Trent got into his truck and made his way to a restaurant that had just opened a couple of months ago: Hippo Horns Steak Chop. He didn't know what the relevance hippos were to a steak house, but the meat was fantastic, and he had only had amazing meals thus far.
Halfway to the restaurant, his Bluetooth chimed in his car. It was a text message from Bill.
“Hey, we're just leaving now. Maybe like five minutes late, but we'll see you soon,” the robotic voice read off.
“Sounds good,” he responded, hands-free.
Just as expected, when Trent pulled in, he didn't see Bill's vehicle there but went in anyway and found the reservation under Bill's name. Unlike some of his other friends, Trent was not bothered to go into a restaurant alone. Someone had to be the first one to arrive, so why not him? Besides, it gave him a better chance to skim through the menu, grab a drink, and make small talk with the staff.
When the hostess led him to the table, however, someone he didn’t recognize was already sitting there.
It was a girl. She had dark hair and sharp bangs, a rounded nose, green eyes, and a dimple in her chin. She looked up from the menu and greeted him with a wide, if not uncomfortable, smile, and said, "Hey, how are you?"
"Good, good," he said, staggering his words and trying to remember who, exactly, this was.
"Long time no see," she said.
"Trent," he said, reaching a hand out and shaking her.
"I remember," she smiled, clearly waiting for him to remember her name, but as hard as he tried, it just wasn't coming to him. Finally, to save him from the embarrassment, she introduced herself and said, "Brooklyn-Grace, but my friends just call me Grace."
"Right, Grace," he nodded. It was the girl living with Bill and Maisie. "How ya doin'?"
"Good, just waiting for Maisie," she said, gesturing toward the front door of the restaurant.
"Oh, cool," he said unenthusiastically, his eyes following where her finger led. "I was waiting for Bill."
As the words left his mouth, it dawned on him that Bill never told him there would be a fourth joining them, which immediately put him on edge. This was definitely one of Maisie's set-ups, Trent could feel it, and if Bill and Maisie didn't show up, he was going to be furious.
"So, how are you liking Nueces County?" he asked, trying to make idle chit-chat between discreetly checking his phone for a text.
"It's okay," she said.
Trent's brows shot up at the answer, surprised that anyone wouldn't have rave reviews to give his beloved county. His confusion must have registered clearly, because without prompting, Grace said, "There isn't much to do, that's all!"
He nodded but immediately wrote the girl off. She was probably a spoiled Cali-girl who needed skyscrapers or miles of beaches to be happy.
"I love Nueces County," he said plainly. "I'm originally from Dallas, so coming here was a bit of a shock, especially since I couldn't leave town much at the beginning when we were just setting up the ranch. But main Corpus Christi is like a nine-minute drive away, and there's lots of great stuff to do there. That's probably where you'll be spending most of your crazy weekends this summer."
"Oh yeah?" she said, her voice lilting with interest. "What makes you think I'm a weekend party girl?"
Trent shrugged. "You just have that look about you, I guess. Besides, don't you work at a club or something?"
Grace laughed, and he hated to admit that he liked the sound of her voice. She threw her head back and then said, "You make it sound like I'm some shot girl or cage dancer or something."
Trent stared. He'd never said that, nor did he think it, but clearly, she wasn't offended either way.
"I don't work at a club," she clarified. "I work at Tapps. It's a brewery."
"Oh, right. Yeah, I like that place. Great wings," he said.
"Yeah? I haven't tried them yet."
"Any crazy customers?" he asked. If he had to sit with this girl, she could at least offer up some fun anecdotes instead of complaining about his town. Unfortunately, she couldn't make that happen, either.
"No, not really. A couple bad tippers," she laughed. "But I guess that's what you should expect from a small town."
Trent pressed his lips thin. "Uh-huh," he mumbled, checking his phone again. He scratched the back of his head anxiously and sighed. "They're pretty late."
"You want me to call Maisie?" she asked.
Trent didn't respond, but the raven-haired girl pulled her phone out anyway and dialed up her friend. "Hey," Grace said cheerfully into her microphone. "It's like quarter after. You guys okay?" She paused, averting her eyes from Trent. "Really?" she said, her voice hushed. "Maisie, that's ridiculous." She paused long enough to look up at Trent, smile awkwardly, and adjust her tone as she continued talking to Maisie.
Just as Trent was pulling out his own phone to text Bill, he saw Bill had already texted him. “Look,” the message read. “Don't kill me, but Maisie insists you guys will be perfect for each other. I know you don't want to date and you're probably going to be too stubborn to see it, but Grace could be a really great match for you, so just do me a solid and stick this set-up out. Dinners on us.”
“Not gonna happen,” he wrote back, hoping his awkward irritation showed through somehow.
“Come on, man,” Bill wrote, adding in a smiley with sunglasses on for effect. “It's a free meal, and then you never have to see her again, okay?”
“Nope.”
“I know it defies the bro-code to talk about stuff like this, but look, it's been two years. Get back out there! There are plenty of hot girls just waiting to be Trent Haven's arm candy. Take advantage of it,” his friend wrote. “Grace is gorgeous and she's new in town. If you don't hit it off, it's fine, but at least try. Okay? If nothing else, maybe you'll get a new friend out of it.”
“Oh gee, a brand-new friend? Sign me up!” Trent wrote back, thick with sarcasm.
“Lol. Dude, just order a steak, chug a beer and ask her a couple of questions.”
Trent sighed. He wasn't into this idea one bit. He looked over at Grace, who was off her phone now, and noticed the pink start to invade her cheeks. She laughed nervously and gave a playfully eyeroll. "Look," she began unsurely, throwing a hand out as she spoke, "I'm sure you're a perfectly nice guy, but I was kind of worried this was going to be a setup, and it is, so..."
"Hey, I wasn't a part of this," he smiled.
The two of them stayed quiet for a moment, each looking down at their silverware.
"So, what do you want to do?" she asked. "You wanna bail?"
Trent thought about it. Yes, in fact, he did want to bail. But then he re-read the text from Bill saying how the tab was on the Jefferson's tonight. He looked back up at Grace, considering it. She was a beautiful girl, and it would be neighborly to stick it out and help her get to know Nueces county the right way.
"What the heck," Trent said with a shrug. "They said dinner's on them tonight, so I say we rack up their tab and teach them not to meddle."