“Don’t we all?” Sandy slid into the opposite side of the booth and beamed a smile. “Good mornin’, Mama Pearl.”
Ah. Even Trey had heard of Mama Pearl Buckley—Queen of Gossip in Wishful. If Mama Pearl didn’t know it, it wasn’t worth knowing.
“Mornin’, Madam Mayor. You want your usual?”
“I’m feeling decadent this morning.”
Mama Pearl’s dark brow lifted a fraction. “Are you now?” She cut her eyes toward Trey as she filled Sandy’s cup. “I’ll just give you a minute to decide then.”
As she disappeared through the kitchen door, Trey released a breath. “Why do I just feel like I was judged and found wanting?”
“Mama Pearl has certain expectations about how life ought to be lived, and she has no problem letting people know when they aren’t up to snuff.”
“And people are okay with that?”
“She’s a wise woman. I may be the political head of Wishful, but Mama Pearl is who really runs this town.” She plucked a menu up and scanned it. “Omelet or pancakes?”
“There was a time you would’ve gotten both.”
Her rare dimple flashed, and warmth spread through his chest. “Only because you’d mooch enough off my plate that I didn’t feel guilty.”
“I can still perform that service.”
“Fine. Both it is, then.” She tucked the menu back between the napkin dispenser and the condiment caddy.
“Did y’all get the water main squared away?”
“At about two-thirty this morning. I’m sorry about last night.”
Trey waved that off. “I get it. Stuff happens. When you’re the boss, you have to deal with it. And I’m not crying about getting to share two meals in a row with you.” Though he’d have preferred if breakfast had come on the other side of falling into her bed. But that was rushing things.
“Well now,” Mama Pearl drawled, dividing a look between them.
Sandy’s cheeks pinked. “I’ll have a short stack of pancakes and a Denver omelet.”
Trey put in his order for biscuits and gravy, with a side of grits and watched Mama Pearl go clip the order to the carousel in the pass-thru window. “That’s gonna be all over town by lunch, isn’t it?”
“Probably.” She winced. “Is that a problem?”
He stretched out to take her hand in his. “Not for me.”
Her dimple winked again, and Trey was ridiculously pleased when she curled her fingers around his rather than pull away. Back in college they’d always been so careful never to touch, never to make a wrong move that anybody could misinterpret as more than it was. Having the freedom to touch her now, even something so simple as holding her hand, felt like a gift.
In the back of his mind, cool, cautious Gerald said, Slow down. Be careful. But he’d made his decision, hadn’t he? To let Trey be in the driver’s seat for this. It had been Trey she’d once loved.
“So, what was it you found out this morning?” she asked.
“I met Brody out at the church to assess the damage.”
Sandy brightened at the news. “He pulled off a miracle with The Madrigal. What did he say?”
“Well, it’s a long-shot, but with enough crew and round the clock shifts like he organized on the theater, he thinks it could be done.”
Mama Pearl came back with their food. “Y’all wedding plannin’?”
“We’re trying to save Cam and Norah’s wedding,” Sandy told her.
The older woman nodded. “It’s a good cause. Everybody loves those kids. You put out the call, you’ll have more volunteers than you can shake a stick at come to help.”