Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 05 - Gems & Gunshots by Laina Turner Page B

I still needed to shower and then find my way there. “How about two thirty?”
    “Sounds good. I look forward to it.”
    “Me, too. See you in a bit.” I hung up and put my phone down, a little surprised that she seemed in such a good mood. But I was very interested in having lunch and seeing what had been going on with her in the last twenty–four hours. Had it really only been that long since she’d been here? It seemed like a week, so much had happened. I looked at my watch. I needed to get moving. But even though I was on vacation, the girls at the boutique had still been emailing questions and keeping me in the loop with everything that was going on and I needed to respond. I didn’t mind. It felt good to be missed and I just looked at the questions as job security. Not that I had any worries that James, the owner, would try and replace me. I also noticed, looking at my watch, that I was missing one of the crystals that surrounded the face. I wondered if it was fixable or if it was going to give me a great excuse to buy a new watch.
    I became engrossed in email and time flew. Next time I looked at my watch it was almost one fifteen, which meant I had to really hurry. Forty–five minutes later I was walking out the door. I had decided to wear my hair back in a French twist so I didn’t have to take time drying it. To go with this more elegant updo I chose a soft pink baby doll dress and cream–colored sandals. It allowed me to wear one of the new pieces of acrylic jewelry I had bought in the shop that Amelia had told me about last time, and I couldn’t wait to show her.
    I pulled in to Smitty’s just a few minutes late. Not bad, considering I made a wrong turn and it took me forever to double back because of construction. As I was walking up to the restaurant, I heard someone call my name. I turned toward the patio seating and it was Amelia waving in my direction.
    “Come around here through the gate, Presley. That way you don’t have to go all the way around the front and walk through the restaurant.”
    I saw where she was pointing and followed her instructions. The patio area was a large rectangle shaded partly by a big awning and partly umbrellas for the tables closer to the edge. It was so amazing to be able to eat outside almost every single meal thanks to the weather here. I could so get used to this. When I got to the table, the waiter was there taking Amelia’s drink order.
    “I’m having a raspberry martini. They’re delicious here,” Amelia said.
    “I’ll have the same then,” I said to the waiter, sitting down across for Amelia.
    “Okay, ladies, I’ll have these right out and give you a few minutes to look over the menu.”
    “Amelia, I’m so glad you called.” I had decided on the way over I was just going to clear the air right away so I didn’t have to keep wondering what she might or might not be thinking. “I wasn’t sure if you were mad at me and I didn’t want to bother you.”
    “Why on earth would I be mad at you? I feel bad for not calling you since I’m the one who got you involved in my sordid issues. It’s just been hectic with some charity stuff that got sprung on me at the last minute. The downside of being efficient I guess,” she said smiling.
    “Well, I just thought after all that stuff that we found out about Greg… I know Cooper wasn’t very happy with me. You know how things get misconstrued and escalate into giant proportions not worthy of the issue in the first place.”
    “Oh, heavens no. That’s one of the reasons I called you. I wanted to share the good news with you and tell you how silly I was being for bringing up the notion that Greg was doing something underhanded.”
    “Well, don’t keep me in suspense,” I said, as the waiter came up and set our drinks on the table quietly and motioned he would give us a couple more minutes to look at the menu, since he could tell we hadn’t even opened our menus to look at anything yet.
    Amelia set