The Strawberry Hearts Diner(16)

“Emily! You’re early!” Vicky squealed from the kitchen.

With Nettie right behind her, they were soon all tangled up in a hug. Water droplets flew from the umbrella when Emily dropped it and threw back the hood of her yellow slicker, showing off thick blonde hair that floated to her shoulders in big, bouncy waves.

The rain hadn’t smeared a bit of her makeup. But then, the angels in heaven had always smiled on Emily Rawlins. It was a wonder they hadn’t stopped the rain and parted the clouds so she could walk to the diner from her cute little red car in sunshine.

“My last final was over at ten, but I was already packed and ready to leave. I drove the whole way in this hellacious rain.” She backed up a step and removed the raincoat.

She had big blue eyes and a face that would make a photographer drool, no change from the last time Jancy had seen her. It had been on a Saturday. She’d driven the same little car that was out there in the parking lot up to the diner, gotten out, and rushed inside to tell her mother that she and her friends were going to a mall in Tyler. She hadn’t even looked at Jancy or acknowledged that she was in the diner.

Jancy’s mama had reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Time will ease the pain, honey. Life changes, and it’s okay to hurt.”

Jancy didn’t have the heart to tell her it wasn’t that they were moving that brought the pain to her expression that afternoon. It was the ache to belong to a place like Emily Rawlins did.

“Your dad is a difficult man, but someday he might change,” Elaine had said.

“How do you do this? How do you live with him, Mama?” Jancy asked.

Jancy would never forget what her mother said to her that day. “I loved him enough to say vows, and I won’t break them. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”

“You drove way too fast,” Nettie scolded, bringing her back to the moment. “Have you had lunch?”

The way Vicky smiled at Emily reminded Jancy of her mother. She’d had that same look on her face the night Jancy got her high school diploma.

Emily shook her head. “I hope you saved me a piece of meat loaf. I’ve been starving for your cookin’ for the past four weeks. God, I missed this place. I wish I never had to go back to school.”

Vicky kept an arm around her shoulders and led her toward the kitchen. “It’s only one more year and then you’ll have a fancy business degree. You’ll be able to get a job anywhere in the whole world.”

Emily stopped at the swinging doors and locked eyes with Jancy. “Hello. You haven’t changed a bit since you were sixteen.”

“Just six years older and fifty years wiser. You haven’t changed, either.” Jancy blew off the comment with a wave of the hand. “Y’all go visit. I’ll sweep up and man the front while we’ve got a little bit of downtime.”

“Thank you,” Emily said. “I smell meat loaf and real mashed potatoes and green beans with bacon. I’m never leaving the city limits again.” Emily led the parade through the doors. She grabbed up a platter instead of a plate and went straight for the pots on the stove.

Jancy picked up the broom and started at the north end of the diner. There was little on the floor, but she needed to keep busy. Tuesday when she’d gone to the town meeting, she’d felt like she fit in. Wednesday and Thursday she and Vicky had worked out an unspoken arrangement in the diner, and she’d even entertained notions of staying longer than two weeks. But when Emily arrived, all the old insecurities surfaced. She became again that nerdy, shy girl who wasn’t accepted in any of the high school cliques.

And I was crazy to think I’d ever be more than that. Why can’t I learn not to trust people? It was my mama’s failing. She was constantly getting hurt by people she put her faith in. I should have learned from her mistakes.

Emily brought the loaded platter out into the diner and sat down at a booth. Nettie and Vicky followed along after her like a couple of hungry little puppy dogs and slid in on the opposite side.

“Did you do well on all your finals?” Vicky asked.

“I’m still holding on to a three-point average.” She grabbed the saltshaker and shook it over her food.

“You could be a four point if you’d work harder. You have the brains,” Nettie fussed.

Jancy kept at it until she reached the middle of the room, and then she swept her small pile of trash into the kitchen. After she’d cleaned it up, she set about tidying up the workstation and washing the pans that had been piled into the sink. She didn’t want to hear their conversation, but with no one else in the diner, Emily’s voice floated right on back to her.

“Now, Nettie, start talkin’. Tell me all the gossip that I’ve missed.”

“You’ve heard about Carlton Wolfe?” Nettie asked.

“Mama told me about him. Has he been back? Do we need to make some oleander tea special for him, or maybe fix him a strawberry tart with oleander in the crust? Now that would be poetic justice, wouldn’t it? He would probably tear down our diner, and instead our diner takes him down.”

Jancy peeked out the serving window to see Emily shovel a forkful of mashed potatoes covered with gravy into her mouth, shut her eyes, and groan. “I mean it, Mama. I’m going to pitch a tent on the forty acres and get fat and sassy on diner food.”