“Nice to see you again, Harper. And what can I get for you, sir?” Waylon looked over to Rhett.
“I’ll have the same.” Rhett pointed to my drink.
“Coming right up.” Waylon made quick work of mixing the cocktail.
After introducing the guys, I turned to Rhett. “How was work?”
“It was…interesting. One of our guests was arrested this morning.” Rhett shot me a knowing smile with the cutest wink.
“You don’t say?” I played along. “That must have been crazy.”
“Oh, it really was. The lady had a really hot attorney with her so I’m sure everything worked out in the end for poor Mrs. Reynolds.”
“That it did,” I boasted.
“I’ll cheers to that.” He raised his glass to mine.
“Everything all right with Noah?”
He nodded quickly. “The boys were playing video games in the study when I left the inn.”
“Do you and your family live at The Forsyth House?”
“Would it be totally unsexy if I admitted that?” Rhett stared at his drink.
I put my hand on his shoulder. “Not at all. I think it’s sweet.”
“After my mom got sick, I moved in to take care of her and run the business. When Mark got out of the Army, it seemed like the perfect place for them to settle down. It’s nice having my sister and her family close. It was hard when Mom died.” His eyes grew wide when he finished his story. “That was a lot of information. I’m sorry.”
“No. I’m interested, and it’s nice that you’re so close with your family. Too many people aren’t these days.” I played with the lemon on the rim of my glass.
“I feel like there is a story there,” he said softly, baiting me.
“There’s nothing much to tell. I don’t have a lot of family. Dad died when I was eleven, and my mom is soaking up rays in Pompano Beach.”
“Y’all don’t talk much?”
“She calls weekly, on Sundays like clockwork. We go through the normal highlights—how work is going, what friends of hers have gossip, why haven’t I given her grandchildren yet—the normal shit.”
Rhett laughed. “That’s mothers for you, though. At least she attempts to keep in touch.”
“Exactly. It’s the effort that matters.”
“So what else? What makes Harper tick?”
I chewed on my cheek.What does make me tick?
“Work takes up most of my time, and I have a group of best friends from college I hang out with mostly.” It seemed so lame, but that was really all she wrote. I didn’t have hobbies. I didn’t have time to read more than a book every couple of months.
“That’s awesome that you have friends from college you’re still so close with.”
Waylon brought us another round without asking and laid food menus down in front of us before asking,
“Are we having dinner this evening?”
“I’m starving,” I admitted quickly.
“Me too.”