Joshua watched in awe, unable to quit staring. He’d flustered the waitress, who still remained nameless. He managed to turn her cheeks a beautiful shade of rosy pink right before she darted away. Covertly, he’d glanced at her as often as he could without looking like a stalker. Watching her with the little boy stopped him cold.
He was unable to look away as her smile lit up the room when she saw the child. The way she morphed from a shy woman to an obviously loving person did something funny to his heart. She was piercing holes in his bachelorhood armor without even knowing it. The little boy was cute, but when Joshua saw another woman walk by them behind the counter, it was clear who he looked identical to, and the waitress could only be someone he knew well.
They were deep in concentration over something, and Joshua wished he could be the one she was talking to. Her eyes closed, a stunning smile graced her face as she hugged the little boy, and Joshua was sunk. If he hadn’t known better, Joshua would have said that his mother and Bill had plotted this entire scenario out themselves. Yet he’d arrived too early to show up at Bill and Lessy’s home, so he’d come to the town’s only open restaurant to waste an hour or two. Plus, Bill had never mentioned anything other than officially introducing him to Lessy and catching up while he was in town, not trying to set him up on a blind date.
He pulled out his phone, scrolled through his work emails, and deleted all the ones he could. Joshua peered at the Rolex on his left wrist, sneaked another glance at the waitress, responded to a necessary email, and repeated the process for a tortuous forty minutes more until he had to leave. He couldn’t help but look for her, watch her move through the diner, waiting on other customers, and she hadn’t come back to his table even once to check on him.
At any other restaurant in the world, he’d consider this the worst service he’d ever received. Joshua knew he’d embarrassed the poor young woman, or worse, scared her. He couldn’t blame her, and if they had a bigger staff, she’d probably have begged someone else to come bring him his check. Instead of calling her over, he pulled a twenty out of his money clip and tucked the corner under his mug, so the coffee and tip were paid for. With one more glance over his shoulder, he watched her for a long minute, visiting happily with a couple at a table. Sighing, Joshua walked outside into the sunshine. Gone were the clouds that had hidden the sun upon his arrival in town.
He’d never been one to look for signs from the Goddess above or believed too wholeheartedly in Fate. Oh, he knew of Fate—everyone did—yet he tried never to tempt her into jacking with his life. After all, she had powers no one’s magic could outrank. But clouds and gloom, then sunny with chirping birds? He didn’t have those kinds of black-and-white moments back in Vermont. Clearly, he needed about thirty-two more ounces of caffeine, stat.
He stepped up over the curb and began walking along the sidewalk as he peered into the storefronts, trying to remember exactly how Bill had described Holiday Magic. Through the front window of one of the buildings on an otherwise bare wood wall, a glass doorknob twinkled, catching his attention.
“Ah, this must be the place.” Joshua pushed open the front door to an empty, but not vandalized, store. As he walked toward the glass knob, a discreet wood panel opened for him before he could even reach for it. Once he was inside with the door shut behind him, everything seemed to burst with color and happy conversation. Decorations for every holiday filled all the shelves and hanging brackets along the walls.
“Holy shit, you’re here. Man, it’s been forever,” Bill said.
Joshua neared him as his friend placed a plain brown shipping box on the counter. The stuffiness required of his needy upper-class clients vanished, and he relaxed for the first time since his last camping trip with Bill well over a year prior.
The last few months, he’d not stopped to notice the stress weighing on him as he’d worked his way toward one promotion after another. Even traveling wasn’t enjoyable anymore, yet he hadn’t realized what he was missing until he was able to let his guard down upon seeing his college buddy.
A petite young blonde with a pixie-cut bob and a kind smile turned around and greeted him. In all his life, he’d avoided the “L” word with every fiber of his being. Yet, the way she stared up at his friend, her husband, with complete adoration in her eyes could have damn near knocked the wind out of Joshua.
“Less, honey, come here. I have to introduce you—this is Joshua Englewoodie. Goddess, it’s about time, man. I can’t believe you finally made it.” Bill clasped his shoulder.
“Joshua, it’s so nice to meet you in person,” Lessy replied with a grin. “Billy has been driving me batty with stories.”
He cleared his head and put his hand up. “Oh Goddess, no. Please, I have to stop you and beg you not to believe one word this fool has to say about me. Lies, all of them, lies, I tell you. Dude, bro code? Doesn’t it mean anything anymore?” Joshua chuckled, thinking of all the tales he could appear really awful in.
“No, I promise, he spoke very highly of you,” Lessy replied.
Bill’s wife looked identical to the picture his friend carried in his wallet and had shown him years prior. Joshua knew he had been the first person Bill called after her parents imploded her family, nearly killing Bill in the process. How she could still have such a kind demeanor was beyond him. If he’d been in her shoes, Joshua knew he would have turned into a gruff, hateful hermit. She was everything his best friend bragged about, and he was happy for Bill, yet Joshua still remained steadfast in his determination not to run off and get hitched like his friend had. She glanced back up at Bill, and their mutual attraction was enough to knock Joshua off his axis again.
Joshua had no clue what it was between the two of them. He knew his parents loved each other, traveled together, joked, drank, ate out together. But these two, if he’d seen them before he’d walked into that damn diner, he’d have been gagging because they were so sweet on each other.
The waitress. Fuck a duck.
He had to get back out of town. This little Assjacket lovefest was not going to infect him and his glorious plan never to change his ways.
“You’re sweet to lie to my face, Lessy. I appreciate it. I know Bill better than that.” He winked at her. “He loves dishing out dirt on us. At least I know I’m nowhere close to being as self-absorbed as our bud Vic.”
Her cheeks flushed, revealing the truth.
“I knew it. Bill, you old dog, you have been spilling secrets.” Joshua shook his head. “Eh, Lessy, stick with me, I’ll fill you in on what you need to know about your hubby.”
“Billy is perfect.”
Joshua coughed and hacked at her statement and the starry look in her eyes. “What the fuck kind of spell did you cast on this poor sweet little witch of yours?” He teasingly punched Bill’s upper arm.
Bill raised his hands, palms out. “I did no such thing. You’ll see over the next few days. I am extremely perfect.”
Joshua rolled his eyes and pretended to gag again. There was no way they could find out anything about the gal at the diner. Joshua didn’t even know her name. Yet, thinking about her was seriously screwing with his lower half. He moved to stand on the other side of their store’s antique counter.
His mother wanted him to settle down like Bill had, but Bill and Lessy were so sickly sweet and goo-goo lovey-dovey about each other that Joshua became even more sure of his decision to remain a bachelor. There was no way in hell’s blue blazes that he wanted to become whipped like Bill. Despite the sincere smile on his friend’s face, Joshua knew his own destiny, and it was not to end up dopey like Bill.
There is a difference between dopey and horny.
Joshua just needed to transport home as soon as possible. Then his joke about biting her came flooding back to his mind, and his pants became even more uncomfortable.