by Nikkie Locke
Payten admittedly had a more than slight obsession with underwear. She had a bra and panty collection big enough to outfit an army. Victoria’s Secret was definitely her friend. She decided on a pair of white, lacy boy shorts and a matching bra. She turned back toward her bed and caught sight of the clock.
“Shit!”
She dressed in a flash. In the foyer, she grabbed a coat off the coat tree and scooped her purse up off the floor where she had left it the night before. She locked the door on her way out. She never noticed Maddie asleep on her couch.
• • •
Dean sat at the round table drinking his second cup of coffee. It was a quarter to eight, and Payten hadn’t showed yet. With her parents out of town, she had to be there in time to take breakfast orders when they officially opened at eight.
He didn’t worry, though. He finished his coffee and his conversation with one of the morning regulars before heading into the kitchen. He was pulling a carton of eggs and a package of bacon out of the refrigerator when she walked in the back door. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her taking her coat off. He set the eggs and bacon down on the counter to turn and look at her.
Whoa, he thought.
Her shoulders were bare. He swore he could count every freckle scattered across her pale skin. Her hair wasn’t braided. Instead, it was slung up in a high ponytail. The blue jeans she wore fit her like a second skin, hugging every curve.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi.”
“I kind of overslept this morning, so I don’t really have any baked goods in my car that need unloaded.”
“That’s good news. Cold out, huh?”
“Yeah, a little bit.”
Dean tried to think of what to say next, but nothing came. He knew she was nervous, but didn’t know what to say to fix it. When he’d made up his mind to convince her she wanted him as much as he wanted her, it had seemed so easy sitting in the dark. Now that she was standing in front of him looking so tempting, it was hard not to swallow his tongue.
“So, Mary Beth went into labor?”
He gave a mental sigh of relief. “Yeah. Finally. Coop said he’d call when there was news.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Well, shit, he thought. There went that topic.
He watched as she reached for her apron. She slipped it over her head, then paused. It took him a moment to realize what she apparently already had. Her apron wasn’t going to work with her sweater. With the sweater off her shoulders and the apron going over her head, things weren’t going to lay flat.
She took the apron off, smoothed her sweater as flat as possible, and tried again. She didn’t have any better luck the second time. He couldn’t keep from grinning as a blush slowly colored her cheeks.
He stepped toward her. Moving slowly, he pried the apron out of the death grip she had on it. He slipped it off over her head and folded the top half behind the lower half. Reaching around her slowly, he looped the strings of the apron through one of the belt loops of her jeans and brought them back around to tie at her waist.
“Now you look like me,” he teased.
“Thank you.”
“I like the shirt.” He reached up and run a finger across her bare shoulder. “It’s nice.”
Her blush slowly faded. She grinned at him. “Thanks. I thought so too.”
“I think I’m going to kiss you,” he warned.
She leaned closer to him. Her chest brushed his, and he felt her breath on his face. “I think I’m going to let you.”
He groaned. “There’s a roomful of people on the other side of that wall.”
“I don’t care.”
How on earth had he ever resisted her? Right there, in the back of her parents’ diner, he kissed her slowly and thoroughly. As he nibbled at her lower lip, she whimpered.
The sound of that whimper ringing in his head, he seriously considered backing her out the door and taking her to his house for the day. Fuck work. She’d look so much better sprawled across his bed. Or his couch. Or the truck seat if they didn’t make it that far.
“Doug! It’s breakfast time. Where’s Patty?”
“I hate that man,” he muttered.
Sliding out of his arms, she laughed before kissing him on the cheek and bouncing out of the kitchen with her order pad. Her laughter sounded almost as good to him as her whimper.
• • •
The morning passed quickly for Payten. The Sunday rush came and went like usual, leaving the diner almost empty. It was her first break since she had started that morning, and she was hungry.
She did one last check to make sure her customers were doing all right, and then she headed back to the kitchen. She found Dean sitting on one of the freezers drinking a cup of coffee. She smiled at him when he looked up.
“Comfy seat?”
“It’s not bad.”
She laughed. “Well, I won’t interrupt you, then.”
She moved around him to a refrigerator. She pulled out the milk and the orange juice. She turned around and set them on the counter. Opening a cabinet above the counter, she pulled out a box of pancake mix and set it on the counter next to the milk.
“Making pancakes?”
“Nope. Just dragging everything out.” She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled.
“Smart ass.”
He stood up and scooted her out of his way. He set his coffee on the counter. “I’ll cook those for you.”
“I can do it.”
He shrugged. “All right. I thought maybe you’d like to sit down for a minute, but if not, that’s all right, too.”
She moved out of his way and hopped up onto the freezer. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He poured a glass of orange juice and handed it to her.
“I think we should go on a date,” Dean announced.
She bobbled her glass, almost dropping it. When she had set the glass down on the freezer beside her without spilling it, she looked up at him. He mixed pancake batter at the counter. She stared at the back of his head.
“Excuse me?”
“A date. A movie or dinner. Or both. Something like that.”
“Why?”
He flipped the whisk he had been stirring with into the sink. Picking up the bowl, he turned to look at her.
“Why do I think we should go on a date? Or why would we go have dinner?”
She stared at him. He moved to the grill and poured six perfectly round ginormous pancakes. On his way back, he grabbed the milk and juice off the counter. He walked past her to put the bowl in the sink and the milk and juice in the refrigerator.
“I meant — Well, I have no idea what I meant.”
“Does that mean you want to go?” He put the pancake mix back in the cabinet as he talked, then turned to look at her for her answer.
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
She smiled. “Yes, I would love to go on a date with you.”
“Good.” He went to the grill, flipped the pancakes, and came back to stand in front of her. “What would you like to do?”
“I haven’t been to the city in forever. I don’t even know what there is to do. You pick.”
“Why would we go to the city?”
“Why wouldn’t we?”
“If that’s what you want to do, that works for me,” he told her.
“I don’t really want to go to the city, but I thought that you would.”
He frowned. “Why would I want to go to the city?”
“You’re going to burn the pancakes,” she warned him.
“No, I won’t,” he answered, turning to grab two plates. He set them on the counter beside the grill. “How many do you want?”
“Just two.”
He slid two onto her plate and the rest onto his. He grabbed two forks from a drawer under the counter and took the plates to the freezer. He set them down beside her.
“I’ll be right back.
”
He moved out of the kitchen. She heard him talking to the few customers out front. He came back a few minutes later with two glasses. He refilled them with apple juice and took them back out. When he came back, he had a jug of syrup. He handed it to her and grabbed his coffee off the counter.
She sat with one foot tucked under her and the other dangling off the freezer. The food sat in front of her. He took her example and sat across from her the same way. She drowned her pancakes in syrup.
“Are you going to save some for me?”
She looked up at him. “Sorry.” She held the syrup out for him to take.
He wrapped his hand around hers. “Why would I want to go to the city, Payten?”
She stared at him. “You’re a private person.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you know how I woke up this morning?”
His thoughts scattered as he imagined how he’d like to wake her up in the mornings. Ignoring it, he answered, “How?”
“Maddie woke me up banging on my door. She came over to rant about how I was making out on my porch last night with her cousin and about how ridiculous it was that she had to hear it from her mother. That’s what will happen if we go on a date here.”
“We’re going to wind up making out on your porch? That sounds good to me.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said, laughing.
“Then I think I’m missing the point,” he told her.
“I think you are. The point is you’re a private person, and everybody in town knows exactly what we were doing on my porch last night. The point is if we start dating, people are going to talk.”
Chuckling, he let go of her hand and took the syrup. “I’ve waited my whole life for people to talk about us. I think I can handle it.”
“What is that suppose to mean?”
“Eat your pancakes. They’re getting cold,” he warned.
Grumbling, she cut into her pancakes and started eating.
Chapter Eight
Payten stared at the phone on her nightstand as it rang. It was the fourth phone call since she’d gotten home from the diner. The first had been Cooper with great news. Mary Beth had delivered a healthy little girl, and both of them were fine. Cooper had decided to take a month off to stay at home with the two of them. She told him she’d talk to Dean about filling in for him and to enjoy his time with them.
After that, she’d called Dean. The conversation was short because she felt awkward talking with him on the phone. She’d asked if he wanted to fill in for Cooper. He said he would. She told him she’d see him at the diner the next day and hung up.
The next phone call had come literally seconds after she laid down to go to bed. No one had been on the other end. She shrugged it off and went to sleep. Two hours later, the phone rang again. The sound of deep breaths came across the line, but no one answered her. It was a little more difficult to shrug that one off as a mistake, but it was possible it was a prank. She remembered the call from the night before.
Definitely kids, she’d decided.
As the phone continued to ring, she wasn’t sure if she cared whether or not it was a prank. All she wanted was some sleep. The past three days had all been long, and she was exhausted. More so than she’d realized.
She plucked the phone off the nightstand. She didn’t answer it, just turned the ringer off. She returned it to the nightstand and rolled over to go to sleep.
• • •
When Payten’s alarm sounded the next morning, she shoved her hand out into the cold air of her bedroom. She smacked the alarm and grabbed the phone. She brought it back under the covers with the rest of her. She called her mother, knowing she’d be awake. After so many years of opening the diner, her mother’s sleep habits were firmly entrenched.
“Good morning,” her mother answered cheerfully.
“Ugh,” she grunted.
“Payten?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” her mother asked.
“Tired. Cover for me at the diner?”
“Sure. We got back late last night. Your father is still sleeping.”
“Dean’s cooking,” she said. “Cooper’s taking time off. Mary Beth and the baby. Talked to Dean last night. He’s cool.”
“That’s great. Dean and I get along just fine.”
“Night, Mom,” she mumbled. The short conversation had used up her reserves. She fell back to sleep as soon as she hung up the phone.
After spending all morning and most of the afternoon in bed, she finally dragged herself out. She used the time to catch up on things. She worked on the diner’s books, spent some time writing thank you cards for the New Year’s Eve celebration, and watched an obscene amount of her favorite television shows that she’d missed.
She’d parked herself in front of her computer after dinner. Her mom had stopped by with a cheeseburger and French fries from the diner. Sitting in her pajamas, Payten skimmed through her e-mails. Music poured out of the speakers on her computer, and she couldn’t help but sing along.
Even over the noise, she heard the gentle tapping at her window. She jerked around to look at the small window on the wall adjacent to the desk. The light of the room reflecting off the glass made it impossible to see out the window.
She tried to shrug it off. Probably just the wind moving the tree.
In spite of her rationalization, she moved to close the curtains over the window. She had to take a deep breath before she could force herself to get close enough to actually reach the curtain.
She glanced at the clock and decided to go to bed. She planned on baking the next morning before she went to the diner. She was looking forward to it. She hadn’t been able to do any baking since before New Year’s Eve. Several days of not baking felt like a long time for her.
She turned off her music and shut down her computer. Flipping the light off, she headed toward her bedroom. She slowly moved through her nightly routine in the bathroom. When she finished, all she had to do was crawl into bed and fall asleep.
Half an hour later, though, she was still awake. The house was so quiet she could hear herself breathing. She never had trouble falling asleep. Her head hit the pillow, and she was out. It was unsettling to her that she couldn’t sleep.
She gave herself all sorts of reasons. You’re still too stressed from the past couple days. You slept too much today. Your internal clock is wacked out from the weird hours lately.
When the phone rang, though, she knew none of those reasons were true. That phone call was why she couldn’t sleep. It was why she was jumping at shadows and why she was lying in bed listening for every creak of her house.
She reached out to grab the phone from the nightstand. She knew — was absolutely positive — there wouldn’t be anyone talking on the other end. She answered it anyway.
“Hello?”
Silence.
“Hello?”
When there wasn’t an answer, she hung up the phone. It’s just kids. Just damn kids. They probably think it’s funny. We’ll cure this. First thing tomorrow, I’m getting caller ID.
The phone rang again, causing Payten to nearly jump out of her skin. She stared at it stupidly for a minute. They had never called back so soon. She knew she should let it go to the answering machine, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Hello?”
Nothing.
“Hello?”
She strained to hear something, anything. There was still nothing. She hung up the phone. She thought about turning the ringer off again. In the end, she decided against it. She knew she’d want to know if they called again.
When the phone rang again, she threw herself out of bed. She jerked the comforter off her bed with a quick yank. With the comforter and her pillow tucked under one arm and the phone in her other hand, she ran into the bathroom. She slammed the door behind herself and locked it.
After turning on the bathroom light, she sank to the floor. The phone kept ringing.
She was terrified.
Happy thoughts, she told herself. If it isn’t kids, the bathroom is safe. Nobody can get in here. You’re safe. Completely insane, but safe.
The phone stopped ringing. She stayed huddled on the bathroom floor. She thought about calling the police. She seriously considered it for a long time. When the phone didn’t ring again, she decided she could wait until morning to complain.
This time she really would. She wasn’t going to talk herself out of it as she’d done that afternoon. Even if it was just a prank, it was annoying and disturbing. Surely the police would take her seriously. She was going to the police station right after she got her caller ID.
In the meantime, she planned on staying locked in her bathroom until daylight. She sighed. I’m crazy, she thought. Completely insane.
She still didn’t leave the bathroom. Lying on the cool tile floor, she put her head on her pillow and wrapped herself in the comforter. She shivered a little. She convinced herself to think about something else.
Dean. That’s a nice, warming topic. She felt herself blush even though no one else was around to guess her thoughts. She fell asleep thinking about his kisses.
Chapter Nine
Teddy stood at the grill in the back room of the diner. He stared down at it, thinking. He felt old. It was an unusual feeling for him.
In his younger years, he had been a handful. Skipping school, getting into fights, drinking like a fish, and getting stoned while staring at the lights of town from the bluffs had been normal for him. His junior year of high school, he had even managed to talk every cheerleader into his bed except one. He had definitely been a wild child.
One day, out of the blue, his parents gave him the keys to the diner. His mother kissed his cheek and told him to grow up. His pop had shrugged. That was the summer before his senior year of high school.
Teddy worked harder in that one summer than he ever worked before. Up at dawn every day that summer, he flipped pancakes and fried bacon until he couldn’t look at either. When the one waitress who’d remained after his parents left him floundering up and quit, Teddy had been forced to do something he had never done before.