Nettie headed straight back to the kitchen. “I’m sorry to hear about her passing. Sounds like you picked up some of that deep southern accent, girl.”
“Been a long time since anyone called me a girl.” Jancy managed a weak smile.
“Honey, I’m seventy years old. That makes you a kid in my eyes. I was your grandma’s friend, and even if you hadn’t worked as a waitress, I’d be willin’ to train you to get some help in this place,” Nettie said.
Jancy took the whole place in with one glance. The last time she’d been inside the place, she and her mother had sat over there in the back booth. That’s when she learned they were moving again. Right after her sophomore year in high school.
Her dad had gone down to the other end of town to fill up the gas tank with fuel, and when he pulled up in front of the diner, her mother paid the bill. Ten minutes later Pick wasn’t anything but a dot in the rearview. She wouldn’t have come back today, but she only had to make a slight detour from the interstate to visit her grandmother’s grave. Look where that had gotten her.
“Coffee, tea, breakfast, or maybe a soft drink?” Vicky asked.
Her stomach grumbled again, and hunger overrode pride. “Breakfast, please. I haven’t eaten since yesterday morning. I have the cash to pay for it, but if you’d put it on a tab and then take it out of my check, which would really help.”
“Come on back to the kitchen and tell me what you want to eat before you put on an apron and get busy,” Nettie told her.
“Um, I kind of need an answer about a place to sleep. I’ll work hard as many hours as you’ll let me, but . . .” Jancy swallowed what was left of her dignity.
“Okay, business first,” Nettie said. “Job comes with three squares on the house, but you’re limited to one strawberry tart a day. We’ve got a room up at the house that you can stay in. You can consider that a benefit, since we don’t pay insurance or give vacation time.”
“Thank you, but you don’t have to make my breakfast. I can do that,” Jancy said.
Two weeks tops with those benefits. She’d have enough tips to get her cell phone service turned back on and buy a bus ticket to Louisiana. When she grew tired of that place, she might move on to Florida. She’d always wanted to live close to the beach.
“How about we let Nettie fix you up with the breakfast special and you and I go take care of your things? I think it’s bothering you that it’s all out there, isn’t it?” Vicky asked and then went on talking before Jancy could answer. “Until we close up this evening, you can stow it in the little storage shed where we keep extra supplies. It’s around back. Another rule is that we don’t allow smokin’ in here or in our house, so if . . .”
“I don’t smoke, but I do like a shot of whiskey or a beer once in a while.” Had she really said that out loud? Crimson filled her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have . . .”
Nettie butted in from the kitchen. “No problem with a drink now and then. We’ll just expect you to share.”
Jancy headed back out to the driveway with Vicky right behind her. “We should be able to get it all in one load. Mostly it’s just my clothes and a few little personal things.”
The two firemen had taken off their bright-yellow gear to reveal faded jeans, T-shirts, and boots. The taller one tipped his cap at Jancy and motioned toward the still smoldering car. “W-w-would you sell that to m-m-me?”
“Sell it? It’s burned-out and worth nothing,” she said.
“I’d be w-w-willin’ to give you twenty dollars for it and haul it away for free. I got a little scrap yard,” he said. “Jancy W-Wilson, is that you?”
“It’s me, Shane. How are you?” She’d had a major crush on Shane since she first saw him in the Pick church the summer they got to town. She thought she’d gotten over that years ago, but the extra kick in her heartbeat said there was still a spark there.
“Surprised to see you.” He grinned. “Where you been? What happened that summer? You just disappeared after your granny died.”
“It’s a long story.” She forced a smile. “I’ll take you up on that deal for the car. When will you haul it away?”
“Soon as we down a couple of glasses of sweet tea and I can get my tow truck out here. It ought to be cool enough by then,” he answered.
“We’ll be inside in a minute. Go ahead and help yourself to the tea,” Vicky said.
“Wh-where y’all takin’ that stuff?” Shane asked.
“Around to the shed,” Vicky said.
“Ryder, do you remember Jancy?”
Ryder’s gaze started at her feet and traveled all the way to the top of her hair. “No, can’t say as I do.”
That was no surprise. A couple of years older, Ryder had been the star of the basketball team. There was no way he’d remember a plain Jane. But she remembered him all too well. He’d been the resident bad boy, the one that all mothers warned their daughters about and who had a reputation for talking a girl into the back of his old truck and then leaving her without so much as a phone call. Still, she gave him a sideways glance and sighed. With that brown hair falling down over his forehead, the sweat on his angular cheeks from the heat of the fire, and those come-hither eyes, he’d been her type until she’d sworn off all men a few months ago.
“Hey, w-we’ll take that stuff to the shed for you,” Shane offered.
Vicky removed a key from a ring in her pocket and handed it to him. “Thanks a bunch. Sweet tea is on the house.”
“And a tart?” Shane’s shy grin hadn’t changed a bit since she’d left. He’d always been a big guy, but good Lord, his arms were so huge now that they stretched the knit of his T-shirt and his broad chest looked to cover about two acres. His round face had developed a few angles, but they hadn’t interfered with the dimples.
“You got it,” Vicky said. “We’ll go on inside and get you set up.”
“Thanks, Vicky.” Shane picked up three duffel bags, leaving a smaller one and the suitcase for Ryder.
The moment Jancy and Vicky got inside, Nettie stuck her head out the swinging doors and motioned for Jancy to come back there. “You can eat back here and clean up a little bit in the bathroom before you go to work.”
“I’d better make a trip through there first and wash my hands,” Jancy said.
“Use the sink right there.” Nettie pointed at the deep stainless steel sink. “Your food will get cold.”
Jancy did a quick washup and pulled up a bar stool. Bacon, eggs, gravy, and biscuits with a plate of pancakes to the side. She set about eating without even looking up, not even when she heard Shane’s voice in the dining room. The deep Texas drawl hadn’t changed a bit.
A phone rang, and in a moment Shane raised his voice. “Hey, Vicky. W-we’ll be back real soon for that tea and tart, but right now there’s a grass fire down south of town w-we got to take care of quick. See you in a few m-minutes.”