Page 8 of A Breeze Over Rosewood Beach (Rosewood Beach #9)

All at once he remembered the eggs. With a groan of dismay, he thundered down the stairs and found them burnt, already sticking like a crispy, immovable film to the pan.

He turned the fan on over the stove and opened the back door to let in fresh air.

Along with the fresh air came a blast of cold winter wind, but Oscar found himself pausing to let it race over him.

It smelled invigoratingly of the sea, and it had a clean quality that seemed to wake him up all the way down to his core.

Once the smoke had subsided, he placed the frying pan in the sink and shut the back door. His cooking attempt had been a complete failure, and he was hungrier than ever.

He noticed a “Welcome to Rosewood Beach” brochure hanging on the fridge and he took it down, moving the magnet that had held it in place. He noticed that the magnet was shaped like a smiling waffle wearing a sailor’s cap, and underneath it were the words, “Ocean Breeze Café.”

He made an expression of distaste. The waffle magnet seemed unnecessarily goofy to him, even downright undignified. He opened the brochure and looked for a section on local restaurants.

“The Lighthouse Grill,” he muttered. “Ocean Breeze Café.” Both restaurant names seemed stereotypical to him, and he imagined that they served tired, basic diner food.

The last time he’d been at a small-town family diner, he’d had a clam chowder that tasted like a refrigerator and had been paired with stale crackers.

He glanced at the magnet on the refrigerator again. He felt a twinge of curiosity about the place. The magnet implied that they served waffles there, and after burning the eggs he had a hankering for breakfast food, despite the fact that it was the afternoon.

They’re both bound to be of the same quality, he thought. Or lack thereof. I’ll go to Ocean Breeze Café.

He left the cottage, locking the door carefully behind him. He didn’t trust people anywhere, even if his landlord seemed to trust everyone in town. He got back inside his car, glad that it was still somewhat warm from the heat having been on during his drive.

He pulled the car out of the driveway and started toward the center of town. He soon arrived at Ocean Breeze Café, and his jaw almost dropped when he saw how small it was. It was charming, that was without question, but it looked more like a shoebox than a restaurant.

He parked his car in front of the café and got out. Immediately the rich, flavorful aromas of savory food met his nostrils. He took a deep breath, and his stomach growled even more loudly than before.

He went inside the little café, and a bell jangled cheerfully over his head.

The place was somewhat crowded, but not extremely so.

A couple of people were waiting in line for coffee at the counter, but it was clear that the café was also a sit-down kind of establishment, since there were many tables scattered around, and he saw a box of menus at the end of the counter.

“Would you like a table?” A smiling teenager approached him, holding a tray of dirty dishes.

“Yes,” Oscar said.

“Great! Go ahead and sit anywhere, and I’ll be right back with a menu.”

She waltzed away and Oscar sat down at a little table in the corner of the room. The wonderful smells were even stronger there, and he felt a pang of hunger. Maybe he wouldn’t get breakfast. Maybe he would get something with a little more protein.

The teenager dropped off a menu and a water glass at his table a few moments later. “Take a few minutes to look at this and I’ll be right back,” she told him.

He didn’t say anything, he just took the menu from her.

It was a two-sided, laminated piece of paper.

He noted that it was clean, and that it was charmingly designed, but he disliked the fact that there weren’t many options on it.

His eyes scanned the breakfast menu, and nothing jumped out at him as something he wanted.

There were waffles, of course, but now that he was feeling grumpier, waffles didn’t seem like enough to satisfy his hunger.

He began to look at the lunch menu, and he noted that many of the options seemed commonplace compared to the upscale restaurant food he was used to.

It was a basic diner menu, just as he’d feared.

Some of the items had some creativity to them—salmon benedicts, for example—but he had no interest in a bacon cheeseburger or alfredo with meatballs, even if the meatballs were supposedly seasoned with a special blend of herbs.

Then his eyebrows lifted with interest. There was a chicken waffle sandwich with a side of tater tots.

He hadn’t had tater tots in a very long time.

The meal sounded delicious, and it was a perfect way for him to get his waffles and a lot of protein at the same time.

He felt a little weirded out by how perfect it was.

“Do you know what you want?” the teenager asked, stepping up to his table a moment later.

“Yes. I’ll take the chicken waffle sandwich with tater tots.”

“Great choice.” She grinned. “I would have thought you were the type of guy to order the turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread without the gravy.”

Oscar frowned, irritated by what he saw as her rude comment. She didn’t seem to notice his displeasure, however, and disappeared a moment later.

Turkey sandwich? On whole wheat bread? What was wrong with that?

He realized it sounded somewhat boring. Had she been implying that he looked like a boring person?

He wasn’t boring. He’d seen more things and done more things with his life than that silly teenager would ever do, stuck in a silly little town like Rosewood Beach.

A moment later he thought better of his irritation. Her tone had been friendly, and she’d been otherwise very polite. Maybe with all of his frowning, he was giving the impression of a plain turkey sandwich kind of a man.

He looked around the café curiously. He still couldn’t believe how small it was. It was decorated in bright colors, and there was an unmistakable nautical theme. He didn’t see any more images of that smiling waffle, and he felt glad of that.

He had to admit to himself that the food smelled wonderful. It didn’t smell like fake, cheaply made diner food. But it was possible that he only thought that because he was so hungry.

What have I gotten myself into? he thought. Prices may be cheaper here, but it’s in the middle of nowhere. Aren’t I going to suffocate in a town this small after a while?

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed someone approaching him.

It was an older woman with light brown hair.

He hardly noticed her hair, however, because she was wearing a sparkling yellow headband with a flower on it, and bubble gum pink lipstick.

He found himself staring at her. She had a very pleasant face, and she was smiling right at him, but he couldn’t wrap his head around a woman her age wearing lipstick and hair pieces that in his mind belonged to the world of twelve-year-olds.

He ended up gawking at her like a fish out of water, his mouth hanging open slightly.

“Good afternoon,” she sang out cheerfully, stepping right up to his table.

Oh, so she was coming to speak with him. Why? Were people in that town really so friendly? It wasn’t possible that she worked there, was it? Dressed like that?

“How are you doing today?” she continued.

He noticed that she was wearing a name tag that said “Sally.” So she did work there. He could hardly believe it. He had never seen anyone working in a restaurant dressed like that before. Didn’t this place have any kind of a dress code?

“I’m doing fine,” he said, his tone close to a grunt. He would have preferred to be left alone instead of having to play twenty questions with someone who was clearly eager to talk with him. He was worried she might ask him more about his life and he definitely did not want to talk about it.

“Glad to hear that.” Her smile was so genuine he found it suspicious. What was she really after, here? People weren’t actually that friendly, he didn’t care how cutesy the place was. “My name is Sally.”

“Oscar.” What was the point of all this? Did this place think that bothering customers while they waited for their food was part of a good business model? Because in his opinion, it definitely wasn’t.

“Well, Oscar, it’s great to meet you. Unfortunately, I’ve got to be the bearer of bad news. We’re all out of tater tots today.”

So that explained the friendliness. She was trying to sugar-coat a problem.

“Luckily, I’ve got another great option for you,” she said before he’d gotten a chance to respond. “We’ve got some organic sweet potato fries that are new on the menu. They’re absolutely amazing. We can swap those in for no extra charge. How does that sound?”

“If you tried to charge me extra under the circumstances, let me assure you I would get up and leave without paying my bill,” Oscar barked.

“And I would completely understand that,” Sally said breezily, unfazed by his rudeness. “Which is why you won’t be charged extra. I can even throw in a discount. It is our bad, since we ran out of tater tots. Had a lot of hungry kiddos this morning.”

Oscar rolled his eyes. He didn’t like the implication that he had ordered children’s food. “I would expect a small place like this to run out of things. I should have seen this coming.”

“You should look on the bright side,” she said cheerfully, still smiling and not irritated in the slightest. “This way you get to enjoy something new and delicious.”

“Sweet potatoes aren’t for everyone,” Oscar said, even though he did actually like sweet potatoes very much. “You can’t expect people to be happy with something they didn’t order. Food choice is the whole point of restaurants.”

“Funny, I thought it was getting to eat food.” She laughed.

“You need to let the owner of his place know that they need to rethink their ordering strategies. Running out of food is very unprofessional.”

Sally grinned. “I will certainly take that into account.”

“You really should tell them,” he said, mistaking her cheerful attitude for sass.

“The owner already knows,” she said. “I’m the owner. I’ll get you a side of sweet potato fries. You’ll love them.”

She winked and walked away, leaving him speechless. He watched her walk away, feeling a mixture of confusion, embarrassment, and fascination. She was the owner? No wonder there was no dress code.

He wouldn’t have expected her style of running her business to work out as well as it clearly had. The customers surrounding him all seemed perfectly happy, and the little café was clean and clearly well-maintained. Despite Sally’s informal ways, her business seemed to be thriving.

But it’s a small town, he thought with a huff. These people don’t have many options.

Still, he couldn’t help watching her a little as he waited for his food.

She stayed mostly behind the counter taking coffee orders, but she also darted about the dining room from time to time, talking with customers and making them laugh.

She had more energy than he felt he could possibly understand.

And it was more than just energy, it was joy.

Joy, working in a place like this? She couldn’t have made that much money off it.

A few minutes later, the same teenager who had brought him the menu came back with a plate of steaming hot food. She set it down in front of him with a flourish.

“Here you go! Can I get you anything else?”

He wanted to say, “Tater tots,” but he decided at the last second not to be so snarky. “No, that will be all, thank you.”

“Enjoy!”

She was gone a moment later, and he looked down at his plate.

His stomach rumbled instantly, and he couldn’t deny that the smells wafting up at him were heavenly.

He picked up the chicken waffle sandwich and took a bite out of it.

Crunchy and smooth textures blended on his tongue along with rich, buttery flavors.

The sandwich had some kind of incredible white sauce that was subtly enhanced with herbs.

He couldn’t stop himself from staring down at the sandwich in disbelief.

Was it really as good as he thought it was, or did he just think so because he was so hungry?

He picked up one of the sweet potato fries and dipped it cautiously in the dish of garlic aioli that had come on the side.

The sweet, garlicy, golden taste that immediately filled his mouth caught him completely by surprise.

He’d never tasted a sweet potato prepared so well before.

He immediately ate another fry, delighted by the soft and crispy texture of it.

He was halfway through his meal, chowing down another sweet potato fry with relish, when he looked up and saw Sally watching him. She appeared to be chuckling slightly, and he felt sure that it was because he was clearly thrilled by the sweet potato fries.

He opened his mouth to protest, but he had nothing to say. Besides, she was too far away to hear anything he said. She waved at him, and he blinked at her for a moment before looking down at his food.

She was very friendly. Very unusually friendly. Oscar finished eating his food and left cash on the table before he’d even gotten his bill.

He left Ocean Breeze Café in a hurry, feeling full and somewhat confused. He wasn’t as confused by Sally’s behavior and style choices as he had been. Instead, he was more confused about the way he was feeling. Jittery, and as if his whole body was lighter than it had been before.