Play It Safe(4)

“Yep,” I repeated.

“Good,” he muttered and Ang, our waitress, hit the table with a mug of coffee for Gray.

We both looked up at her. She was looking at Gray.

“How’s Mirry?” she asked.

“She’s good,” Gray answered on another dimpled smile.

Jeez oh Pete, that smile.

I had to get out of there.

“Been awhile since I been out to see her. She want some company?” Ang asked Gray.

“Always,” Gray answered.

“Can she take a visit from the brood?” Ang went on and Gray’s smile got bigger.

Yep. Oh yes. I had to get the heck out of there.

“You know she can, Ang,” he replied.

“All right then, I’ll pack up my monsters and swing by this afternoon after school,” Ang declared, dipped her head at Gray, looked at me, gave me a head to chest then she looked back at Gray, her head tilted to the side, she grinned a knowing grin then waddled (it had to be said, it was definitely a waddle) away.

Gray’s fantastic blue eyes came back to me.

“That’s Ang,” he told me.

“Got that,” I murmured.

He grinned again.

God. I had to get out of there.

“She’s got one boy, three girls, the boy…” he shook his head, still grinning. “Not sure which way that kid’s gonna swing but I had to guess, I reckon my guess would be accurate. The girls, all tomboys. It’s wild. Never seen anything like it. They’re more boy than most boys and her boy is more girl than any girl.”

“That’s fascinating,” I stated. It was and more, it felt good him sharing that with me. I didn’t know why. It could be the casual way he did it, like we were having a conversation, like we were getting to know each other, like this would be one of many such situations we would find ourselves in, together, just like we were then, conversing, sharing, getting to know each other until we knew each other and therefore I had to shut it down. “But you still haven’t answered my question.”

His smile faded and his eyes went watchful again. He also didn’t speak.

He studied me for a while as I assessed my options, deciding to get some money out, throw it on the table in order to pay for my already eaten and plate cleared breakfast and mostly drunk not cleared third cup of coffee, get my stuff, say a farewell that wasn’t rude but was final and get the heck out of there.

Before I could put this plan into action, Gray spoke again.

“Man you’re with, not old enough to be your Dad, looks enough like you, gotta be kin. He your brother?”

That had my attention.

When had he seen Casey?

I didn’t ask this question.

Instead I made a point.

“You the sheriff or something?”

He shook his head, his eyes never leaving mine.

“Then can’t say I’m real comfortable with that kind of attention,” I told him.

“Bet not,” he replied quietly.

“I –” I started but stopped when he leaned in.

“Can’t say I wanna say this but I’m gonna say it. You’re not here to look into the waitressing gig at Jenkins, you and your guy best be moving on.”

Not good.

“Sorry?” I asked even more quietly than he was speaking

“Don’t know the game, don’t care, don’t ‘spect you’ll share since you won’t even tell me your name. Do know what he’s doin’ and I’m not the only one. Don’t know when he calls you in to do your part. What I’ll tell you is, you move forward on whatever mark he thinks he’s found, you will find trouble. They’re expecting it. They’ve clocked him. You need to move on.”

I was right. Not good.

Casey had been made. And Gray, knowing I was laying low, made me.

Gray was right. Time for us to move on.

I was about to do that when he kept talking.

“That said, Jenkins’s girls get good tips. Food is top-notch, top dollar, always has been. Tips are big. Shelly, head waitress there, pulled down nearly forty grand last year. Nothin’ to sneeze at. She gets extra due to hirin’ and trainin’ but all the girls there been there awhile, they like it. It’s only that Diane left ‘cause her man got that job in Oklahoma so she had to go. Be a good place to be, you’re lookin’ for that kind of place.”

I stared at him and now my mouth and throat were dry. Not because he was handsome and all the other things he was, just because he was sitting there calmly offering me a dream.

I was probably the only girl in the world who wanted to be a waitress.

And it wasn’t being the waitress I wanted to be.

But that would work for me.

In this town.

With him in it.

Roots.

Connections.

Wake up every day and know where you are and go to bed every night knowing you’ll wake up that way.

I would love that.

And just thinking about it made me want to cry.

So I had to get the heck out of there.

And I set about doing that, getting money and suiting up against the cold while muttering, “Appreciated, Gray. Your time. Your honesty.”

I didn’t button my jacket or wrap my scarf around, barely had my wallet back in my purse as I slid out of the booth, scarf in hand, bag scrunched with it, still shrugging on one side of my coat.