“Hi back, the other two are in the meeting room. What can I get you to drink? I have mint iced tea today.”

“Sounds great. That will be two BLTs with mint tea,” Amalia answered.

“Fries, potato salad, or green salad, oh, and coleslaw.”

“More decisions. I’ll take potato salad. Ginny?”

“Make it easy, me too.” They took their drinks and headed to the room at the back, answering greetings as they went. Ginny managed to answer a how-you-doing question without it throwing her into tears.

“Whew,” she said as she set her things down. “Made it.”

“Good for you.” MJ reached over and patted her hand. “Sit and be comfortable. Did you get the mint tea?”

“Hey, long time no see.” Roxie grinned at her. “Amalia, how’s life at the home?”

“My lanai is being taken over by plants and bird feeders. Any spare room left and Jehoshaphat uses that. At least the people down below have not complained. I hope they like birds. They don’t know about the monster cat.” She looked at Sean, who was their waiter today. “Thanks, good job.”

“I just follow instructions.”

“Ah, that’s the mark of a good employee,” MJ added.

He finished handing out the plates of food. “Now, can I get you anything else? Refills on the iced tea?” When they all nodded, he said, “I’ll be right back.”

Amalia commented, “This is his second summer working here. Addy told me one day she plans to work here, as soon as she is old enough.”

MJ snorted. “She’ll have such a big cookie business by that time, she’ll be hiring some of us.”

“MJ”—Ginny paused—“you really think so?”

“What’s stopping her?”

Ginny shrugged. “You better talk with her. All I know right now is that she has two orders of three dozen cookies each to bring to the UFO group. Her oatmeal-plus are her most popular so far.”

A woman dressed in pink capris, pink slip-ons, and a pink T-shirt stopped at their table to chat. After greetings, she smiled at Roxie. “Who is that handsome man you were with at the movies last week? He looks so familiar.”

Roxie nodded. “His name is Rich Owens.”

“The same family that owns the furniture chain?”

“Yes.”

Amalia took a bite of her sandwich. Interesting. One couldn’t get away with anything in this town. When the woman waved and left, Amalia wiggled her eyebrows at Roxie. “Do you have something you were just waiting to tell us?”

“Yeah,” MJ chimed in. “Looks that way to me.”

Roxie rolled her eyes. “It’s no big deal. He’s Nate’s father, the young man who I told you has reconnected with Loren. They knew each other in high school. We had a barbeque at his house a couple of weeks ago and saw a movie last Friday, oh, and went sailing once.”

“And?”

“And Nate and Loren are seeing more of each other and talking on the phone and…” She dropped her voice. “I think he is really interested in her, and he is a charming young man with a great deal of depth.”