Free Discovering Pride (Pride Series) by Jill Sanders

and Todd’s sister?” Bridget jumped in smiling.
     
    Of the two, Bridget was the one that Lacey despised the most. Bridget had moved away from Pride after graduation and Lacey knew she’d married a Lawyer in Portland. Where Stacie had stayed in town and married the High School quarterback, who now worked across the river at a mill. Lacey still didn’t travel in the circles they did; actually, she made a point to stay clear of them.
     
    Lacey nodded and knew she’d be unable to take their orders until they had played out their game. She might as well go along with it.
     
    “ So you’re still working here, how quaint. I was just talking to Stacie about this place the other day. I haven’t been back into town since I moved to Portland. I can’t believe the old place is still standing.  We decided to take the kids for a ride down memory lane. These are my four here, two boys and two girls. Stacie has three boys there and this is our friend Beth along with her two girls.” Bridget nodded to the two girls at the table who were sitting quietly coloring on the kids’ menus. Of all the children, Lacey noticed the best behaved of the children didn’t belong to either Stacie or Bridget.
     
    Lacey looked at the small woman whose blonde hair was pulled back in a neat braid that reached down the middle of her back. She had a polite smile on her face and appeared to be embarrassed by the rudeness of her two friends.
     
    Lacey returned the smile. “Nice to meet you Beth I’m Lacey Jordan, owner of the Golden Oar.  Welcome.” With that said both Stacie and Bridget let out duel breaths that sounded more like hissing.
     
    “ You have beautiful girls, have you two decided what you want like to eat?” Lacey leaned over and saw that the girls were drawing with crayons trying to mimic the large painting of the green mermaid on the opposite wall.  Their little blonde heads were bent together as if they were trying to keep out all of the other loud noises from the children who were currently running around the table screaming.
     
    She smiled at the pair. “My Grandmother drew that picture years ago; you girls have some talent.”
     
    “ Thank you.”  Both girls said in unison with eyes wide open at Lacey. 
     
    The older girl ordered her meal followed by the younger, then their mother followed by everyone else.
     
    When she was done taking orders, the smallest of Beth’s girls pulled on her apron.
    “See, I drew ’d you.” Lacey bent down next to the girl. She saw what she assumed was a copy of her Grandmother’s mermaid and next to the figure was a Pixy with large purple wings. 
     
    “Why, that looks just like me. Good job!” she smiled.
     
    A half an hour later, Lacey walked back into the kitchen her feet hurt and now her head hurt. The headache began when Stacie started talking about the new hunk doctor that had moved into town and how she’d set appointments for all of her kids just to get a better look at him. Lacey tried to avoid listening in, but Stacie had such a big mouth, she could barely hear herself think over her voice.
     
    Two hours later, she no longer had a headache; instead her head felt like it was going to explode. The place was packed with mothers and their screaming kids. Apparently it had been the last day at school before the Thanksgiving break, so of course everyone within two counties had decided to come into the Golden Oar to eat.
     
    Lacey even called for backup and had hastily promoted Katie from greeter to waiting tables.  Katie was a hard worker and deserved the promotion. Plus, she had been working at the restaurant for almost two years, so she knew all the ropes.
     
    It took seven more wait staff and two more hours to clear the place out. They had about four hours before they needed to start getting ready for the dinner rush. 
     
    Lacey sat at an empty table with a soft drink and some aspirin; she didn’t think she would make it through the