Roots and Wings (City Limits #1)(5)

Shit. That was a bad day.

“Damn.”

“Yeah, but, honestly, it doesn’t seem near as bad now.” His eyes locked on mine and a flutter of something came to life in my stomach when he smiled at me again. “Everything looks a little better on a full stomach. You know?”

He sure as hell looked better to me on a full stomach.

Just before I let those exact words slip from my mouth, Diana called from the kitchen.

“You two doing all right out there?”

“Yes, that was amazing,” Vaughn answered.

“Diana, this is Vaughn. He’s the new dentist, and he’s moving into the old Robinson place, right?” I knew that was right because I’d seen the for sale sign was gone from the yard the other day and hadn’t heard of anyone else buying it. It was the last house in town on the road out to our place. I loved that house, but it was going to need a lot of work.

“I guess. It’s the house just south of town on this street.”

Diana came over to shake his hand and clean up our plates. “Well, it’s nice to meet ‘cha. Welcome to Wynne. I’m Diana. I’m always open ‘til eight, but I usually shut the kitchen down at seven, seven thirty. We’re closed on Mondays and only open from eleven to five on Sunday. You can always call something in if you’re running behind.”

“I appreciate it, thank you. I’ll remember that,” he said, his voice calmer than it had been before. “By the way, that was incredible. I’m sure you’ll see a lot of me.” He was much more charming once he ate a meal and stopped to catch his breath—even after his shitty day.

Diana blushed and waved a hand at him.

“You have my ticket, Di? I’ll settle up with you,” I said, knowing she wanted to get the hell out of there. She had a new grandbaby at home, and since her daughter, Faith, was now living with her, she probably had a ton of things to do before she even sat down herself.

“No. Honey, your daddy got yours earlier when he and Dean were in. Dean said he was probably gonna clean up and head down to Sally’s or The Tap. You ought to go down. I think there’s a band somewhere tonight.”

Although that sounded fun—or as much fun as was possible on a Saturday night in a small town, population 3,400—I was ready to take my shoes off and just have a beer in the garage at my workbench.

“Not tonight, I’m licked.” For those of you not from Wynne, that means tired, but in that moment I knew what I’d said and who I’d said it in front of. I quickly glanced to the man I’d only known for about thirty minutes and fire burned under my embarrassed cheeks. “I’m tired,” I corrected in case he thought I’d meant something else.

He failed at hiding his amusement, but didn’t laugh at me, which I appreciated.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I was rough around the edges for a chick. I always had been. I was raised by my grandpa and dad, in a town where kids didn’t go to the arcade, they went to a creek. Where we didn’t go to the beach and get a tan, we bailed hay for the neighbor and got burned. I barely wore makeup, and most days my hair air-dried from my rolled down truck window on the way to the shop.

I only dated one guy in high school, and he turned out to be a real ass, which was okay because the poor dope was as bald as a knob and his wife slept around on him with the bartender at The Tap. Other than him, I’d had my share of hits and misses, but nothing major. The dating pool in Wynne was shallow, a lot like the gene pool.

I could out-fish any man in our county. Clean my catch twice as fast.

It was known that I could change a tire faster than Dean, when push came to shove.

I even killed all my own spiders, and I wasn’t afraid of the dark.

Yet, there in Diana’s diner, I was blushing like a Barbie doll because I said the word licked in front of a man whose face I couldn’t quit staring at. I’d be lying if I said saying it hadn’t brought up certain explicit images in my mind.

Simply put, I was a bit hard up and it had been awhile. A long while. I needed to get out of there before I really made an ass of myself.

In my reverie, I’d missed what Vaughn and Diana were saying. My thoughts had drowned out their words. I got up and headed for the door.

“I’ll see you Tuesday, Diana. Nice to meet you, Vaughn,” I said as I stepped out into the warm spring night about to cross the street to my old pickup truck.

Before I knew it Vaughn was outside, too, saying, “Hey, you said you worked over there. You think they’d be able to take a look at my Escalade next week? Like I said, the check engine light just came on. Hopefully it isn’t anything major, it’s not that old, but I need to get it checked.”

I turned around and walked backwards, not wanting to stop in the middle of the street, but not wanting to be rude.

“Sure, bring it up on Monday. I’ll see if my dad or Dean can hook it up to the diagnostic thing. Shouldn’t take too long.” I spun back around, jumped up on the curb and opened my truck door. It creaked—which I thought of as an anti-theft feature, even if I never locked it—then I hopped in. I chanced a look back at Vaughn, who was still standing there by the door of the restaurant.

I cranked my grey beast to life and rolled down the window.

He shouted, “Thanks for the sandwich.”

“See you Monday. I hope tomorrow runs a little smoother for ya,” I shouted back as I pulled out and headed for home. He lifted a hand and gave me a little wave as I drove off.