The Strawberry Hearts Diner(32)

“In the kitchen. We might as well join them.” Nettie sighed. “You might be right, but I know that girl and there’s something more than hating college up her sleeve.”

“All I can tell you is that I asked Shane straight out. He was very convincing when he denied they were interested in each other.” Jancy picked up her shoes and held the door for Nettie.

When she reached the kitchen, she went straight to the refrigerator and poured a tall glass of milk. As she turned around to sit at the table, they were all staring at her as if she had dirt on her face.

“What?”

“So how did the date go?” Emily asked.

“He didn’t kiss her good night,” Nettie told them.

“It was a first date. Kisses aren’t until at least the second and maybe the third,” Vicky said.

Jancy gulped down a third of the milk. In her world, kisses were reserved for the second thirty minutes. “It’s not fair to start something that has a fast finish line. I probably won’t stay in Pick past the summer. Daddy had a wandering soul. Still, my mama loved him even if he couldn’t sit still very long. I have to admit, I didn’t listen to much of what the preacher said tonight,” Jancy said.

“Come on over here and sit down.” Emily nodded toward the last chair at the table. “And explain why you think those wings are still there; we’re all seeing some roots growing.”

“I’ve always been attracted to bad boys. After Mama died, we took her ashes to Galveston and poured them out in the gulf. Daddy said that anything that was salt water was ocean and that she’d always wanted to see water that went on to the edge of the sky. We had a big fight when he got tired of that place, and he went on without me. I moved in with a guy and worked in a fast-food joint, and we moved from there to Amarillo.”

“What kind of job did he have?” Nettie asked.

Jancy pinched the bridge of her nose. “Bad boys do bad-boy things. He was stealing cars and got busted. He’s still doing jail time.”

“Did you stay in that area?” Emily asked.

“I had to because . . .” Her hands went clammy, and her chest tightened. The timing was perfect to spit it out, but the words caught in her chest.

“Because what?” Emily asked.

“I wasn’t stealing cars, but I knew what he was doing and the people he was working for and . . .” She ran out of air and took a deep breath. “So I gave the cops what they wanted to stop the theft ring and got off on probation. I had to stay in the area for a year. I had my final visit with my probation officer last week.”

“Oh, my.” Vicky gasped.

“You did what was right,” Emily said. “You shut down the bad guys’ operation.”

“That’s not all.” Jancy inhaled and started again. “I figured I knew all about men after that experience. But I was dead wrong. A couple of months after he went to jail, I got a job in a small, family-owned restaurant and started dating a friend of the owner. He put me up in a little apartment in a complex that he owned. The first time he sent a friend to my door to . . .” She swallowed hard and tears flooded her eyes, but she refused to let them spill down her cheeks.

Nettie laid a hand on her arm. “You don’t have to tell us this.”

“But I want to. Y’all need to understand why Shane is too good for me,” she said. “If he asks me out again, I should say no. I did not let my new boyfriend turn me into a prostitute, but that’s when I found myself right back out on the street. I had enough money to rent a trailer in a fairly decent part of town, got a job at the steak house where I told you I worked last, and I ate at work to save buying groceries. Shane needs a woman who is all sweet and innocent. I’m not that person.”

“Everyone has a past.” Nettie yawned.

“And it sounds like you learned from the mistakes you made,” Emily said.

“Maybe so, but Shane is the sweetest man I’ve ever been around. Who’s next?” she asked.

“Next?” Emily fidgeted with the saltshaker.

“Any of y’all got anything to share in this group therapy?” Jancy looked right at her.

“Nothing from me except that if I was going to confessional, I’d have to ask forgiveness for wanting to kill Carlton Wolfe,” Vicky answered.

“I’ve got a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon on Tuesday, so I’ll need all y’all to cover. Does that count?” Nettie asked.

Emily pushed the saltshaker back to the middle of the table. “Are you okay, Nettie? Why are you goin’ to the doctor?”

“Checkup time. He won’t refill my blood pressure meds if I don’t come in and get checked every six months,” Nettie said. “Now your turn. You been home a couple of very hectic days. You ready for a plain old calm week?”

“I’ll take hectic or boring, either one, as long as it’s in Pick. Jancy, so what if you have a past that’s not too shiny? That’s no reason to walk away from Shane. I think he really likes you.”

Jancy held up a finger. “What if I hurt him?”

Another finger. “What if things don’t work out and I’m unhappy?”

Third finger. “What if I’m more like my dad than I want to be and I feel miserable sitting still in one place?”