“Well, whatever it was, she looked the picture of health.” Juanita talked all the way back to the storeroom to put her things away and was still talking when she came back into the dining room. “And she acted that way too. I half expected her to get up and walk us to the door when we left.”
Juanita continued her monologue, occasionally raising her voice to include Chris or Carlos in the kitchen as they prepared the diner for the breakfast crowd, and even though Kaitlyn only half listened, Juanita didn’t seem to notice. Truthfully, since her conversation at the hospital the day before, Kaitlyn had been thinking about the options Elizabeth made her promise she’d consider, and for the first time in months, she began to feel alive. She hadn’t quite got around to talking them over with the Lord, another of Elizabeth’s suggestions. But then, she hadn’t talked anything over with the Lord for a long, long, long time.
“So, Kaitlyn, I was wondering.” At the sound of her name, Kaitlyn became aware that Juanita was actually talking to her. “Russ’s sister and her husband are having a fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration at the Elk’s Lodge over in Deming Saturday night. Do you think you could fix me up a little bit? You know, do my makeup, fix my hair?”
“I’d love to, Juanita, if you think we’d have time.” Actually, giving Juanita a makeover did sound like fun. “I may have plans for Saturday night too, so we’d have to squeeze it in right after we close. Could you come to my house? I don’t think I’d have time to go out to yours.”
“Yeah, Steven is coming over for macaroni and cheese and to watch Pocahontas with us.” Olivia looked up from her scrambled eggs long enough to send a dark look Juanita’s way.
“Really.” Juanita cocked her head and raised her eyebrows.
“Livvy!” Kaitlyn sent a warning frown her daughter’s way before turning back to a very attentive Juanita. “Oh, we just thought it might be nice to have some company since Chris is going out. But it’s super tentative. I haven’t even talked to him yet.”
“You said you were going to call him last night.” Olivia’s tone accused Kaitlyn of fibbing, even if her words did not.
“Well, I tried, but he didn’t answer and I didn’t leave a message, okay?” Kaitlyn felt heat prickles move up her neck and into her scalp. She was desperate to get the subject changed. “Now. Juanita. Yes, let’s plan on my doing your hair and makeup Saturday. I’ll come out to your house. We’ll have Steven over another time.”
“Mo-o-om!”
“No, I wouldn’t think of having you change your plans on my account.” Juanita flapped a hand at her. “I’ve got this all figured out. I’ll just bring all my stuff with me Saturday, and Russ can pick me up on the way out of town. There’s that shower in the employee restroom; I’ll use that.”
“You’re not doing hair in my restaurant.” Chris appeared in the window to the kitchen, offended astonishment written all over his face. “Are you out of your minds?”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Chris, settle down. We won’t get past the storage room, and probably not even that far. More than likely, I’ll just sit there on the john in the bathroom and let Kaitlyn work on me in there.”
Chris turned back to the kitchen. “I don’t even want to think about that.”
“Well then, don’t. It doesn’t concern you anyway. Besides, here comes company.”
Juanita went to unlock the door as an extended cab pickup came to a stop in the parking lot and two men in heavy jackets got out. The early morning sky was still a thick winter black, and as they made their way to the front door, the puffs of their breath went before them like tiny clouds.
“Good morning, gentlemen. Sit anywhere you’d like.” Juanita was already on her way to get the coffeepot. “Let me guess. Coffee first, and then menus.”
“You got that right.”
The men slid in on either side of a booth by the window and held their cups up for Juanita. She filled each cup with a quick twist of her wrist. “Need any cream?”
“Nope, I’ll take it as hot and strong and black as you’ve got it.”
Kaitlyn watched Juanita’s easy conversation with the customers as she handed them their menus and talked about the daily specials. Now that Kaitlyn had made the conscious decision to stop looking at Juanita as the enemy, she saw an easy proficiency that she had been feeling way too sorry for herself to notice before. Juanita did know her job. Of course, she also knew everyone else’s job, or thought she did, and had no problem critiquing the performance of that job. But that was another issue.
Juanita breezed by on her way to the kitchen with the order. “Kaitlyn, don’t just stand there like Lot’s wife. Get to work. It looks like Olivia’s finished her breakfast. You can clear her place, and then you can roll some more silverware until we get more folks in here.”
Kaitlyn felt the familiar flash of resentment start in her chest and head for her mouth. This time, though, she clamped her teeth on the retort and took a deep breath before answering.
“Sorry, Juanita, you caught me daydreaming. I’ll get right to it.”
Juanita froze in midstep for a brief second. Kaitlyn smiled. Apparently not quite convinced that Kaitlyn wasn’t being sarcastic, Juanita scowled at Kaitlyn for another moment. Finally, her brow smoothed and she gave a quick nod before continuing to the kitchen.
“Good.”
Kaitlyn cleared Olivia’s dishes and then settled in a back booth with the napkins and silverware. She had only intended to change her attitude toward Juanita and the Dip ’n’ Dine because it needed changing. It was holding her back and dragging her down. But in her heart of hearts, she had to admit that seeing Juanita thrown for a loop and at a loss for words, even for a second, was an added bonus.
It was nearly 3:00 before the lunch crowd finally thinned out and Kaitlyn was able to grab a cup of coffee and slide into her favorite booth in the back. Just a little more than an hour left and basketball practice would be over and she could go get Olivia. She leaned back and closed her eyes. She was glad her brother had found his dream in this place, she really was. But with every order she took, with every cup she poured, Kaitlyn was more convinced than ever that this was not for her. And while willing a better attitude might go a long way toward making the day go more smoothly, it didn’t change the fact that she hated her job.
“My goodness, this day was busy.” Kaitlyn opened her eyes as Juanita slid in across from her, holding her own cup. “If it had been like this yesterday when you were gone, I would have just run my feet right off.”
Kaitlyn leaned forward, cradling her cup in her hands. “Juanita, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with my age or my hair color.”
“No, it’s not that.” Kaitlyn smiled. “Do you like working here? I mean really.”
“Well, it’s not easy work, I’ll give you that. But sure, I like it. I like the people and seeing folks have a good time in here. I even like that good tired feeling that comes from doing a solid day’s work. And when I go home and Russ starts talking chile at me, why, I can tell him all about my day too. Why?”
Kaitlyn reached across the table and clutched Juanita’s arm. “Because I hate it. I hate it so much.”
Juanita tossed a worried glance toward the kitchen and lowered her voice to as near a whisper as she could go. “Sshh. Chris’ll hear you. I’m here to tell you that boy has ears like a hawk.”
“I’m not hearing anything I don’t already know.” The voice floated from the kitchen.
“See? I told you,” Juanita hissed before raising her voice and turning toward the kitchen. “Although hearing is one thing and listening is another. I’ve talked to you about eavesdropping before, Chris Reed.”
Chris appeared in the window. “And I’ve told you that everything you say can be heard in every corner of this restaurant. I’m just glad there weren’t any customers in here to hear that.”
“Now, if there were customers, would we be sitting here drinking coffee? You need
to lighten up a little bit, I think.”
The phone in Kaitlyn’s apron pocket vibrated, and she left Juanita and her brother to their discussion of acoustics.
“Hey, sorry I missed your call last night.” It was Steven.
“Oh, it was nothing important. I just wanted to ask you something.”
Juanita must have figured out who she was talking to, because she immediately left off lecturing Chris on eavesdropping and turned her rapt attention to Kaitlyn.
“I can’t talk right now. I just got to school for basketball practice and Mrs. Martinez is waiting with the kids. I guess I’m a little late. Tell you what, I’ll bring Olivia to the Dip ’n’ Dine after practice for you. We can talk then, okay?”
“Wait—” But he was gone before she could say anything, and Kaitlyn slipped her phone back in her pocket.
“Well, that didn’t take long. Did he hang up on you?” Juanita stirred a little more sugar into her coffee.
“No, he just couldn’t talk now.”
“Then why did he even call? That’s just plain silly.”
“He just called to tell me that he’d bring Olivia here after practice.”
“Oh, well, that’s nice of him. Save you a trip.”
“Not really.” Kaitlyn took the last sip of her coffee and slid out of the booth. If it was impossible to have a private phone call in the Dip ’n’ Dine, she could probably sell tickets to a face-to-face conversation. “Livvy and I have to go take care of Elizabeth’s cat anyway. I’ll just go on over and wait for practice to be over. Save him a trip.”
She was on her way to the kitchen with her empty mug when Chris came through the door putting on his jacket. “If Steven’s bringing Livvy over, I’m going to run up to San Ramon real quick. I need to take care of some business, but I can never seem to get out of here before everything closes. I shouldn’t be gone more than an hour, but at least Livvy won’t be stranded if I’m held up.”
Kaitlyn watched him head out the door and climb in his Jeep. Her conversation with Steven had taken maybe fifteen seconds, and everyone in the diner seemed to think it involved them somehow. Unbelievable.
“Hey, Carlos, we haven’t heard from you yet.” She continued into the kitchen with her mug. “Don’t you have anything to add?”
“Nope.” He was taking advantage of the empty diner to begin cleaning and didn’t look up. “Except it’s a sin to invite someone to dinner and then serve them that mac and cheese. You need to learn to cook, girl.”
Kaitlyn kept an eye on the clock, willing Chris to get back in time for her to meet Olivia and Steven at school. She did not want to talk to Steven about Saturday with Juanita and Chris and Carlos and who knows, maybe some customers, hanging on her every word. It was just an invitation for him to come hang out with her and Olivia Saturday, but even so, a little privacy would be nice. And privacy was hard to come by at the Dip ’n’ Dine.
At 4:00 on the nose, she saw the Jeep turn off the highway and stop in Chris’s usual spot near the door. Great. Too late to go get Olivia, but in time to add one more person to her audience.
In the next fifteen minutes, Lurlene Porter and Evelyn Watson came in for coffee and pie, Rita Sandoval came in needing to see Chris about something, and a public service company truck brought four men in hardhats looking for a late lunch. Kaitlyn was sure someone had to be out on the highway with a flag, waving folks into the Dip ’n’ Dine.
“There they are.” Juanita nudged her as she went by, drawing Kaitlyn’s attention to Olivia and Steven getting out of Steven’s truck.
“Hey, Mom, guess what? Steven lets me ride in the front seat.” Olivia burst through the door ahead of Steven.
“So I see.”
“I’m not supposed to?” Steven glanced at Olivia as he took off his hat and hung it on the rack by the door.
“No, it’s safer in the back, and she knows that.” Kaitlyn put her arm around her daughter and gave a squeeze. “I think she was just seeing what she could get away with.”
“Is that how you’re playing it?” Steven turned back to Olivia. “That could cost you that cup of cocoa we were talking about.”
“But you promised. And you told me it was okay if I sat in the front. I asked, remember?” Olivia had changed so much since she had been in Last Chance, but she still knew how to work things to her advantage. That was another thing Steven would have to learn if he was going to spend much time with them.
“I guess you got me. You go ahead and grab a booth. I’ll be there in a sec.” He turned to Kaitlyn with a rueful grin. “So is there anything else I need to know?”
“Well, it’s usually a good idea to check with a kid’s parents before you offer them things to eat or drink, especially this close to dinner.”
“Man, I’m striking out all over the place.” Steven ran his hand through his hair. “I guess it’s a little late, but is the cocoa okay?”
Kaitlyn smiled. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
He returned the smile, and somehow it was his eyes, the same clear blue of Elizabeth’s eyes, that caught her attention. That dimple that he loved to flash couldn’t hold a candle to his eyes. “So what was the phone call about?”
Kaitlyn looked around. The ladies eating their pie had been watching their conversation with unabashed interest since Steven came in, and Juanita, while not actually staring, had arranged to be close enough to hear everything that was said. She took a deep breath. “Oh, nothing important. I’ll give you a call later.”
He looked puzzled. “Why? What did you need?”
“Seriously, it’s not anything we need to talk about right now. I’ll call you tonight.”
“Okay.” Doubt still clouded his face, but he began to edge toward the booth where Olivia waited.
“We want you to come have dinner with us Saturday and watch a movie.” Olivia might not have actually yelled, but the sound seemed to Kaitlyn to reverberate from the rafters. Certainly everyone else in the diner looked up to see what was going on.
Steven jerked his head around to look at Kaitlyn, and she threw up her hands and laughed. “Well, there you have it. If you don’t have anything going on, Livvy and I’d love to have you come over Saturday. Nothing major. Livvy thought we could have mac and cheese with hot dogs and watch Pocahontas. Sound like an evening you can’t pass up?”
Steven opened his mouth and closed it again. But words were not necessary. Kaitlyn had only to look at his stricken expression to know. Right there in the middle of the diner, with everyone looking on, he was going to turn her down.
Steven pounded the side of his fist against the steering wheel. Where did that come from? How many times and in how many different ways had she told him she was not interested? She had said no at least three times by the elevator at the hospital before the door could even close, and that was just one incident.
Then the one time, the one time, he decides to spend an evening with a very lovely young woman—a woman who, by the way, he had once rejected in favor of Kaitlyn—Kaitlyn suddenly decides to let bygones be bygones and invites him to dinner. Steven shook his head to clear it, but it didn’t help.
It couldn’t have been long, maybe a second or two, between the time she asked him and the moment she threw up her hand to ward off his fumbling explanation, saying, “It’s no big deal, really. Just a thought.” But it sure seemed like a long time. Why had he insisted on going on, telling her if he had only known he never would have made plans, begging her for a rain check, when she clearly just wanted him to shut up? If he hadn’t already promised Olivia that cup of cocoa, he would have got himself out of there right then, but no, he had to go sit with her and talk about basketball and her cat and pretend nothing had happened. Kaitlyn brought them their cocoa and smiled as if nothing had happened, and everyone else in the diner went back to their meals as if nothing had happened. And it was all as awkward as a calf on ice.
A tumbleweed the size of a small boulder blew across the highway in front of him, and he
braked slightly to keep it from getting caught in his grill. For maybe the fiftieth time since he had returned to Last Chance, he let himself think about what it would be like to just keep going. To the west, the sun was about to slip below the horizon. It looked like it might still be shining on California, and if he got on Interstate 10 and headed that direction, he could be in San Diego before it came up again. He leaned back against his seat and smiled. Really, what was holding him here? He was going to have to report to the academy in April, but until then? Nothing.
Of course, he’d have to go back to the ranch for his stuff and his dog. Uncle Joe Jr. was expecting him soon to help with the evening chores, so he’d have to at least wait till they were done before he left. Might as well stay till after dinner. That would give him time to line up someone to pick up the basketball jerseys he had ordered for the kids. There was Gran’s house to finish up, of course, but maybe if he really cranked it, he could get most of it done in the next week or so.
He drew in a deep breath and blew it out with a gust. Every one of those things was something he would have shoved off on someone else without a second thought only a few weeks ago. What was going on here?
He turned off the highway and bumped over the cattle guard onto the dirt road that led to the ranch house. “Face it, Braden. You’re getting old.”
18
Kaitlyn came back into the living room after tucking Olivia in bed and curled up in a corner of the sofa. Chris looked up from his computer with a sympathetic smile.
“Rough day, huh?”
Kaitlyn fell over sideways and buried her face in a sofa cushion. “The worst.”
He reached over and put his hand on her head. “I didn’t understand what you said, but I’m betting you weren’t disagreeing with me.”
Bringing the cushion with her, she sat up and hugged it to her chest. “Why, Chris, why does a simple phone call that involves only two people become the property of the whole blessed town? Why?”
At Home in Last Chance Page 17