WIP Wednesdays -B&B, The Barbecue (Patreon)

 Enjoy this sneak peek look into a barbecue happening in Beauty and the Brit in an upcoming chapter!

-Britt xoxo

As they went back inside to start bringing out the food and drinks, Paige remarked at her gratefulness that the weather had improved from the day before.

“I couldn’t agree more!” Derick nodded, “I’ve spent the afternoon outside mostly, for tours of the hospital grounds and on our few breaks, and it’s been brilliant. I’m glad we didn’t all blow away yesterday!”

They all laughed, recalling their trek back to Rae’s car.

“It’s a great night for a get-together barbecue,” Derick professed. “Very grateful for the weather and the invitation here tonight.”

“Very glad to have you,” Rae responded as she passed him a salad bowl covered in cling film to take out.

As they all were placing their items down outside, Emily and Nate arrived holding hands and smiling. “Hey!”

“Hey!”

“Hi!”

“Hey!”

Nate immediately set down the large foil container of ribs and offered to help with set up. He was refused though; everything was pretty much ready to go; they just had to bring the last of the food and drink out.

To everyone’s surprise, Derick had brought two bottles of wine in exchange and thanks for the hospitality that was shown to him. ‘Such a gentleman’ Paige thought yet again to herself. She’d totally thought the bag he’d brought with him had work related items inside it…

With everything now set up, the group poured themselves drinks and settled down around the table together.

“So you’re from London?” Nate questioned Derick.

“Yeah. Family has ties here in America and to this town too but the majority of my life I’ve been in ‘Jolly Ol’ England’ as they say!” he laughed and the group laughed with him.

“So is it true it rains there all the time?” Emily Eames asked curiously.

“No not quite! We do get quite a bit but it’s not like people say,” he mused. “And no not everyone are tea drinkers but it’s quite common so that part is true!” he went on.

Everyone smiled, happy to know more from Derick.

“Is it like, so different here?”

“Yes and no. London in and of itself is a character of the world. But everywhere I’ve ever gone I see a common thread of people being people and working and playing and I dunno the structure of a city may be different but we all have commonalities of struggles and triumphs.”

Emily blushed slightly. His answer made her feel like the guy was highly educated and she wasn’t sure she could keep up in conversation with him. She worried she’d be embarrassing herself in front of him.

Nate felt a little bit the same but he knew that both Paige and Rae didn’t care for ‘stuck up’ or boastful people. So he wasn’t too worried that Derick would make any of them feel inferior, even if he was quote “smarter” than everyone here tonight. Or maybe he wasn’t and it was just his accent that made Nate feel like the guy was quite posh!

The group made a bit of small talk as they passed the food around the table before Nate asked if they could bow their heads for a moment. Respectfully, everyone did and he said a short prayer of thanks and blessing for the meal.

After that, the group dug into their meal together.

“You ever had barbecue like this before?” Nate asked Derick when everyone was well tucked into the meal and Paige went to fetch some napkins which she wet a little for people to wipe their hands. It was impossible to eat the ribs without grabbing them by hand and she felt a little embarrassed though over the rest of the meal everyone, especially Derick, would make her feel at ease about it.

“Not this particular sauce but I have had similar cookouts and picnics and barbecues in my experience yes!” Derick grinned, “Brilliant job on these. Amazing.” He politely bit a small piece after speaking as though to punctuate his sentence’s meaning.

Derick exchanged a little more small talk explaining what he was doing here in town and Nate and Emily politely spoke of their professions: Emily a professional retail buyer for the local jurisdiction of a national brand and Nate in carpentry and construction of course, before they invited Paige and Rae to do the same and explain a little more of what they did day-to-day especially because Rae was an artist and ‘Artist-in-Residence’ at that. It was utterly fascinating. Paige was essentially a business owner. How could Derick and Nate —and even Emily— not be impressed?

From there things carried on to talk of travel, childhood trips and school experiences all in relation to people’s mention of lifelong dreams and youthful pursuits of happiness as it pertained to their jobs and how they’d come into them.