“Only for three more days, and then it’ll be out in the open. Please, Jancy, I know I’ve put you in a tough position, but I need a friend so badly,” Emily begged.
Jancy had never expected to hear such sincerity in her voice when she said friend. She’d had friends, but they weren’t the kind that lasted more than a few phone calls or texts after she’d left a place and moved on.
“I’m your friend?” Jancy whispered. “But what about Sarah and Waynette and Teresa?”
“I can have more than three friends,” Emily answered. “I love my friends, but you are . . .” She hesitated.
Ryder finished the sentence. “More like a cousin to her. I’m told that siblings argue a lot but that cousins get along pretty good.”
Related? The only kin Jancy had was Minnette in Louisiana, where she’d been going when she got stranded in Pick. She needed to call her in the next few days.
“If you don’t tell on Sunday, I’m going to,” Jancy said.
Emily stuck her little finger over the seat. “Pinkie swear.”
Jancy locked her little finger with Emily’s. Twenty minutes later they were home and Emily and Ryder had gone inside the house while Jancy and Shane stopped at the swing. If a month ago someone had told Jancy that she’d be sitting on the front porch with Shane Adams in Pick, Texas, she’d have thought they’d been hitting the bourbon bottle too hard.
And no one, not even Jesus, could have convinced her that she’d be as happy as she was right then, doing nothing but listening to Shane tell her all about some vintage car he was restoring. She squirmed in the porch swing and wished that she had the courage to tell Shane about her probation right then.
“So do you have anything for sale that wouldn’t cost me a fortune?” she asked instead of speaking up about her past.
“Not right now,” he said. “M-m-maybe not ever.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because if you have a car you’ll leave.” He draped an arm around her and drew her closer to his side. “I could get real used to this, Jancy.”
“What?”
“Puttin’ in a day at work and then sittin’ on the porch w-w-with you every evening.” He grinned.
Everything about him jacked up her pulse. His touch. His sweet smile. The way his eyes went all soft when he looked down at her.
“Don’t you ever want something outside of Pick?” she asked.
Shane kissed her on the forehead. “Someday I’d like to travel to all fifty states. Maybe one a year, but I’ll need someone to go w-w-with me to m-m-make it fun. All alone ain’t no w-way to go.”
“Amen.” She snuggled deeper into his shoulder.
“But I’d always come home to Pick. Goin’ w-w-would be fun, but home is where the heart is. I read that somewhere,” he said.
“Me, too, and I thought it was a crock of bull until recently,” she said.
“You like it here?” His tone went soft, and yet there was a touch of fear in it.
“More than I ever imagined,” she answered. “Nettie and Vicky are good to me, and Emily—well, they’re kind of like family.”
“I can’t imagine livin’ nowhere else. Ryder’s different than me. He’s lived in Galveston and in Corpus Christi. I’m glad he’s ready to hang up his w-wanderin’ w-ways. Emily is really the one for him. She’s sassy and m-makes him toe the line.”
“Were you surprised when they started dating?” she asked.
Shane pulled her closer to his side. “I told him that Nettie would kill him and Vicky w-would help her dig the hole to bury him. I even showed him the two shovels out in that storage shed behind the diner. He w-wouldn’t listen, and I’m glad he didn’t. We’ll get a baby to spoil.” He paused. “Now let’s talk about you.”
“Not much to that story.”
“Okay, then let’s w-walk up to the diner and back.”
Her radar spiked when he didn’t pursue the subject of talking about her. Had Emily told Ryder about her past and he in turn told Shane?
“What did you want to know about me?” she asked.
“Anything you w-want to tell m-me, but only wh-what you w-want to tell m-me. So if you say there’s not m-much to the story, then we’ll take a w-walk.”
“Why?”
“My legs need stretchin’, and I like the way I feel wh-when you are beside me.”
They stood up at the same time, and he shortened his pace to keep step with her. There was no lover’s moon hanging in the sky. Only the stars and the security lights inside the diner provided any illumination at all, but that’s all she needed to see into Shane’s eyes. From the feelings in her heart, she figured he was seeing the same thing reflected in hers. She looped her arms around his neck and rolled up on her toes to kiss him right there in front of the dark diner.
He hugged her tightly and then backed up enough that he could tip her chin up with his big fist. She moistened her lips, but he held back from kissing her. His eyes bored into hers. Then he leaned back a little farther, and she got goose bumps as she gazed right into his soul.
“I could stand right here for the rest of my life and look at your beautiful face, Jancy. W-we’ve got us a second chance. Let’s don’t w-waste it.”
She wasn’t aware that there’d ever been a first chance, but whatever it was, she had no intention of letting it slip by her. A small flame of hope ignited that he wouldn’t change his mind once he knew everything.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
With Nettie through the surgery and snoring right beside her and nothing but time on her hands, scenarios of the past three days ran through Vicky’s head. Some of them had to do with the budding friendship between her and Andy, but most centered on whatever was going on with Emily. Determined to get some answers, she hit the speed dial to Emily’s phone.
“Hello, Mama. I wasn’t expecting you to call tonight. Sorry it took”—her daughter’s giggle did not escape Vicky’s notice—“so long.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m in the kitchen making a fresh pitcher of sweet tea so we can all have a glass before we go to bed,” Emily said. “Is it important or can we talk later?”
“Do you have a boyfriend that you are keeping secret from me?” Vicky blurted out.
“What on earth makes you ask that?”
“A mother can tell when her daughter is lyin’. Something is going on,” Vicky said.
“Okay, okay, I am seeing someone, but I don’t want to jinx it. I’ll tell you all about him this weekend and maybe even introduce you to him,” Emily said. “But only if you and Nettie promise to be nice.”
“Did you meet him at college?”
“Kind of, but I’m not having this conversation on the phone. Good night, Mama,” Emily said. “I will see you and Nettie tomorrow night.”
The phone went dark, and Vicky laid it on the window ledge beside her.
“So?” Nettie asked.
Vicky shook a fist at the ceiling. “Kids can drive you crazy.”
“What’s goin’ on?” Nettie asked. “Is the surgery over? Did I do okay?”
“It’s over, and you did fine. If everything continues like it is, you can go home tomorrow night,” Vicky told her.