The Strawberry Hearts Diner(4)

“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.”

Vicky stuck her head out the serving window. “See you later, then.”

Jancy polished off her breakfast, downed the coffee, and went straight to the ladies’ room out at the far end of the diner. A moan escaped her at her reflection in the mirror. Her shoulder-length hair was stringy, and she could see bags under her eyes. She’d washed up the night before in a rest stop bathroom, and although clean, her jeans and shirt left no doubt that she’d slept in them. It was a wonder Nettie hadn’t told her to get out there on the road with her thumb out rather than hiring her.

She adjusted the temperature of the water and bent under the faucet, filled her hand with soap from the dispenser, and quickly shampooed her hair. After she’d rinsed it and dried it on paper towels, she pulled a brush from her purse to get the tangles out and then flipped it up into a ponytail. She brought out a makeup kit and smeared concealer under her eyes, working fast to make herself presentable.

“Best I can do. I’ll never be an Emily, but at least I don’t look like the homeless orphan that I am.” She opened the door, got an approving nod from Vicky, and went back to the kitchen. Tying an apron around her waist, she pushed through the swinging doors just as Shane and Ryder reentered the diner. Why couldn’t Shane have gained sixty pounds and started dipping snuff? With a sigh, she picked up an order pad from a stack on a shelf under the cash register and slipped it into one pocket and a pen in the other.