Page 51 of Chasing Olivia (Trace + Olivia 2)

He snorted. “You’ll live.”

“I didn’t even know places like this existed in New York,” I looked around at the dirty place.

Trace chuckled. “You do realize that New York is more than just Manhattan.”

“Yes, I know,” I narrowed my eyes.

“Just checking,” he smirked.

The waitress came striding up to us with a pleasant smile on her wrinkled face. “Can I get you guys something to drink?” She ask

ed.

I frowned. “Bottled water.” That seemed safe enough.

Trace snorted.

“What?” I glared at him.

“Nothing,” he waved his hand in dismissal. “I’ll have the same.”

“Sure thing,” the waitress smiled. “And menus are right there,” she pointed to the other end of the table, “look things over and I’ll be back with your drinks.”

I picked up two menus and handed one to Trace.

When the waitress came back with our water, I ordered a B.L.T. That seemed safe enough. Trace ordered a cheeseburger. If he got mad cow, well…

I took a sip of water and said, “If I die from this, I hope you miss me.”

He chuckled. “You’re not going to die from the food or the water,” he eyed the bottle in my hand. “I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how good it is. Truckers wouldn’t stop here if the food sucked,” he reasoned.

I hoped he was right, because I was hungry.

It didn’t take us long to get our food and it actually looked pretty yummy…but I still had to taste it.

Trace took a bite of his burger, which he’d covered in ketchup, and was very dramatic about how good it tasted. “Mmm, mmm,” he hummed, “delicious.”

I took a deep breath and picked up half of my sandwich. I took a small hesitant bite.

“This is actually really good,” I admitted.

“See?” He smirked. “You got all worked up for no reason.”

“Well,” I looked pointedly at the dirty floors and then the table, “I think had reason to.”

“You worry too much.”

“Someone has to,” I replied.

“Are you implying that I don’t?” He took a bite of a French fry, his face suddenly serious. There was no playfulness in his eyes or tone of voice. “Because I can assure you, I do worry. A lot. About you. About Gramps. About my idiot brother. I worry if I’m good enough for you,” he leaned towards me, staring into my eyes. “I worry that I’m not a good son or grandson. I worry that I’m not the right person to take over my family’s business. I worry about disappointing them if I tell them I don’t want to take it over.”

“Whoa,” I whispered. I hadn’t expected him to…open up so much. Trace was a closed off guy. He didn’t talk about his feelings with me. I was usually able to pick up on what he was thinking or feeling because I’d known him so long. But I hadn’t known he carried all of that around with him.

I placed my hand on top of his. “Trace,” I whispered, “you don’t need to worry about any of that. I love you, unconditionally, and so does your family. We could never be disappointed by the decisions you make.”

He entwined our fingers together and stared at our joined hands for a moment. “That doesn’t stop me from wondering.”

“Do you really not want to take over your family business?” I asked hesitantly.

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