The important thing was the fact they were hers. Her name was on the deed for the diner and the tiny trailer and, no matter what, they were home. She’d finally put roots down and, while they may not go very deep, they were taking hold.
Carl, her first-shift cook, parked his pickup in the lot as she was unlocking the door, and he gave her his usual morning grunt. Carl didn’t say much, but she’d practically wept the first time he cooked her a perfect over-easy egg, with just a little golden crunch around the edges. When he’d followed that up with French toast and pancakes that were better than anybody’s grandma had ever made, she’d readjusted her budget, tightened her belt and paid him the slightly higher-than-average wage he needed to provide for his wife and help his daughters through college.
At six exactly, she unlocked the door, and by six-thirty the seats at the counter were mostly full and a few of the tables, too. Paige had gone over the numbers—her personal budget as well as the cost of doing business—crunching them hard so she could find the lowest menu prices she could charge and still make enough profit to support herself. As a result, she’d done what she’d set out to do. The Trailside Diner, with its affordable prices and great food, was more than a place to eat. It had become the social center of her adopted town again, and people gathered before work to share the latest news. Unfortunately, today’s news was all Mitch Kowalski, all the time.
“Did you hear Mitch Kowalski’s back in town?” Katie Davis asked Paige when she paused long enough to refill Katie’s coffee cup.
“I met him last night when he stopped in for dinner.”
“Oh, that’s right! You’d never met him. What did you think?” Under the brim of her Red Sox cap, Katie’s eyes crinkled when she smiled. She’d run the town’s barbershop since her father died, and Paige was sure her picture was in the dictionary as the definition of tomboy.
What did she think? She wasn’t about to share her late-night thoughts about Mitch with the daughter of the Northern Star’s housekeeper. Everybody was connected to everybody else somehow and, in Whitford, they didn’t make it as far out as six degrees. She’d learned very quickly to mind what she said.
“It’s nice of him to help out while Josh’s leg heals,” she said, thinking that was an honest and yet noninflammatory thing to say.
Katie scowled. “Yeah, yeah. He’s a great big brother. But what did you think of him?”
Since the blush was giving her away anyway, Paige leaned down and lowered her voice. “I thought, Oh. My. God.”
They were both laughing when the bell over the door rang and Paige looked up. Straight into those blue eyes. Crap. Even though he couldn’t possibly know what she and Katie were laughing about, she turned her back so he couldn’t see her blush.
Thankfully, Carl barked her name to let her know she had an order up, and she had a moment to compose herself while delivering food. And then she had time to refill coffees and start a fresh pot, because half the people in the place had to say a few words to Mitch as they made their way to an open table. She heard him make a comment about Josh’s leg and they were finally left alone long enough to sit down.
“Morning, Paige,” Josh said as he worked to get his cast tucked under the table and out of the way.
“Morning.” She had a brief respite while Mitch went to stick the crutches in the corner with the coat hooks and umbrella rack, but then he was sliding into the booth and smiling up at her.
She had no idea why it knocked the breath out of her. His smile wasn’t so different from Josh’s. Their eyes were the same blue and they were built a lot alike. But Josh’s flirtation had done nothing for her and they’d settled into an easy friendship once he figured out she wasn’t going to go out with him. But all Mitch had to do was smile and she went all mushy inside.
Is that the way her mother always felt?
Just that one stray thought about her mother was enough to firm up the mushy spots, and she was able to respond to Mitch’s greeting with a bland, professional smile. “You both want coffee this morning?”
They nodded and she left to deliver the food Carl was putting in the window and do some quick refills before she carried two fresh mugs to the Kowalski brothers.
“You know what you want?” she asked, sliding her order pad out of her apron pocket.
“Mitch does,” Josh said, and he smirked at his brother in such a way that Paige was pretty sure she was missing an inside joke. Then he scowled and reached under the table, and she wondered if Mitch had kicked him. Hopefully not in the broken leg, if he had.
“I’m starving.” Mitch looked down at the menu. “I’ll have two eggs over-easy and three pancakes, with a side of hash. Oh, and home fries. With a large orange juice, please.”
“That sounds good,” Josh said. “Ditto.”