The Strawberry Hearts Diner(50)

“Oh, really, so he’s already found someone?” Leonard asked.

“Maybe,” Ryder said. “Maybe Shane is talkin’ in poet’s language, since he might be in that deep water, too.”

“I’m ready and I can swim better than you can,” Shane said.

Ryder nudged him with a shoulder. “Then do something about it. And this counter is my territory, so move on out.”

Jancy’s heart did a double thump in her chest. Shane had said that he was ready to dig in and settle down. How could things move so fast?



Vicky was glad that Emily and her friends were in the waiting room with her that evening when they rolled Nettie away for the surgery. The doctor had assured her that it was minor. But that didn’t stop Vicky from worrying.

“Don’t worry. It’ll be over in less than an hour and our Nettie will be fine.” She wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince herself or comfort Emily, who had tears floating in her big blue eyes. Maybe it was both.

In that moment, she realized that she didn’t want Emily to come to a crisis like this in her life and only have the support of one child. Her daughter should have a loving husband who’d be there for her in the difficult times, who’d give her a shoulder to cry on and who would hold her hand no matter what. And later in life, she needed children—more than one, because that put too much burden on the only child.

The second hand on the clock at the end of the waiting room slowly made one round and then another. Vicky felt as if she aged a year with each minute that ticked off. By the time an hour was up, she would be older than Nettie. Maybe they’d just throw her up on a bed and take her on back for a pacemaker, also.

“Leonard told m-me that the w-wolf had come sniffin’ around his door again,” Shane said. “I thought he’d give up since he ain’t been around for a week now.”

“That fool ain’t ever givin’ up,” Jancy said. “Not until he’s six feet in the ground. Zebras don’t trade their stripes for bunny fur.”

“Speakin’ from experience?” Emily asked.

“Yes, I am. I’ve known a lot of people and . . .” She paused.

“What?” Vicky said.

“I’m thinkin’ this through,” Jancy said. “Let me start again. I’ve known a lot of folks who haven’t changed, but it was because they had no desire to have a different life. Like my folks. Neither ever changed. Trouble is, I’ve got a little of both of them in me.”

“But you have a choice in which one you let control your destiny,” Emily told her.

“It looks to me like both of you have made the choice to settle into your mamas’ ways,” Ryder said.

“Not really,” Emily said. “My dad was wild and stubborn. I might not have got the wild from him, but I sure got his stubborn streak.”

“Amen to that,” Vicky said.

“And my dad was a drunk and a wanderer. I didn’t get his taste for alcohol, but I did get the wandering streak. When the going gets tough, my first impulse is to run away from it,” Jancy said.

Vicky glanced at the clock. Thirty minutes had passed. Bless those kids’ hearts. They’d taken her mind off the surgery for a little while. Her phone pinged, and she fetched it up out of her purse to find a message from Andy: Thinking of you. See you this evening. If you need anything call.

She typed back, Thank you.

The return was just a smiley face with one eye closed in a wink.

Shane and Ryder were in the middle of a story when she put the phone back in her purse.

“We tied a rope to the back of Shane’s old truck and did some dry-land skiing,” Ryder said.

“You did what?” Vicky gasped.

“On skateboards, until w-we burned the rubber off the wh-wheels.” Shane grinned.

“We never get enough snow to ski, and we sure didn’t have the money to go to Colorado like a bunch of rich kids,” Ryder said.

“Shane got on one and Ryder got on the other and I drove the truck out on Cemetery Road,” Emily confessed.

Vicky’s eyes popped open so wide that they ached. “You didn’t!”

“Yeah, Mama, I did,” Emily laughed. “But that was back when I didn’t have my driver’s license. Waynette had hers, but she’d had two beers so I couldn’t let her drive. I did let her sit on the hood and pretend to be a beauty queen.”

“Sweet Lord!” Vicky whispered.

“I w-won!” Shane pumped his fist in the air. “Ryder fell off his board before I did.”

“Every one of you could have been killed. Were you in on this thing, Jancy?”

“No, ma’am. I grew up with a drinking father and a religious mother. Never tasted the stuff until I was past eighteen. I was probably in church that night, which is kind of ironic considerin’ what my recent past is compared to Emily’s.”

“And, Mama, just so you can breathe again, that was my only night of bein’ a bad girl as a teenager. Waynette and I did sneak a bottle of her dad’s whiskey to her bedroom one night, but it only took one taste to convince me that I didn’t like it. In college I developed a little taste for beer, but I’d rather have sweet tea. So now my confession is over. What is my penance?” Emily teased.