The Strawberry Hearts Diner(18)

She met them as they came in and hugged them both. “It’s so good to see y’all. Ryder, I heard you are thinkin’ about a desk job up in Frankston.”

“Thinkin’ about it.” Ryder smiled.

“My dream car is gettin’ close to finished.” Shane made a beeline to the counter. “We got busy doin’ some stuff in the shop since it was rainin’ and haven’t had lunch. Got any meat loaf left?”

“Sure do. Want the special?” Jancy asked.

“Sounds w-wonderful. Make it two and I’ll pay today, so put it on one ticket,” Shane said.

Nettie’s feeling deepened. Surely to God it wasn’t Ryder and Emily. It couldn’t be that—not in a million years would she ever lose her mind and go out with Ryder Jensen. No decent girl would be caught with him. He was one of those wild boys only interested in sex. But maybe she’d confided in him and Shane about whoever she was dating. Only a man could make a girl act like that. Vicky was going to have a hissy if Emily had gotten serious about some guy in Pick this close to getting her pushed through college.

Nettie eased out of the booth and headed for the kitchen, where she quickly put two plates together, giving the boys extralarge portions. Emily followed behind her, lining a red plastic basket with papers and loading it up with hot dinner rolls from the warmer.

“Now you are really home,” Nettie said.

Emily threw an arm around her shoulders and sighed. “Yes, I am, and Mama’s not going to like what I’ve got to say while I’m here. I’m depending on you to keep her from going into a really big funk, Nettie.”

“And what are you going to tell her that’s all that bad?” Nettie whispered.

“That I didn’t enroll for next semester,” she whispered.

“Hell’s bells!” Nettie gasped.

“And that’s not all, but right now that’s all I’m sayin’. Baby steps, Nettie. Just little bitty baby steps. Here she comes.”

“Woody is on his way in. Are we going to have enough food for another blue-plate special?” Vicky’s head popped up in the window.

“Plenty. I overcooked and then it rained,” Nettie answered.

“Emily!” Woody hurried across the floor and wrapped his arms around her. “It’s good to have you home for the summer. We miss you around here during the school year. How’d you do on the finals?”



Jancy checked her arms and hands to see if she was turning pea green. With the amount of jealousy shooting through her veins, it wouldn’t have surprised her one bit to look like a Martian that afternoon. Not even the brief moment when her mother’s voice came back to scold her had helped erase the feelings in her heart.

The last song she’d heard before her car radio went dead had been “This Ain’t Nothin’” by Craig Morgan. The lyrics talked about an old man who’d lost everything to a tornado and said, “This ain’t nothin’.” Working with Emily wasn’t even a tiny little dark cloud in the big picture of Jancy’s life. She could endure another week or two, and when she started thinking about things, she’d let that song play through her mind.

“So what are you doin’ on your first night home, Em?” Ryder asked.

“Unpackin’ and sittin’ on the porch swing,” she answered. “Y’all should come on over and have a glass of tea with us.”

“W-we’d love to,” Shane said. “Eight?”

“Maybe seven thirty-ish, and we can watch the sun set together. Lord, I miss a decent sunset and sweet tea that don’t come out of a gallon jug from the store,” Emily said. “If you get there early, you can help me unload the car. Don’t look at me like that, Mama. I can always put things away tomorrow evening.”

Jancy wanted to slap Emily. If she had a mama like Vicky, she’d spend the time with her, not a couple of local guys like Shane and Ryder. Did she have a crush on one of them?

Either one would cause Vicky to stroke out for sure. Shane would never be good enough for the amazing Emily. And Ryder was the resident bad boy of the whole damn county. But what Emily did or didn’t do wasn’t her problem. Jancy was there for one more week, and then she’d have enough money in her sock drawer to catch a bus to Louisiana.

The afternoon got busy, and Emily took over one end of the diner while Jancy handled the other. Vicky had gone to the kitchen with Nettie. Then suddenly it was closing time and they were on the way home. She hung back and let the three of them walk ahead of her. When they reached the porch, she went straight on inside to her bedroom and closed the door.

Gathering up her stuff for the bathroom, she was fussing at herself for ever coming down through Pick to begin with. She opened the door just as Nettie raised her hand to knock, and it startled both of them. “I was coming to see what we’d done wrong. You’ve acted strange all afternoon.”

“Nothing.” Jancy backed up and sat down on the edge of the bed. “It’s not you. It’s me. Come on in, Nettie.”

The older woman ran a hand through her short gray hair and frowned. “I thought we were getting along good.”

“We were.”

“Emily? She’s not herself, either. Is there something going on between y’all two?”

“Maybe we’re both jealous,” Jancy said.