“I’m the last person you should ask to do that. You know about . . .” Jancy stumbled over the words.
“You are probably the best person for the job,” Nettie said.
Emily poked her face into the window. “Hey, I could use some help out here.”
“Sure thing.” Jancy passed her on the way back out into the dining room, where she picked up an order pad, wrote on it, and then handed it to Shane.
Shane shook his head. “It’s Ryder’s turn to pay for breakfast. Give it to him.”
“This is not a bill. It’s my new cell phone number,” Jancy said.
Ryder reached for it, but Shane snatched it away.
His fingertips grazed hers, and the little bit of chemistry did not surprise her one bit. “Thank you, Jancy. I’ll get it programmed into my phone soon as we leave.”
She refilled their coffee cups and carried the pot down the counter, making sure everyone had a warm-up. When she reached the end, Ryder was standing there with his billfold in his hand. “Shane was right. It’s my morning to pay. And Jancy”— he lowered his voice—“don’t break his heart. He’s my friend and . . .”
She rang up the amount and took the bills he offered. “I won’t. I promise.”
“W-we ready to go?” Shane walked up behind Ryder as Jancy made change. “I’ll call you this evenin’.”
“Be lookin’ for it.” Jancy smiled.
Half an hour later, the diner was suddenly empty. Vicky cleaned off the last table in the deafening silence and grabbed the broom to give the floors a quick sweeping before the next onslaught of customers, but Nettie took it from her hands.
“It don’t look too bad. Let’s eat right here in the kitchen. Jancy, would you pour four cups of coffee? Emily, you help her bring them back here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Emily groaned. “I didn’t know there were even that many people in Pick.”
“There’s not. Some of them were from Frankston and up in Berryville,” Vicky said. “Some of them are most likely sent from Carlton to see what’s going on today and to pick up any gossip. I hope they heard Ryder offer to hang his carcass on a barbed-wire fence.”
“Like they do coyotes?” Emily brought in two cups of coffee.
“Exactly,” Nettie said. “I’d pay Ryder in free lunches if he’d put him on the fence for me.”
“Nettie!” Jancy exclaimed.
“It’s the truth.” Nettie shrugged.
“Why don’t I give y’all another truth to shriek about,” Vicky said with a sidelong look at her daughter. “Emily says that she’s finishing up the last of her degree with online classes.”
“At least she isn’t quittin’ altogether,” Nettie said. “Y’all had better get busy eatin’. The next rush will hit in half an hour.”
“You can do that? Take classes online?” Jancy put two sausage patties on her plate along with a scoop of scrambled eggs and a couple of biscuits.
“Sure. You want to take some with me?” Emily crammed a biscuit full of eggs and bacon and ate it while three pancakes cooked on the griddle.
“Probably not right now, but I might sometime in the future.” Jancy carried her plate to the table, pulled up a bar stool, and concentrated on eating.
“Do you have a boyfriend here in Pick? Is that why you don’t want to go back to school? Who is it?” Vicky demanded, barely nibbling on a piece of toast.
“I wondered if that’s what was making her so antsy,” Nettie said. “Shane is interested in Jancy. All the other guys that amount to anything at all are married, and she’s got better sense than to get tangled up with Ryder.”
“Emily is twenty-one, isn’t she?” Jancy asked.
“Twenty-two on May 1,” Emily said over her shoulder. “And I’m right here. I can hear you talkin’ about me.”
“I was twenty-two on Valentine’s Day,” Jancy said. “No disrespect, Vicky, but I think we are both old enough to date. We could even get into a bar, order a drink, and vote.”
Emily set a plate in front of Nettie. “Thank you, Jancy. Bacon or sausage, Nettie?”
“Both. I expect the doctor is going to fuss at me tomorrow about my cholesterol, so today I’ll eat what I want,” Nettie answered. “And if Emily had a boyfriend, she couldn’t keep it a secret from us. Lord, she even told us when she went to get birth control pills.”
“For real? My mama had no idea that I went to the health department and got pills,” Jancy said.
“I should’ve gotten . . . no, I’m wrong,” Vicky said. “If I hadn’t gotten pregnant and had Emily, I never would have survived that year after my mother and my husband both died. Knowing that I had a little bit of him . . . Well, anyway, that’s what kept me going. Along with Nettie’s constant naggin’ at me.”
Nettie pointed a fork at Vicky. “I did not nag.”
“Yes, you did.” Vicky’s fork shot up to do battle with Nettie’s. “And thank God for it, because it was what brought me out of the dark places. What time is your appointment tomorrow? Do you want me to go with you?”
“Hell, no!” Nettie said. “You’ll have to run the kitchen from right after the breakfast run until the middle of the afternoon when I get back. That means you’ll be doing the lunch without me.”
“It’ll be tough, but we’ll manage. Long as it’s only one day and you don’t go shopping instead of coming home,” Emily teased.
“I hate shopping,” Nettie growled.
Later that evening, Jancy carried a cold beer out to the porch and settled in on the old wooden swing on the south end. She pulled her long legs up and propped one elbow on her knees. Chin in her hand, she watched a star fall from the sky, leaving a long streak behind it.
“Did you m-m-make a w-w-wish?” Shane stammered as he rounded the end of the house.
“Where did you come from?” she asked.
“Been out for a w-w-walk. Clearin’ the cobwebs outta m-my head,” he said. “Can I join you?”
She scooted to the end of the swing. “Want a beer?”
“No, thanks, but a little company would be nice. Evenin’s get lonely. I w-was goin’ to call. Hope it’s all right that I just stopped by.” He eased down, his body only a few inches from hers.
Delicious little shivers chased down her spine as the air between them came alive with electricity. She tried to think about something other than the way the earth shifted, but it didn’t work. She liked all those hot tingles when he’d drawn her into his arms at the picnic or when he’d slung an arm around her shoulders as he walked her to the door after the church date.
“Shane,” she said, intending to tell him that she was the wrong person for him.
“Jancy.” He moved a few inches toward her, cupped her face in his big hands, and lowered his lips to hers.
Fire surged between them when the kiss deepened and his tongue touched her lower lip, asking politely for permission to enter. She shifted positions so that she was facing him, and her arms snaked up around his neck. She tasted a mixture of cinnamon with a hint of brown sugar and sweet tea as she pressed closer to him.