Here in My Heart: A Novella (Echoes of the Heart) by Anna DeStefano Page B
Authors: Anna DeStefano
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and see all this mess.”
The girls giggled. Several nearby families looked over and smiled. The night’s success, the perfect community vibe of it, kicked up another level for Dru.
Vivian had been right. Dru and Brad made a good team. A great team, where the Whip was concerned. And working together was helping them say good-bye to a very special lady, in precisely the way Vivian had wanted. They had found a way to become friends again through all of this. Adult friends, free of the past that had torn them apart.
She swallowed a flutter of panic at the thought of watching Brad leave her and Chandlerville behind a second time.
“Dru?” Travis asked.
She blinked back to the dining room. The girls and the adults circled around her were staring as if she’d grown two heads. All but Joe and Travis. Her foster father and brother were sporting identical worried expressions that she’d seen on their faces more than once since November. Neither had brought up Vi’s will or asked for details about Dru and Brad’s working agreement. But her family had made it clear they were keeping an eye on her.
“Sorry.” She pulled at the hem of her WHIP IT GOOD! staff T-shirt.
The tees had been another of Brad’s suggestions, to boost staff identity and morale. Customers had soon demanded their own. A fresh batch was on its way from the designer, to be sold at the counter. Vivian had her very own shirt, which she’d worn proudly at Harmony Grove, along with her pearls.
“You’re my dream team tonight,” Dru told the girls. “I’m needed behind the counter, giving the staff oxygen. You’re earning time and a half for hazard duty,” she said to Sally. “And Lisa, I’ve got a WHIP IT T-shirt waiting for you at the end of the night.” The younger girl wasn’t old enough yet to officially be paid a salary. “Plus two free shakes a week for the rest of the school year. Deal?”
“Deal!” The girls took off.
“You’re good for them.” Marsha smiled. She rested her head on Joe’s shoulder.
“Sally idolizes you,” Charlotte agreed. “She says she wants to help Lisa and the other kids in town as much as you do. She’s been talking with Kristen Hemmings and Mallory Lombard at the elementary school about doing a student internship once she gets to high school. Maybe becoming a teacher or a school counselor or a social worker one day. She’s seen the difference community leaders like you ladies can make.”
Marsha nodded in agreement, looking proud.
“Your kids are the amazing ones,” Dru said.
Sally was a gentle, encouraging spirit, despite the trauma she’d survived. Lisa was still fighting to make Chandlerville her home, no matter how many setbacks she’d faced. Dru gazed around at the warm, overcrowded restaurant.
“This town is what’s amazing.”
A shock of longing, of wishing she could bottle up tonight so she’d have this perfect moment with her always, sent her rushing toward the front counter before anyone noticed. She caught Travis watching her scoot through the hip-high swinging door that led behind the counter to the registers.
Rubbing her forehead just outside the kitchen, thinking of her and Brad and Vivian and everything that suddenly felt as if it were slipping away, not looking where she was going, she pushed through the kitchen doors and plowed into whoever was standing on the other side of them. A tray clattered to the floor as they went down. Dishes broke in a deafening crash. A strong body absorbed the impact of their fall. And just for a second, she let her head rest against the shoulder she’d been protectively pressed to.
Dazed, her thoughts clamored to the image of Marsha doing the same thing outside with Joe.
“Are you okay?” Brad asked. He held Dru closer, just the way she’d longed for him to for weeks. “I’ve got you.”
Dru was letting Brad hold her, in front of the kitchen staff and anyone in the dining room who caught sight of them through the swinging doors.
The girls giggled. Several nearby families looked over and smiled. The night’s success, the perfect community vibe of it, kicked up another level for Dru.
Vivian had been right. Dru and Brad made a good team. A great team, where the Whip was concerned. And working together was helping them say good-bye to a very special lady, in precisely the way Vivian had wanted. They had found a way to become friends again through all of this. Adult friends, free of the past that had torn them apart.
She swallowed a flutter of panic at the thought of watching Brad leave her and Chandlerville behind a second time.
“Dru?” Travis asked.
She blinked back to the dining room. The girls and the adults circled around her were staring as if she’d grown two heads. All but Joe and Travis. Her foster father and brother were sporting identical worried expressions that she’d seen on their faces more than once since November. Neither had brought up Vi’s will or asked for details about Dru and Brad’s working agreement. But her family had made it clear they were keeping an eye on her.
“Sorry.” She pulled at the hem of her WHIP IT GOOD! staff T-shirt.
The tees had been another of Brad’s suggestions, to boost staff identity and morale. Customers had soon demanded their own. A fresh batch was on its way from the designer, to be sold at the counter. Vivian had her very own shirt, which she’d worn proudly at Harmony Grove, along with her pearls.
“You’re my dream team tonight,” Dru told the girls. “I’m needed behind the counter, giving the staff oxygen. You’re earning time and a half for hazard duty,” she said to Sally. “And Lisa, I’ve got a WHIP IT T-shirt waiting for you at the end of the night.” The younger girl wasn’t old enough yet to officially be paid a salary. “Plus two free shakes a week for the rest of the school year. Deal?”
“Deal!” The girls took off.
“You’re good for them.” Marsha smiled. She rested her head on Joe’s shoulder.
“Sally idolizes you,” Charlotte agreed. “She says she wants to help Lisa and the other kids in town as much as you do. She’s been talking with Kristen Hemmings and Mallory Lombard at the elementary school about doing a student internship once she gets to high school. Maybe becoming a teacher or a school counselor or a social worker one day. She’s seen the difference community leaders like you ladies can make.”
Marsha nodded in agreement, looking proud.
“Your kids are the amazing ones,” Dru said.
Sally was a gentle, encouraging spirit, despite the trauma she’d survived. Lisa was still fighting to make Chandlerville her home, no matter how many setbacks she’d faced. Dru gazed around at the warm, overcrowded restaurant.
“This town is what’s amazing.”
A shock of longing, of wishing she could bottle up tonight so she’d have this perfect moment with her always, sent her rushing toward the front counter before anyone noticed. She caught Travis watching her scoot through the hip-high swinging door that led behind the counter to the registers.
Rubbing her forehead just outside the kitchen, thinking of her and Brad and Vivian and everything that suddenly felt as if it were slipping away, not looking where she was going, she pushed through the kitchen doors and plowed into whoever was standing on the other side of them. A tray clattered to the floor as they went down. Dishes broke in a deafening crash. A strong body absorbed the impact of their fall. And just for a second, she let her head rest against the shoulder she’d been protectively pressed to.
Dazed, her thoughts clamored to the image of Marsha doing the same thing outside with Joe.
“Are you okay?” Brad asked. He held Dru closer, just the way she’d longed for him to for weeks. “I’ve got you.”
Dru was letting Brad hold her, in front of the kitchen staff and anyone in the dining room who caught sight of them through the swinging doors.
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