Chad would be going crazy.” She showed the message to Henry. A GIF of Will Ferrell from the movieElf.
“Funny,” Henry said with a polite smile. “Look, if you need to go, I get it. Sounds like you have a lot to get ready for.”
“No, no, no.” Angela made a display of dropping her phone into her purse. “I’m all ears. Tell me what’s going on with you. I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve talked.”
Probably because it had been. “Well, let’s see,” Henry said, rolling the saltshaker between his hands. “Not much. A lady’s going to be staying at my house this summer, I guess.”
Angela straightened. “A lady? Staying at your house? What exactly does that mean?”
Henry shrugged. “Just that. She was supposed to stay at Kat’s place for the summer while Kat was away, but a pipe burst and now they found mold and—”
“Is she pretty?”
“I don’t know. Haven’t met her yet. She’s a widow who used to be a nurse but now does volunteer work and likes to travel, apparently. She’s here to help out with Sharon’s crisis house for the summer. Anyway, Kat dumped her on me, and I couldn’t really say no. She sounds... old.” He shrugged again.
“What’s her name?”
“Edith.”
“Yep. Definitely old. I guess that’s fine then. What about your knee? Are you done with therapy yet?”
“Almost. It’s still sore and pretty stiff—”
“Great. Sounds like everything is falling into place for both of us then. Hey, honey—” Angela snapped her fingers at the waitress—“I’m going to need mine to go. Actually, you know what? Just keep it.” Angela rose from her chair and dug her phone out of her purse. “I’m too excited to eat. Bye, pet.” She brushed a kiss against Henry’s temple and left, texting the entire way out the door.
Henry sagged back in his chair. Wow. Dating Angela was like dating a force of nature. At first, sort of fun and exciting. But lately... downright exhausting.
“Here’s your burger, sir.” The waitress set a plate in front of him. “Was your wife coming back for the chef salad or should I box it?”
“My wife?” Henry choked on his first bite and reached for his water glass. If he’d had any doubts about his relationship with Angela, hearing the wordwifeput the final nail in that coffin. He coughed and sputtered into his napkin, certain the entire hamburger had leapt off the plate and cannonballed straight into his lungs.
“Are you all right?”
Through watery eyes, he looked up expecting to see the adolescent waitress. Instead a concerned Goldie Hawn stood next to him, constricting his airway even further.
“Try putting your arms up,” she said.
“Why?” he rasped between coughs, lifting his arms above his head.
“No idea. But moms make their kids do it all the time.”She smiled at him, and he was sure he’d be tempted to smile back if he could only stop dying.
“Oh no.” A plate of salad flung through the air. Smacked the floor. “Somebody help him,” the waitress yelled, waving her arms around. “He’s making the universal sign for choking!”
“What? No, that’s not it.” The brown-eyed beauty clutched her own throat. “Thisis the universal sign for choking.”
“Who’s choking?” A bear of a man, who used to be a bear of a teenager when he played linebacker on Henry’s high school football team, raced from the kitchen. When his eyes landed on Goldie, he barreled toward her as if she were the end zone. “Ma’am, don’t panic. I know the Heimlich.”
The woman’s eyes widened in terror. She jumped back, thrusting a finger at Henry. “Not me. Him.”
