Free Look Always Forward (Bellingwood Book 11) by Diane Greenwood Muir

brand-new manager at the coffee shop. Are you just going to throw employees at her and expect her to deal with them?"
    "No." Polly stuck her lower lip out.
    "And I don't know what you think you'd do with him at the inn. You don't even have a manager."
    "Whoops," she said.
    Henry put his menu back down again. "What's whoops?"
    Their waitress stopped, took their order, and Henry looked at Polly again. "You said 'whoops.' What does that mean?"
    "We hired Alistair Greyson to manage the inn."
    Henry had started to take a drink of water and instead, put the glass back down on the table. "Who is the we in that equation?"
    "We. You know. Me and Jeff. I had a crazy idea and he ran with it. It's the same deal we made with Eliseo. We'll try this for a month. If it goes well, great, we move forward. If it goes horribly bad, then everyone moves on and we start over. But I like him, Henry. He's a good man."
    "I thought you said he was odd."
    "Well," she chuckled. "That doesn't change whether or not he's a good man. He just happens to have a few odd affectations."
    "Does he have any experience?"
    "Did I?"
    "Well no, but you were building a business, not running someone else's."
    "And I had no business background, no idea what I was going to do once I started. I didn't know anyone in town. I had no connections."
    He put his hand up to stop her. "Okay, okay. I get it. It just seems strange to hire someone like that right off the street."
    "You mean like Eliseo? Or even Jeff for that matter. He walked in for an interview and hired himself."
    "But Jeff had the education. And Eliseo is just ... Eliseo."
    "And Grey is Grey," she retorted. "It's going to be okay. I have a good feeling about this. And besides, Obiwan liked him."
    "If the dog likes him, I guess he's acceptable, then," Henry said.
    "That's right," Polly said. "It's going to be fine. You'll see."
    Henry smiled at her. "Your super power is finding dead bodies, not reading people or having good feelings."
    "Don't start with me. There are going to be no more dead bodies." Polly glanced up and said, "Well, oh my. I wonder who the pretty boy is with her."
    "That's mean. With who? I hate it when you look at things behind me and make cryptic comments."
    "With her," Polly said, grinning and standing up. "Hello Beryl, how are you? You look wonderful this evening." She gave her friend a hug and waited while Henry stood.
    Both Henry and Polly waited an uncomfortable moment for Beryl to introduce the man who was standing beside her.
    He shifted on his feet and Beryl finally broke the silence. "It's nice to see you two this evening. I hope you enjoy your meal."
    She tugged a beautifully knitted black shrug around her shoulders and turned to follow the hostess.
    "Oh no you don't," Polly said, grabbing her arm. "You wouldn't dare."
    "Oh honey, there are so many things that I would dare. Maybe you ought to clarify." Beryl lifted Polly's fingers one by one and then squeezed her hand gently before dropping it.
    Polly put her hand out to the man and said, "I'm Polly Giller and this is my husband Henry Sturtz."
    He shook her hand and then Henry's and finally looked at Beryl, laughter in his eyes.
    Henry couldn't stand it. "Would you two like to join us this evening? We've only just placed our order with the waitress. I'm sure they can put our food on hold until you've ordered."
    "We couldn't," Beryl said. "We have too much to discuss and it would be rude." She took the man's arm and led him away from the table, looking back over her shoulder at Polly with an immense smile on her face.
    Polly and Henry sat back down and Polly just looked at him. "I don't know what to think about that," she said.
    "What just happened?"
    "Is she on a date?"
    "Surely you would have heard about a hot date. Wouldn't you?"
    Polly craned her neck to see where they'd been seated. "You'd think. Was she just being rotten by not introducing him to us? And how did he avoid the introduction so gracefully? I gave him a perfect lead-in