Free I Hear...Love (A Different Road #2) by Annalisa Nicole Page B

there. Maybe he’s slipping a little bit. I go to the pool house, grab my purse, shove my headphones inside, then head to the main house. Joss, River, Nina, and Josh, are all sitting at the table eating breakfast and all conversation stops when I walk in. I glance at Joss, she shakes her head no, then looks at the empty chair at the table. I guess that means I should take my seat. I set my purse in front of me, then look at everyone. At the same time everyone looks at me, then they look at River. I look at River, but his face is tipped downward toward his scrambled eggs.
    “We should get going to work for our morning meeting, so you and Maddy can head out,” Nina says to Joss, then picks up her plate and heads toward the kitchen.
    “Right, we have a full schedule of clients today,” Joss says, picks up her plate, kisses River on the temple, then turns to leave.
    River gently grabs her by the elbow, then slides his hand down her arm until he reaches her hand. He wipes his mouth with a napkin, then stands. He runs the front of his fingers down Joss’s face until he touches her lips, then he kisses her on the lips.
    “I’ll pull the car up,” Josh says, then takes his plate into the kitchen.
    Joss reaches back in, kisses River again, then says, “Have a nice day.”
    She emphasized the word nice and looked at me when she said it. She takes his plate, then goes into the kitchen with everyone else. River taps his finger on top of the table, runs his fingers along the corner, then leaves the table and walks down the hallway to his room.
    It’s a little too stuffy in here, so I grab my purse and walk outside. Everyone was acting really weird. Josh pulls the car up, then gets out as Joss and Nina walk out of the house.
    “Hey, I talked to Cooper and he said he’s going to hire California Chef,” I tell her, excited for them.
    “That’s great! I’ll look when I get to the shop to see if he sent in all of his paperwork, then we’ll get him scheduled right away,” Nina says.
    “Business has been so amazing that we’re quickly exceeding capacity. We’re going to have to hire another chef if we keep getting clients at this rate,” Joss says.
    “You’re going to hire a new chef?” River says, as he comes out of the house.
    “It looks like we might have to soon. Isn’t that exciting?” Joss tells him.
    “Kate secured us a new client this morning,” Nina says, then Joss smacks her in the arm.
    “Ow,” she whispers, rubs her arm, and gives Joss a dirty look. “What the hell was that for?” she asks.
    River sighs loudly, then Joss makes big eyes at Nina. She looks from River to me, then they have this secret eye conversation back and forth. Nina looks pissed that Joss smacked her.
    “Let’s get to the shop,” Joss says to Nina.
    “Fine,” Nina replies, still rubbing her arm.
    On the way to their van, Joss softly elbows Nina with their secret I love you elbow nudge, but Nina doesn’t elbow her back. The two of them are extremely cute together. They’ve known each other since they were little girls, and they have this secret elbow nudge thing they do that secretly, without words, tells the other that they love them. Joss always says that sometimes you may not be able to say it, but you want the other person to know, so that’s what they came up with. Oh my gosh, one day River did it to Joss in front of Nina, and I seriously thought she was going to pop her eyeballs out of her head, she was so jealous. I’ve never seen River do it to Joss again.
    Josh gets out of the driver’s seat and opens River’s door. Joss kisses him one last time, before he gets in the car. Josh opens my door and I get in. He closes my door as Joss and Nina get in their catering van, then they head out of the driveway.
    River sighs loudly, as Josh walks around the vehicle to the driver door. River, again, sighs and it irritates the crap out of me. All of his loud sighing all the time is enough to drive me crazy.
    “What? If you