Ryder leaned against the bar waiting for Maggie to finish up a phone call so they could go over the bar order. While he waited, he glanced over at his grandmother, Gertrude Quinn, and her cronies, Betty, Maude, Nellie and Ruby as they enjoyed their late lunch. It was half-past three, and the restaurant was almost empty except for their round table by the window. He’d noticed Grandma glance his way more than once in the past ten minutes, and he was pretty sure that he wasn’t imagining that she looked quite pleased with herself.

Maggie was also smiling as she hung up the phone and turned his way.

“Do you think it’s possible to fall in love with someone’s voice? I look forward to calling my order into Charlie Harris every week just to listen to him talk.”

Ryder laughed. “Anything’s possible. Have you ever met him?”

“No. And he probably looks nothing like I imagine. I picture a young Brad Pitt or Bradley Cooper. I don’t even know if he’s single. He’s probably happily married with five kids.”

Ryder thought for a moment. “It’s been a long time since I’ve run into Charlie, but last I knew, I think he was single.”

Maggie sighed. “I know I’m being silly. The last thing I’m looking for anyway is a new relationship.”

“It has been a while, Mags. It might be time to get back out there,” he said gently. Maggie had ended her last relationship almost a year ago and hadn’t really dated anyone more than once or twice since.

“It’s not time yet, Ryder. I’ll know when it is.” She said firmly as two new customers walked up to the bar.

Ryder noticed his grandmother and two of her friends looking his way again.

“What is Grandma up to? Do you have any idea?”

Maggie looked surprised. “I haven’t the foggiest. Why don’t you go ask her?”

“I think I will.” He strolled over to the table of women and his grandmother beamed when she saw him coming their way.

“There’s my favorite grandson! We were just talking about you.” Ryder knew that she said that to all her grandsons, but it was still nice to hear.

“I thought my ears were ringing. All good things, I hope?” he teased.

“Of course. We were just saying how smart you were to hire Bethany. She’s a marvelous chef. I always did like her you know.”

Ryder sighed. His grandmother loved to play matchmaker. But he needed to nip this in the bud fast. Once she had her mind set on something, she was known to be relentless.

“She is a very talented chef. I agree. But I’m sure this is a short-term thing for her and she’ll be going back to Manhattan once her mother is better.”

“Oh, I think you’re wrong about that. We heard that she’s here to stay.”

“Why would she want to stay in Quinn Valley? She couldn’t wait to leave years ago.”

His grandmother gave his arm a squeeze and smiled as if she found him amusing and maybe a little dim. “Oh, I can think of lots of reasons why she might want to stick around. We’ll just have to wait and see, I suppose. Please tell her how much we enjoyed everything today. I’ve never had such a delicious macaroni and cheese.”

“I’ll tell her. It was nice seeing you, Gram, ladies.” He nodded at the rest of the women who all looked almost as excited about his love life as his grandmother did.

Bethany didn’t see Ryder until later that afternoon, a little after four when she set out the evening staff meal and was writing up the evening specials.

“What are you serving us tonight?” he asked as he strolled into the kitchen. He almost sounded friendly, which was a nice surprise. She’d made one of her favorite meals for the staff and was pleased to see that so far it was a hit with just about everyone. They had the option to eat the provided meal before their shift or to order something off the menu and pay half price.

“It’s a chicken stir-fry over wild mushroom risotto.”

“Sounds good.” He grabbed a plate and helped himself to a little of both. “My grandmother was in earlier. She said to tell you hello. She liked your mac and cheese. She insisted that I tell you that too.” He smiled as he went to take a bite of risotto.

“Please tell her hello as well, next time you see her.”

“I will.” He stood quietly eating for a few minutes while she finished writing the specials on the whiteboard.

“Are you having any trouble with the computer system?” he asked. “We just started using it a few weeks ago.”

“We actually used the same program at the last two places I worked. So that made it easy.”

“Good. Our last chef wasn’t a fan of it.” He told her the story of how his chef and one of the waitresses had been pocketing money from customers that paid with cash.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, you’re not alone. Something like that has happened at a few different places I’ve worked at.”

“Oddly enough, that does make me feel a little better. I was feeling pretty foolish that I didn’t figure out what they were up to sooner,” he admitted.

The kitchen door swung open and Ryder’s brother, David, walked in.

“There you are! Maggie told me you were in your office.” He glanced Bethany’s way. “She also told me that you’re the new chef here. It’s great to see you again. It’s been a while.”

Bethany smiled. “It has. Good to see you too David.” She knew that she’d be ordering most of her food supplies from David as he ran a local restaurant food distribution service. And Ryder’s other brother, Carter, was one of his suppliers. He raised organic livestock and produce.

“I was on my way back there. You hungry?”

David shook his head. “No, I had a big lunch. It smells good though.”

“Alright, let’s head to my office then.”

“Bye, Bethany,” David said as the two brothers walked off. She watched them go thinking how similar they looked. All the Quinn boys had that same, single dimple and were all tall with thick, dark hair. Yet their personalities were very different. David was friendly and outgoing while Ryder was more reserved and somewhat intense. She’d been so drawn to him in high school and even know, she had to admit, that for her, the attraction was still there.

A little past seven, after the dinner rush was winding down, Tom, her line cook and assistant, assured her he was fine handling things for the rest of the night. Bethany took off her apron and grabbed her purse. She’d planned to go straight home, but Jill had texted that some friends who recently got married were in town and they were going to have a few drinks at Quinn’s and she should join them. She ducked into the ladies room, quickly ran a brush through her hair after taking it out of the elastic ponytail holder and added a little lipstick.

As soon as she walked into the dining room, she saw Jill sitting at a table with a couple. Jill waved as soon as she saw her and Bethany slid into the empty chair.

“Bethany, this is Cameron and Ethan. I work with Cameron, she’s a nurse at the hospital. She and Ethan are on their honeymoon!” Jill’s practice was located in Quinn Valley, but as an ob/gyn doctor she was often at the Riston hospital delivering babies.

“Congratulations!” The two of them looked very much in love as Cameron told her how they’d known each other since elementary school, but it was actually Ethan’s grandmother who played matchmaker after having Cameron for a nurse.

“I agreed to marry Ethan because it was only going to be for a month.”

“But then, I won her over with my irresistible charm,” Ethan said with a grin.

“You did, actually!” She leaned over and gave him a sweet peck on his cheek.

“Are you staying at the inn?” Bethany asked. The Quinn family ran the nicest hotel in the area, close to the natural hot springs.

“We are. It’s a lovely getaway. We are here for the rest of the week and it’s nice to be so close to home.”

“We’ll do a longer vacation in the Caribbean later this year,” Ethan added.

“This is perfect for now.” Cameron leaned in. “The rooms at the inn are so luxurious. We have massages scheduled for tomorrow and in the afternoon we’re going to the hot springs.”

“Don’t forget to stop by Ambrosia’s crystal shop too. You’ll enjoy that,” Jill suggested.

“It’s on my list. Jaclyn told us at trivia last week that she heard it’s a must-see shop. She believes that crystals have magical healing properties.”

“We play trivia almost every week at the River’s End Ranch,” Ethan explained. “Jaclyn is an older woman who plays with us and she seems to know everyone in this area.”

“I heard about Ambrosia’s shop too,” Bethany said. “Maybe I’ll stop in there soon too.” She could pick up a healing crystal for her mother.

“If you like trivia, we could try our hand at music bingo,” Jill suggested. “It’s like trivia sort of, but all music related. You guess the name of the song after hearing a few notes. It’s actually a lot of fun.”

“Oh, I’d love to do that. What do you think, Ethan?” Cameron sounded excited.

“Sure. Sounds fun,” he agreed.

“It will be starting in a few minutes. I saw Eddie handing out score sheets. I’ll try to flag him down.” She got his attention and a few minutes later, they joined a dozen or so teams as the game began.

Bethany ordered a glass of chardonnay when their waitress, Ivy, came by. She was Ryder’s youngest sister and was humming along to the song they were supposed to guess the name of as she set her glass of wine down. It sounded so familiar, but they were all struggling to recall the name. Ivy looked as though she knew it. Suddenly it came to Bethany.

“Is it Landslide, by Stevie Nicks?” she asked her.

Ivy grinned. “That would be my guess.”

Bethany conferred with the others and they agreed that it was their best guess. While they waited to hear the answer, she saw a familiar face at the bar. Ryder was just settling into an empty seat and Maggie was laughing as she slid a draft beer his way. He took a sip and slowly looked around the room, stopping when he saw her sitting at Jill’s table.

He looked surprised to see her and lifted his glass. She nodded and smiled for a moment before turning her attention back to the others. Just a look from Ryder could still fluster her. And it didn’t escape Jill’s attention.

“Is that Ryder at the bar? Why don’t you invite him to join us?”

“I don’t want to bother him. He’s chatting with Maggie.”

“Who’s Ryder?” Cameron asked.

“Ryder Quinn is one of the owner’s of the restaurant. And he’s Bethany’s ex.”

Cameron raised her eyebrows. “How interesting! And now you work here. How is that going?”

“It’s fine. And it was a million years ago that we dated. Another lifetime.”

“So, you’re friends then. You could still invite him over. He looks so alone at the bar,” Cameron said.

Maybe she should reach out and ask Ryder to join them. She’d like it if they could be good friends again at least. She was about to get up when Ethan spoke, “It doesn’t look like he’s alone anymore.”

Sure enough, a tall, woman with gorgeous long blonde hair settled into the empty seat next to Ryder. Bethany couldn’t see her face until she turned slightly and then her draw dropped. It was Natalie Palmer. And her hand was on Ryder’s arm as she leaned in to talk to him. A moment later, they were both laughing and Bethany was feeling a bit foolish to have assumed that he wasn’t involved with anyone.

Jill raised her eyebrows. “Well, that didn’t take her long.”

“What do you mean?” Bethany took a sip of wine. The chardonnay was rich and creamy.

“Natalie’s divorce was just finalized a week or so ago. She’s always had a thing for Ryder.”

“Oh, they’re not a couple?”

Jill laughed. “They were for two seconds years ago. But it looks like Natalie wants to try again.”

Bethany glanced over to the bar where Ryder was leaning back in his chair and looked amused by whatever Natalie was going on about. She was still a beautiful girl, and he looked like he was enjoying her company.

“Maybe he does too,” Bethany said. Though the idea of it bothered her more than she was willing to admit.