“Yep.”
“Why would she call you that?”
I hated that question, but I gave him my stock response anyway.
“It’s a family name.”
Which was true. If my mom hadn’t been such a friendly lady, I’m sure it never would have stuck. Before he could say anything more about it, I asked him a question to change the subject.
“What were you shitting about in your vehicle when I walked in?”
He leaned forward, propping his elbow on the table and ran his fingers over his head. Something he’d done a few times already. Must have been a nervous tick.
“Well, I’m the new dentist in Dr. Carver’s office, and I’ve been moving all day.”
That was all he needed to say. I hated moving. Not that I’d ever moved, but I’d helped friends move plenty of times, and it was total bullshit. He could have stopped there and I would have called that justification, but he continued.
“I had a flat on the U-Haul about two hours into the drive. Then when I got here I realized I’d packed the new house keys in the trailer. I had to unload some of the boxes on the driveway until I found the one they were in. I don’t have any food in the house and I was starving. So I drove here, remembering there was a restaurant on this corner, and just as I pulled in, my check engine light came on.”
Shit. That was a bad day.
“Damn.”
“Yeah, but, honestly, it doesn’t seem near as bad now.” His eyes locked on mine and a flutter of something came to life in my stomach when he smiled at me again. “Everything looks a little better on a full stomach. You know?”
He sure as hell looked better to me on a full stomach.
Just before I let those exact words slip from my mouth, Diana called from the kitchen.
“You two doing all right out there?”
“Yes, that was amazing,” Vaughn answered.
“Diana, this is Vaughn. He’s the new dentist, and he’s moving into the old Robinson place, right?” I knew that was right because I’d seen the for sale sign was gone from the yard the other day and hadn’t heard of anyone else buying it. It was the last house in town on the road out to our place. I loved that house, but it was going to need a lot of work.
“I guess. It’s the house just south of town on this street.”
Diana came over to shake his hand and clean up our plates. “Well, it’s nice to meet ‘cha. Welcome to Wynne. I’m Diana. I’m always open ‘til eight, but I usually shut the kitchen down at seven, seven thirty. We’re closed on Mondays and only open from eleven to five on Sunday. You can always call something in if you’re running behind.”
“I appreciate it, thank you. I’ll remember that,” he said, his voice calmer than it had been before. “By the way, that was incredible. I’m sure you’ll see a lot of me.” He was much more charming once he ate a meal and stopped to catch his breath—even after his shitty day.
Diana blushed and waved a hand at him.
“You have my ticket, Di? I’ll settle up with you,” I said, knowing she wanted to get the hell out of there. She had a new grandbaby at home, and since her daughter, Faith, was now living with her, she probably had a ton of things to do before she even sat down herself.
“No. Honey, your daddy got yours earlier when he and Dean were in. Dean said he was probably gonna clean up and head down to Sally’s or The Tap. You ought to go down. I think there’s a band somewhere tonight.”
Although that sounded fun—or as much fun as was possible on a Saturday night in a small town, population 3,400—I was ready to take my shoes off and just have a beer in the garage at my workbench.
“Not tonight, I’m licked.” For those of you not from Wynne, that means tired, but in that moment I knew what I’d said and who I’d said it in front of. I quickly glanced to the man I’d only known for about thirty minutes and fire burned under my embarrassed cheeks. “I’m tired,” I corrected in case he thought I’d meant something else.
He failed at hiding his amusement, but didn’t laugh at me, which I appreciated.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I was rough around the edges for a chick. I always had been. I was raised by my grandpa and dad, in a town where kids didn’t go to the arcade, they went to a creek. Where we didn’t go to the beach and get a tan, we bailed hay for the neighbor and got burned. I barely wore makeup, and most days my hair air-dried from my rolled down truck window on the way to the shop.
I only dated one guy in high school, and he turned out to be a real ass, which was okay because the poor dope was as bald as a knob and his wife slept around on him with the bartender at The Tap. Other than him, I’d had my share of hits and misses, but nothing major. The dating pool in Wynne was shallow, a lot like the gene pool.
I could out-fish any man in our county. Clean my catch twice as fast.
It was known that I could change a tire faster than Dean, when push came to shove.