The Strawberry Hearts Diner(84)

“Now you are about to stutter.” He planted a kiss on her cheek. “I had to get the papers in order to sell any usable parts of your car, and I’d let the rest go in the junk m-metal pile. Got a flag on your name and looked it up.”

She pushed away from him and cocked her head to one side. “And you didn’t mention it?”

He shrugged. “I told you. I don’t care about the past. I just w-want a future with you, darlin’. I w-wish you could’ve stayed in Pick and w-we w-would have gotten together right out of high school. But that’s not wh-what happened, so w-we’ll have to m-make up for lost time.”

“I love you, Shane Adams.”

He grabbed her and rolled backward so that they were both lying down, facing each other. “Those are the sweetest words I’ve ever heard in my whole life. I’m the luckiest man in the state.”



Vicky was sitting on her bed when Nettie knocked and pushed open the door. “Need some company?”

“In the worst kind of way.” Vicky scooted to the middle to make room. “This is really happening, isn’t it, Nettie? Next week there is going to be a wedding. And I think I’m going to be all right with it.”

Nettie fluffed up two pillows against the headboard and propped her back against it. “Yes, and you can be thankful that she is coming home at night rather than moving in with him before the wedding.”

“I am grateful for that, and Ryder has been so sweet that it’d be tough to stay mad at him. But what if he can’t change? What if . . .”

Nettie laid a hand on her knee. “I heard Thelma say the same things about Creed, and you were seventeen and still in high school. Emily’s twenty-two and has promised to finish her schoolin’ with them online courses.”

“And what did you tell Mama?” Vicky toyed with the tufts of chenille on her snowy-white bedspread.

“To be careful, because she didn’t want to lose you. Hearts can be mended and problems fixed, but only if the lines of communication are open between the mother and daughter,” Nettie answered.

“I’d rather it had been Shane.”

“No, you wouldn’t. Shane is a sweetheart, but he’s not for Emily. She has to have someone who’s on her mental level, who can talk her language. She and Ryder can do that. When the lust settles and the love is stretched, they’ll still be able to talk. She and Shane would have grown apart fast.”

Vicky sighed. “He was always such a bad boy.”

“Like mama, like daughter.” Nettie giggled. “And like grandma, too. And I thought you said you were okay with it. Where are these doubts coming from?”

Vicky jerked her head up so fast that it made her dizzy. “I don’t know, but I need to get them out of my mind. What did you mean, like grandma?”

“Thelma Jane Green was the piano player at church from the time she was thirteen. Leonard’s mama had been before that, but she died and Thelma had a right good ear for music, so she offered. Now put a girl like that with a boy that was twice as bad as Ryder.”

“My daddy?” Vicky frowned.

“Was your dad and he could do no wrong. But before he got that title, he was the worst womanizer in Henderson and Anderson Counties. Your mama fell hard for him, and your grandma, God love her soul, couldn’t do a dang thing to change her mind,” Nettie said.

“Go on,” Vicky said.

“That’s all, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to learn that your grandma was attracted to the same kind of man. You know”—Nettie lowered her voice—“that your great-grandma and grandpa made moonshine here in Pick during the Prohibition days.”

“I heard that before. I hope that this baby is a boy.”

“Will he be a bad boy?” Nettie giggled.

Emily knocked on the door. “Who’s a bad boy? Can I join this party, or is it a private one?”

“Ryder is a bad boy, and you are welcome to come in. I hope your baby is a boy. Did y’all have a good swim?” Vicky patted the bed beside her.

Emily crawled up beside her mother and laid her head in her lap. “We sure did. The water was nice and cool. I hope this one is a boy, too, Mama. I want two boys and then a girl.”

“Three is a big family in today’s world.” Vicky combed Emily’s long blonde hair back away from her face with her fingers.

“Hey!” Jancy poked her head in the door. “All right if I have first turn in the bathtub tonight?”

“Come on in and join us first,” Emily said. “There’s room beside Nettie.”

“You sure?” Jancy asked.

Nettie patted the pillows. “Saved this spot for you. You are positively glowin’, girl. What has happened?”

“I told Shane all of it and be hanged if he didn’t already know about the probation thing. It was on my record when he applied for a car title for that burned-out wreck.” She grinned. “And he’s fine with it and I told him that I love him. Good grief, I’m rambling.”

“Savor the moment,” Emily said.

“I love this feeling, Nettie,” Jancy said.

“Hey, this is Pick, Texas. It’s a magical place where only good things happen,” Emily said.

“That’s just rainbows and unicorns talking,” Vicky told her.