The Strawberry Hearts Diner(9)

Jancy shook her head. “Never had enough money to buy one, but I’m lookin’ forward to getting to taste them sometime in the next couple of weeks.”

“Well, honey, I’ll save one back for you tomorrow so you can see what you missed. Think about it long and hard first before you partake of a tart from the Strawberry Hearts Diner.” Nettie sounded like a preacher converting a house full of sinners.

“Why’s that?” Jancy asked.

“Because word has it that they are magic. If you ever eat the first one, then you’ll always crave them and want to come back to Pick to get another one,” Vicky said. “Want another piece of cake?”

“No, thanks. I’ve eaten more today than I have in a week combined,” Jancy answered. “Who taught you to make the tarts, Nettie?”

“Vicky’s mama and I perfected the recipe, and now I’m the only one who knows exactly how to make them. We always wanted to have a diner, not a café—a real silver diner—and name it the Strawberry Hearts. When Thelma’s husband died and left her a chunk of insurance money, we put one in and did just that.”

“I get the recipe when she kicks the bucket. Until then it’s locked in a safe-deposit box up in Tyler,” Vicky said.

“When did you start working in the diner, Vicky?” Jancy asked.

“I worked after school and summers from the time Mama and Nettie started the business. The summer before my eighteenth birthday my mother died and I went to work full-time. Nettie had been named my guardian until I could take over my half of the diner. I was pregnant before that even happened.”

“That means . . .” Jancy frowned.

“I was orphaned. Pregnant. Married. Widowed all in a three-month period. Then Emily was born when I was eighteen, and I was a mother. Thank God for Nettie and the café or I’d never have lived through everything. I’ve hated summer ever since then.”

Jancy swallowed the lump in her throat. She should open up and share some of her life with these strong women, but she couldn’t—not yet. Maybe not ever. It was too painful and too embarrassing to talk about. Jancy changed the subject. “Do you realize that you could sell this chocolate cake in the diner?”

“Yep, but Thelma and I made a deal that we’d only sell our tarts as desserts in the café. That’s the way it’s always been, ever since we had that diner built and set up on the corner of my land.”

“And there ain’t an entrepreneur in the whole great state of Texas who’s going to buy it for any amount of money.” Vicky sipped her coffee.

Jancy giggled. “I wouldn’t mess with either of you—or with Shane. Lord, did you see the size of his arms? They’d make a weight lifter look like a sissy. He’s really packed on the muscle since I lived here.”

“He’s a hardworkin’ boy, always has been,” Nettie said. “Awful self-conscious of that stutter, but when him and Ryder was in grade school, folks learned right quick that they’d better not tease him about it. Ryder didn’t take to anybody makin’ fun of his best friend.”

“What happened to Shane’s grandpa?” Jancy asked.

“He’s in a nursing home in Palestine. He’s got severe arthritis. Made his work just too hard. When he first realized what was happening to him, he signed over the whole business to Shane. That boy has expanded it from a junkyard into a body shop. He’s real good at what he does,” Vicky told her.

Jancy finished off her coffee and gathered up all the dirty dishes to take to the dishwasher. “Sign out at the edge of town still says there’s three hundred and six people. They didn’t change it when the three of us left, did they?”

“No, didn’t add to it when y’all came to take care of Granny Wilson, either.” Vicky put the cover back on the cake. “Nothing new in six years. Still got the feed store, post office, two churches, and the diner on this end of the highway through town. Shane’s business is up north of us, along with the volunteer fire station. South is Leonard’s convenience store and gas station combined. We keep hoping a business or two will go in the empty buildings between us and the convenience store, but nothing has happened yet.”

“You forgot the bank,” Nettie said.

“Yes, I did.” Vicky nodded. “It’s a branch bank from the one in Frankston. Set up in one of them portable buildings, but it’s got an ATM and everything that a big bank has. Where were you last night, Jancy?”

That was an abrupt change of subject, but then they deserved a few answers.

“Roadside rest stop up on the interstate.” She leaned on the counter separating the kitchen from the kitchen nook. The house was a whole lot bigger than the trailers where she and her parents had lived in most of the towns her dad thought looked interesting. She’d usually had a tiny little room on one end that wasn’t much bigger than a closet. The twin-size bed occupied most of the space, but she hadn’t spent much time in any of the rooms, so it didn’t matter. If she wasn’t in school, she was at whatever job she could find, and her paycheck went to keep groceries in the place.

“You slept in your car?” Nettie gasped.

“A few nights. I lost my job a couple of weeks ago. The rent was due, so I had to move out of the apartment. I thought I could pick up another one, but when my money was almost gone, I figured I’d better head out toward Louisiana. I have a cousin there who told me I was welcome at her place.”