She didn’t rely on Gray in the later years, or want to talk to him about anything more than plans for Simon or paying the bills, something he’d started neglecting those last months. Luke was different—he was solid. Determined. And far too distracting for her liking.
And she could talk to him for hours. That was...nice.
“Friends, huh?” Paige smiled. “Sounds like a good place to start.”
“Is that what you had with Charlie’s father?” Holly’s effort to change the subject made her realize how little she knew about Paige and her life before Butterfly Harbor.
Paige’s hand slipped and she dropped the tray of saltshakers. Without hesitating, she tossed a fingerful over her left shoulder and muttered, “For luck.” Then she responded, “Not exactly.”
Holly didn’t push. She recognized the same hesitant tone she’d have used had she voiced her previous thoughts about Gray. It was too soon for those types of confidences, she supposed. But get Abby in the room with them, maybe a couple bottles of wine and a tearjerker of a love story on the TV...and who knew what secrets might be divulged. Something to keep in mind.
“Simon, how did your walk with grandpa and Sheriff Saxon go?” Holly tried again.
“Good.” Finally, an actual spoken word.
“Obviously,” Holly muttered. She didn’t know what worried her more: an overattentive, plotting Simon or a sullen, silent one. Something was bothering her son, and she’d bet it had something to with Charlie’s sudden aversion to the diner. “Where did you guys go the other day?”
“Around.”
“Don’t you wish there was a button to push,” Paige said with a weary shake of her head, “to make them talk even when they don’t want to.”
“We’d make a bloody fortune.”
“Why don’t you take off early tonight, let me close up,” Paige offered.
Holly frowned. She’d never let anyone else close the diner before. Sure, she let Ursula open, but that was different.
“Take Simon home, have a mom-and-son night. Maybe he’ll let his guard down and tell you what’s going on.”
“Then I can call you and fill you in?”
Paige’s too-innocent eye blink reminded Holly of one of those carnival dolls. “Why, what a great idea.”
“You and me.” Holly did the double-finger point at Paige. “Simpatico. Totally.”
“It’s slow.” Paige and Holly scanned the whole two tables of customers. “Want to run me through your system?”
Control freak that she was, the doubt Holly had about trusting anyone else with her diner quickly took a backseat at the prospect of spending some quality time with her son. Now was her chance to stop lamenting not being able to enjoy Simon’s solitary company.
“Yeah, that would be great. I have a checklist—”
“Of course you do.” Paige beamed. “Let me run up and tell Charlie I’ll be later than usual.”
“Simon?” Holly rapped her knuckles on the counter to get her son’s attention. “Paige is going to close the diner for us. How about pizza and a movie tonight?”
“Really?” Simon’s eyes bulged. Guilt nibbled along the edge of Holly’s heart. How could such a simple thing bring such unexpected—and suspicious—joy? “You mean it?”
“I do. It is Friday. Give me until five, okay? Then it’ll be just you and me.”
Whatever light had been lacking in Simon’s eyes exploded. “Yeah, okay. What movie?”
“Whatever you want.” And Holly would probably live to regret it.
“Awesome! Thanks, Mom.”
“Don’t thank me, thank Paige,” Holly said.
“I will.”
After this morning, she hadn’t thought her day could get much better. “Then I will go order the pizza.” A full evening with her son with nothing more to worry about than him overdosing on pepperoni and sausage?
Things were definitely spinning her way.
* * *
“NO OFFENSE,” JAKE said from beside Luke as they sat in pitch-blackness in the station’s outer office. “But this is not my preferred way to spend a Friday evening.”
“Yeah, well.” Luke stretched out his legs, set down his empty soda can and shoved the empty pizza box to the side. “Dining in the dark wasn’t at the top of my to-do list, either.”
“It’s after eight,” Jake said. “Simon’s usually in bed by nine.”
“We gave him enough telling him we’d be looking at the security footage in the morning. If he doesn’t take the bait—” Luke shrugged, then realized Jake couldn’t see him “—I’ll admit I was wrong and hope making him a junior deputy is enough to get me off his radar.”