Wildflowers by Robin Jones Gunn Read Free Book Online Page B

dining room.
    The good thing about the kitchen being blocked off from the customers was that no one could see her husband perched on the counter eating strawberry cheesecake or her daughter using the telephone on the back wall.
    “What was the idea about the tables?” Steven asked again.
    “Shelly and Jonathan out at Camp Heather Brook want to buy all the tables and chairs from the café and use them at the camp. They told us this morning and asked if we could deliver them before Shelly’s May Day event in two weeks.”
    Steven looked confused. “Why would you sell the tables?”
    “They’re too big. Most of our diners are couples or groups of four. The tables are so large people have to raise their voices to have conversations. The other problem is that the chairs are uncomfortable.”
    Steven nodded and licked the back of his fork. “I noticed that.”
    Genevieve looked at her husband. “Did you say anything about it to me before?”
    “No. I thought it would be pointless since you had just bought them.”
    “I think that’s what everybody thought. I didn’t make a good choice on the tables and chairs. Selling them to Shelly and Jonathan would give me enough money to start over.”
    “Are you going to install booths like they had here before?” Steven asked.
    “No, I was thinking of smaller tables. Leah suggested a mixture of different sizes, shapes, and colors. She saw several at the antique store, but I’m not convinced that all that color and contrast would work.”
    “I liked the booths by the windows,” Steven said. “They were comfortable and more private.”
    “Yes, but remember all the torn places on the vinyl seats and how they had repaired them with duct tape?”
    Steven nodded and placed his plate and fork in the sink. “Except for that, I liked the booths. But they were old. Maybe something manufactured during this millennium would stand the wear and tear better.” He came over towhere Genevieve was cleaning the stove and wrapped his arms around her waist. “How about if you and I go to the coast this weekend?”
    “This weekend?” Genevieve asked.
    “Yeah, this weekend. How about it?”
    “We could get away on Sunday afternoon,” Genevieve said. “The girls have been wanting to go back to the tide pools ever since we were there last August.”
    “I meant just the two of us. For the whole weekend.” Steven kissed Genevieve’s neck.
    She was about to say she couldn’t leave the café, but Leah entered and said, “Okay, you two, I saw that. No kissing the cook when she’s working.”
    Steven pressed a deliberate kiss on Genevieve’s cheek. “I’ll make all the arrangements. We can leave tomorrow as soon as you close up shop. I have to fly out on Monday.”
    “Monday?” Genevieve turned and looked at Steven. “You just got back. Why so soon?”
    “Route changes. On Monday I fly to Denver for a meeting.”
    “How can you fly again so soon? Aren’t you supposed to have a longer layover? That doesn’t seem right. Are you sure you have to go?”
    Genevieve didn’t care if her daughter on the phone or Leah, who was loading the dishwasher, heard her less than cordial response to Steven’s announcement.
    “I have to be there for the meeting,” he said. “And I won’t be the pilot on the flight to Hong Kong. I’m one of a dozen pilots who are being cross trained for a new route. I’ll bethere for three days, and then I return and connect with my usual route from Singapore.”
    The details only confused Genevieve.
    Steven kissed her again. “I told Mallory I’d pick her up after soccer practice. Think about this weekend and tell me when you get home.” Turning to Anna, he said, “Are you ready to go, Sunshine?”
    The two of them were about to leave when Leah closed up the dishwasher and asked Steven, “So what do you think about our idea to sell the tables and chairs?”
    “Whatever you want to do is fine with me.”
    Genevieve clenched her teeth. For years Steven