Read Online [Invitation to Eden 15.0] Return to Sender by Steena Holmes - Free Book Online Page B

table.
    Just then, someone Marc only assumed was the waiter came out and handed them menus. The kid looked like someone who should be on a surf board and not serving tables.
    “Question,” Marc asked the guy. “Do you have fresh baguettes, fresh squeezed orange juice and—”
    “It’s all in the menu, dude.”
    “Excuse me?” Lauren said. She sat up in her chair and frowned.
    “I’m just filling in. I work in the surf shop but somethin’s going on over at the mainland and I was sent here.” The kid shrugged and crossed his arms.
    “Do you know what?” Marc asked.
    “Nope.”
    “Okay then.” Marc looked over the menu and found exactly what he’d been hoping to find.
    “I’ll have the Parisian special number five.”
    “And I’ll have the number two,” Lauren said.
    Marc glanced over down to see what Lauren had ordered and smiled. Two hard boiled eggs, half a baguette with homemade jam, and freshly squeezed orange juice.
    Exactly what she’d wanted.
    They handed the kid their menus.
    “So there may be a little bit of magic after all,” Lauren said.
    “We’ll see if the eggs are as good as my mom’s.” Marc winked at her.
    “How are your parents?”
    Marc glanced away. He stared out into the ocean and watched the way the waves gently rolled onto the shore and thought about his mom and how she’d loved the trips to the ocean when he was a child.
    “They passed away about a year ago,” he said.
    “Both of them?”
    He nodded and swallowed, hard. “Mom passed away first. She just died in her sleep one night. Dad...” He swallowed again and shifted in his seat. “Dad went shortly after. I think it was too much for him, being alone after so long. He told me his place was with my mom, that he was only half the man he used to be and a few days later, he was gone.”
    Lauren leaned forward and grabbed his hand. “I’m so sorry.”
    Marc nodded but didn’t say anything. He still choked up when he thought of it. Of them. Of their love. It was because of his parents that he believed in soul mates and true love and love at first sight. Because he knew it was real.
    “They loved each other with a passion I’ve never seen before. I...I can only hope to love as hard as my father did. Mom was his life.” He smiled and stared down into Lauren’s eyes. “She was his heart and soul, and he knew it from the moment they first met.” He didn’t look away, just prayed that she understood what he tried to say.
    “I think I would be lost without my parents. I know how important they were to you. I’m sorry.”
    The silence grew between them at that.
    Their server came back out with some cups and a canister of coffee. He set it down and attempted to pour until Lauren reached out and helped him. She steadied the coffee cups and took the cream and sugar from his tray and set it down on the table.
    “Sorry,” the guy mumbled beneath his breath before he headed back into the cafe.
    “Poor kid.” Lauren poured him a cup of coffee before she filled her own cup. Marc drank his black but if his memory was right, Lauren needed both sugar and cream in hers.
    “Black?” he said, a bit surprised.
    She brought the cup up close to her mouth and inhaled. “It took me a bit, but it was either drink coffee black or give up chocolate.”
    “What?”
    “A bet between me and Melanie. I lost.”
    “Do I even dare to ask?” From the look on her face, she didn’t seem too bothered to have lost.
    She laughed, took a sip of her coffee and set it down.
    “It was silly. She said I couldn’t go a week without chocolate and I said I could do a month.”
    “You? Give up chocolate? Even I would know that was crazy.”
    She shrugged. “I don’t like being so predictable. But, yeah, kind of silly.” She leaned back and sighed. “I’ve kind of grown to enjoy the taste of coffee now that it’s not covered up in cream.
    “I wish they were here.” Lauren cleared her throat and leaned forward. “Melanie and I have had a