Page 117 of Baby, Be Mine

“I have a restaurant to run, Stef.”

He went to the sink and washed. “I know. But we can handle it for a few days.”

“Days?” My jaw might have hit the tile floor.

Henry leaned his hip against the sink. “Gonna take some time to convince her to come home with you.”

“There’s no way I can leave the restaurant for days, guys.”

Henry handed Stef a paper towel. “I’m going to start looking for tips.”

Stef snickered. “We’ll all chip in. It’s for a good cause.”

“This will give Rami and Esther a trial run at being backup bosses.” Henry gave me a hard look. “It’s time.”

My heart kicked double time. I couldn’t ask her to choose us over her kid. I hadn’t been kidding about Emma being a better mom than my own. She’d skipped town before I was even walking. Emma would never do that.

But if I delegated…

“Look at his brain working. It’s smoking.” Henry laughed and went to the door. “I gotta get back to work. Go get her, tiger!”

The door closed behind him, and Stef gave me a snappy salute. “What he said. We really do miss her, Mason. She made the restaurant fun again. Not that it wasn’t—”

“It’s okay, Stef. I get what you’re saying.”

He huffed out a relieved breath. “I can pick up some extra shifts if you need me to.”

The urge to go look at the schedule was like a screech in my brain. I had to let people handle things besides me. “Check with Rami.”

“Got it.” He checked his messily tousled hair in the mirror one last time and shrugged at me with a smirk, then he was gone.

A bathroom therapy session was not on my to-do list today, but for the first time in months I felt steadier.

Stickier, but steadier.

Now I just had to do the hard part.

I left the bathroom and headed down the hall toward the kitchen. I grabbed a bottle of water out of the mini fridge and drank half of it on my way into the dining room.

Gillian was at the check-in desk with Rami and Esther. What the hell was she wearing? We were pretty lax on the uniform for the dining room. Most of the waitstaff wore a Mason Jar shirt and comfortable shorts or pants depending on the season.

They sure as hell didn’t wear dancing dresses at barely two in the afternoon.

The pinched expression that had been commonplace on Gillian’s face suddenly smoothed as she spotted me. She left Rami and Esther mid-sentence.

I caught Rami’s wide-eyed-what-the-fuck look. Esther patted her arm as they went back to discussing table assignments.

Gillian came right over to me—standing far too close, I might add—and smiled. For the first time, I noticed that her smile was more like a shark circling prey than friendly. Even her makeup made her look sharp and unapproachable.

“Penn isn’t here yet. He contacted Rami and said he’d be about an hour late.” She twisted the ring on her middle finger as her nostrils flared. “I’m not sure why he talked to her instead of me, but we have some time to go over the details before he comes in.”

“Sure. Why don’t we go into my office?”

Her gaze narrowed. “We can talk on the patio. It’s quiet out there.”

“I need some paperwork in my office.”

She stopped twisting her ring. “You never want me in your office.”

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