“Yes, “Briana admitted. “But you have to keep that to yourself. Seriously, no one else knows about that.”
“Wow.”
Briana shushed Kara when a couple of servers walked in to pick up their orders. She looked over as Bert came in from the back to join her for the night shift.
“So happy you could make it, Bert,” she said sarcastically, watching Kara as she backed out of the room.
“What?” Bert asked, stoned as usual.
“You were supposed to be here two hours ago. I’ve been slammed.”
“Whoa…chill, Bree. I just walked in and you’re going all ‘Nagging Mom’ on me,” Bert countered, holding up his hands.
What was with the guys at work today?
“Okay, well, since you’re here now, I’m going to take a quick break,” she said, trying to decide if she should go out the back door, or stop being a chicken and go through the dining room.
She held her head up and walked out the swinging door into the dining room. She tried to look straight ahead, but could hear the sound of Colin’s dad’s laugh and had to smile. She turned her head slightly and caught Rich’s eye.
Shit.
He put his hand up as if to wave, then stood and pushed away from the table. He said something to Colin, causing him to look over at her. He kept looking at Briana as Rich walked up to her, but she focused on Rich.
“Hey, Bree,” Rich said as he got closer, opening his arms to pull her into a hug.
She let herself be enveloped by his arms, her head barely coming to the middle of his chest. She smiled as she smelled his familiar cologne and was surprised by how happy she was to see him.
“Hi, Richie,” She said as she pulled back and smiled up at him.
“Girl, you’re the only one who can call me that and live,” he said, returning her smile.
He really was hot, she thought, studying his shaggy brown hair, hazel eyes, and the sweet little cleft in his chin. He put his finger under her chin, holding her face up so she kept looking at him.
“You doin’ good, Bree?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
“I miss you at school,” he admitted dropping his hand and putting both hands in his pockets as he rocked back on his heels.
“I’ve missed you, too.” She looked at him for another moment, then said, “I only have a couple minutes left on my break, so I’ve gotta run. But we need to catch up while you’re home.”
“Sounds good. See ya, Bree,” he said, grinning as he walked backwards towards his table.
Briana grinned back, then looked over and saw that Colin still watched her. Her grin vanished. She walked out the front door, hoping to get some air before going back into the kitchen.
Luckily the rest of the night was uneventful, and after dealing with a hangover that morning and the craziness of her shift, Briana opted to go home rather than go out.
Chapter Four
“So, what was all of that last night with Bree?” Colin asked Rich, who was pulling himself up into Colin’s truck.
Rich looked over at him and shrugged. “Nothin’ much. I just haven’t seen her in a while. She left A & M pretty abruptly and I haven’t been home a lot since then, so I wanted to see how she’s been doing. Why?”
Colin looked at him thoughtfully, then back out at the road as he pulled away from Rich’s folk’s house. “I don’t know. You guys seemed pretty tight is all,” he said. “I’ve never seen you hug her like that.”
“It was no big deal, man. Just sayin’ hi.” Rich shrugged again and propped his boots up on the dashboard.
Colin knew that he should just let it go. He’d lost any claim he had on Bree four years ago, but he couldn’t help but feel like there was more to the story.