on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Alexis hugged Candi again and offered a polite nod to Lauren, who practically deflated in relief that she wasn’t going to have to fake an embrace. Noah did the handshake thing with Elliott first and then Cayden, who then quickly ushered his wife and children to their car.
Alexis stopped in front of Elliott. “So.”
“You’ll call me if you need anything, right?” he asked.
It was such a dad thing to say that Alexis almost laughed. She shoved her hands inside her coat pockets. “I guess I’ll see you in two weeks?”
He quirked a smile. “I don’t know if we’re at the hugging stage yet, but I’m willing if you are.”
Alexis laughed for real this time and stepped forward. His arms came around her for a brief squeeze. When he released her, she backed up and felt Noah’s hand on her back.
“Drive safe,” Elliott said.
“You too,” Noah responded.
They watched silently as Lauren, Elliott, and Candi walked to their car.
“Ready?” Noah asked.
Alexis turned and hauled his mouth down to hers for a hard, fast kiss. “You’re a good man, Noah Logan.”
“Don’t tell anyone. It’ll ruin my reputation.”
She kissed him again, lingering this time with meaning. “Drive fast.”
“You in a hurry for something?”
“Yeah,” she said. “We have two weeks until this surgery. Let’s not waste a minute of it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Alexis had been right. Getting ready for as many as two weeks away from the café was a full-time job all its own. Now, with just two days until the surgery, Alexis held another meeting with Jessica to go over the schedule, what to do in case of emergencies, and—because she absolutely needed another complication—how to handle the upcoming zoning board meeting tomorrow evening.
Alexis wouldn’t be there, obviously, so she’d pulled together all the documentation the board would need to make a decision. Jessica had agreed to sit through the meeting just in case. But for now, Jessica was more concerned with Alexis’s pre-op binder. “Wow, you can’t lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for six weeks?”
“Can we focus on the zoning board meeting for a second?”
Jessica closed the binder and folded her hands primly on the table. “Sorry. Of course.”
“Karen will probably lie,” Alexis said. “And she’ll definitely say things that make you mad. But you have to just bite your tongue and ignore it, okay?”
Jessica pursed her lips. “Easier said than done. I hate that woman.”
“She knows it, too, and the best gift we could give her would be to throw some kind of fit at the meeting. Just let her present her case and direct the zoning board to all our documentation if they have any questions.” Alexis took Jessica’s hand. “Remember, we’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Exactly. Which is why I wish we could fight fire with fire. The Karens of the world—”
“Are not worth our time or energy,” Alexis finished for her.
Jessica didn’t look convinced, but nor did she argue the point. Maybe, like Noah, she’d given up on trying to convince her to Hulk out on people.
Alexis went through the rest of her agenda items, thanked Jessica profusely for agreeing to stay with Beefcake again while Alexis was gone, and then gathered up her stuff.
“I’ll be in my office,” she said over her shoulder as she walked through the kitchen door. She sank into her chair, propped her feet on the desk, and dropped her head against the back of the chair. Almost done. Just a few more things on her to-do list, and she would actually be ready to go.
“Hey, wait!”
Jessica’s voice brought Alexis’s head up, just in time to hear the kitchen door swing open with a violent crash.
Alexis jumped up, walked out of her office, and nearly collided with a seething, furious Cayden.
“I knew it,” he spat.
“Cayden, what the hell? What are you doing here?”
Cayden shoved his phone at her. Confused, she took it from his hands and tried to skim what was on the screen.
Leaked documents from embattled defense contractor, BosTech, reveal that company executives lied to congressional investigators two years ago during a probe into the reliability of the guidance system on the Night Hawk, a long-range missile drone used by the U.S. military since 2014. Nearly three hundred civilian deaths have been attributed to faulty radar systems. The leaked documents reveal that executives overruled concerns by engineers . . .
She looked up, confused. “I don’t understand. What is this?”
“Mr. Straight and Narrow? I knew it was bullshit.”
His tone of voice and the rage in his