by T. L. Haddix
Lily’s eyes widened. “Oh, really? We’ll have to see about that.”
Elijah secured a large corner booth for them, settling into the center with a groan. “I want one of everything, Dad.”
Caleb chuckled as he slid in beside him. “Didn’t you clean out our cooler and Lily’s? Or was that someone who looked a lot like you?”
The lazy grin the boy sent him was a replica of Caleb’s smile. “Growing teenager. Feed me.”
“I feel like I work to pay for groceries these days between you and your brother.” Caleb ruffled his hair, taking the sting out of the words. “Thank goodness Sky’s away at school most of the year, or I’d have to get a second job.”
Skylar took the seat on Elijah’s other side. “Yeah, yeah. Like Mom doesn’t have a garden big enough to feed half the family on its own.”
When Lily saw that Austin was trying to figure out how to snag the seat beside Skylar without making it obvious, she snagged one of Warren’s belt loops, holding him back in a way that no one else could see. He looked over his shoulder at her, and when she pointed with her eyes, he glanced at the table, then at her, frowning.
“What?” he murmured.
“Sit beside your brother,” she whispered back. “Make Austin sit beside Skylar. I need to excuse myself. Order me some coffee?”
“Sure,” he said, taking the spot she’d indicated, forcing Austin to sit where Lily wanted as well.
Once she was in the bathroom, she texted Warren. I’m trying to play Cupid here. Go along?
A second later, he responded. A and S? Thought he was your beau.
Lily laughed out loud. “I knew that would confuse you but good, mister.” Just a sweet friend getting over bad breakup. She likes him. Watch. Be out in a sec.
She was washing her hands when her phone chimed again.
You Campbells.
“Yep, pretty much.”
She winced when she looked at her reflection. Her hair was all over the place, a spectacular bruise was forming under the bandage on her forehead, and she looked very much like a woman who’d worked hard all day. She quickly undid her braid and ran her fingers through the heavy blond hair to try to straighten it out just a bit.
“I think a nice, messy bun will do just fine,” she muttered as she twisted it back up, then secured it at the base of her neck. Satisfied, she hurried back to the table, where the waitress was handing out drinks.
“Just in time,” Austin said with a cheeky grin. “We were going to order without you.”
Lily waved him off and picked up her menu. “Pfft, like I mind. What looks good?”
“Everything,” Elijah said with feeling, making them all laugh.
By the time everyone else had ordered, Lily knew what she wanted. “Can I get a ham and cheese sandwich, hot, with a large bowl of veggie soup? But I’d like to start with a piece of coconut cream pie. I hear it’s exceptional.”
Warren bumped her shoulder. “It is. You’ll see.”
The waitress smiled. “Sure, honey.” But when she looked at Lily to take her menu, she frowned. “Good lord, child, what happened to your head?”
Lily grimaced, touching the bandage. “I got too close to a skittish pony.”
“You did?” The waitress narrowed her eyes at Warren, lips pinched, then she scanned the rest of the group before coming back to Lily. “Are you sure?”
“Quite,” Lily answered solemnly as Warren tensed alongside her. “We spent the day doing an animal rescue, and I think we all have bumps and bruises. I just happened to be the lucky chick who got nailed in the face.”
“So did Toni from the Humane Society,” Skylar said, stirring sugar into her tea. “Didn’t you see her lip? One of the dogs busted it and good. By the end of the day, she looked like a collagen-wielding madman had gotten hold of her.”
The waitress had the grace to blush. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I’ve just seen too many girls come in here with bruises from walking into doors.”
Warren shrugged. “No offense taken. Thanks for caring enough to ask.”
“Sure. I’ll get these orders in.”
But he didn’t fully relax, even when the woman moved away and conversation started back up. Lily used shifting in her seat as a cover for sliding her leg around his, hooking their ankles together in an odd sort of hug that was the only comfort she could offer him at the moment.
After a few seconds, he let out a quiet sigh and dropped his hand below the table to squeeze her leg briefly before returning the hand to the surface.
When the waitress came back a few minutes later with some of their food, she set Lily’s pie down first. “How’s that look?”
Lily smiled as she picked up her fork. The coconut cream was smooth, and the meringue on top was piled high, toasted to perfection. “A lot like my mom’s. Homemade?”
“Absolutely. Fresh every day.”
The real test, however, came with the tasting. When the sweetness of the first bite melted on her tongue, Lily closed her eyes and gave a tiny moan. “Oh, yes. A whole lot like Mom’s. I have to take a picture and send it to her.”
“What’s the deal with the pie?” Elijah asked.
“It’s a love story,” Warren said, sneaking his fork over for a bite. “Isn’t it?”
Lily gently nudged him in the ribs as she got out her phone. “Yes, it is. How to tell it?”
He stole another small bite. “I’d start with the girl.”
“Oh, this sounds intriguing,” Skylar said, leaning forward to place her elbows on the table. “Please tell us.”
Lily smiled, snapping the picture. “Just a second. There, it’s sent. Okay… once upon a time, there was a very shy girl who wasn’t very confident. She’d been a chubby youngster, you see, and her mother wasn’t very kind to her because of her looks. So when she went to pick her cousin up one day from his summer job, the last thing she ever expected was that she’d meet a handsome prince.”
Austin grinned. “A prince?”
Lily tossed a straw wrapper across the table at him. “Yes. An honest-to-goodness prince, at least in her eyes. Well, he asked her to have a soda with him while they waited. He was there for his sister, you see, who was working at the same job as the girl’s cousin. And they went to a little diner on the corner in this itty-bitty town, and they both ordered pie. Now the girl, she was terribly self-conscious about her weight. But she also loved to cook, and she’d been trying very hard for a long time without success to make a good meringue. So when the waitress brought out their plates and it looked a lot like this,”—Lily framed her plate with her hands—“the girl was ecstatic. She forgot about the boy sitting across from her and she dove into that pie.”
“He must not have been much of a prince if she forgot him that fast,” Elijah said, but he was smiling.
Skylar swatted him. “Hush. Go on, Lily.”
“Thank you.” She hesitated, her heart aching for the young girl her mother had been. “Something guys don’t understand sometimes is that women are criticized so heavily for our weight. Even if you have a healthy body image, it happens. People look at what you eat, how you eat it, and they judge you. And for this particular girl, who didn’t have anything close to good self-esteem, that pie… she was so excited to try it, she didn’t even think. But after she’d had a couple of bites, she realized what she’d done and she was horrified. Here she sat, across from this stunningly handsome guy, stuffing her face. At least that was how she felt. The jig was up, as if she ever had a chance of this guy being truly interested in her anyhow, so she decided to go ahead and eat the damned pie. It was good too. The day shouldn’t be a total waste, right? That’s what she thought, anyhow.”
“And how did he feel about the girl?” Warren asked softly when she stopped to gather her composure.
He’d heard the story more than once, Lily knew,
and she smiled at him. “He was head over heels for her. See, she was the first girl besides his sisters who actually ate and enjoyed her food in front of him. He said she felt more ‘real’ because of that, and he was sunk, utterly lost. At the end of their time together that day, he asked her out. And after some time and some tribulations, he married her. But he loved her from that day, just the way she was, and he’s never stopped. All because of the way she ate her pie.”
“Ben and Ainsley?” Caleb asked as everyone cheered, even Elijah.
Lily nodded. “To this day, just the mention of coconut cream pie can make either of them smile. Some couples have a song or a dance. For my parents, it’s a pie.”
Austin raised his glass. “That’s an excellent story. But tell us, did she ever master the meringue?”
“Yes,” Lily told him, laughing. “She talked to the lady who’d made the pies that day in the diner, and she finally figured out the secret. She’s been making all kinds of heavenly concoctions ever since.”
“You’re lucky they didn’t name you Coconut,” Warren teased.
“Or Meringue,” Lily said. “This is very true.”
The rest of the meal flew by, and despite her best intentions, Lily couldn’t help feeling it was a date of sorts. Not the kind where a couple planned an evening out, but one of those things where they found themselves spending time together with a group, a distinct “us” and “them” situation.
She knew that sort of thinking would very likely lead to heartache down the road, and she tried her best to ignore the impression. From the speculative looks Caleb was giving her and Warren, however, she wondered how much he knew about them, and whether Warren was thinking the same thing.
When it came time to pay, Caleb insisted on covering the bill. “It’s the very least I can do for the help you all gave me today.”
As they walked to the trucks under a clearing sky, Skylar grabbed Warren’s arm and leaned into him. “When are you coming home again?”
He grinned at her, pulling her in for a hug. “Why? Do you miss me?”
She poked him in the belly, making him laugh. “Every day. In this instance, however, I’m asking because I want to set up a cookout when you come down. I have someone I’d like to invite.”
Warren stopped dead in his tracks, and Lily saw his eyes go wide. “Skylar Lane Walker… no.”
She just grinned at him, not the least bit cowed by his tone or his words. “Remember Destiny? She’s a couple of years older than me, and she just got out of nursing school.”
“No.” Arms crossed, he shook his head and glared at her. “You know better than to even start.”
Skylar wrinkled her nose at him as she pulled out her phone. “What I know is that it’s time you pulled up your bootstraps. She works in Lexington, so it’d be easy to set you two up.” She snapped a picture of him. “Love the brooding look. It makes you look mysterious.”
That made Elijah and Austin snicker.
“Cal! Do something with your daughter.”
But Caleb was smiling, his eyes full of mischief as he looked from Lily to Warren. “You’re on your own, buddy. Sorry.”
“Unbelievable.” Hands on his hips, Warren stalked to the edge of the parking lot and stood there, shaking his head. “Betrayed by my own kin.”
Skylar’s phone dinged. “She thinks you’re hot,” she called to Warren.
Lily started laughing even though she knew that would get her in trouble. But his face when he turned back to glower at his niece was so full of exasperation, she couldn’t help it.
“This isn’t funny,” Warren said as he came back over to them.
“Oh, yes. It most definitely is,” Lily told him. “It’s downright hilarious.”
He shook his head. “You have as warped a sense of humor as your father, did you know that?” Groaning, he rubbed his face. “Sky, look, I love you dearly. You’re as much my sister as you are my niece, which is probably why you’re so annoying from time to time. But get the matchmaking out of your head when it comes to me.”
Skylar’s humor faded as she looked at him. “I want you to be happy.”
Warren touched her face. “I am happy. But leave this alone.” He kissed her forehead. “Besides, did you ever think maybe you might be stepping into occupied territory?”
For a split second, Lily felt as if the world froze. She didn’t dare look at any of them as absolute silence spread across the group, especially not Warren. First, she didn’t want to give anything away. Second, a huge wave of doubt had rushed in, and she was terrified if she did ask, he’d say he didn’t mean it or that the “territory” wasn’t hers.
“Warren Sullivan, are you lying to me?” Skylar asked, her tone stern and nearly maternal. “Because if you are…”
He chucked her under the chin. “You’ll find out when and if I’m ready and not before. Consider the waiting payback for this heart attack you just gave me.”
Caleb interrupted Skylar before she could get out more than a syllable of protest. “It’s late, kids, and they have a long drive ahead of them. Sky, you can pester him later.”
“I know you’re as curious as I am,” she said, but she hugged Lily, then Warren. “Text us when you get home.”
“We will,” Warren promised as he walked her to Caleb’s truck. “I hope we can make it without running into more rain, but I think we’re out of luck for the day. You all be careful going home too.”
Austin squeezed Lily’s hand. “I’ll see you around the farm in a couple of weeks, I guess. Good luck with things,” he said in a low voice.
“You aren’t going back to Lexington?”
He shook his head. “I’m staying in Mt. Vernon with Dad’s cousin tonight, working there tomorrow, then back to Berea this weekend.”
“Well, have fun. Thank you for coming out today.”
Austin smiled and looked toward Caleb’s truck. “Thanks for calling me in. It’s been fun. I’ve needed that lately.”
She steepled her index fingers together and tapped them on her chin, trying to hide her glee at his interest in Skylar. “Mm-hmmm. Any time.”
Once they were in the truck heading north on the interstate, Warren didn’t seem any more interested in discussing what had happened than she was, and Lily didn’t press him. Instead, she settled in and read through her urgent messages.
“Grandma and Grandpa made it home safely. They stopped at Pip and Logan’s overnight,” she told him. “Grandma says Logan’s a mess still over Colin, who’s turning—and I quote—‘as surly as his father ever thought about being.’”
Warren snorted. “Logan had a surly period?”
“Oh, yes. From what I’ve heard, he hardly ever smiled. He was almost a night-and-day contrast to Archer.” She kept reading, being careful not to make herself carsick. “She also says she’s grateful to Molly for providing a distraction to the boys from worrying about their wives, but she hates that Molly has to deal with the turmoil. She says they can already see a difference in her though, so she’s relieved.” Lily let out a long breath, taking comfort from Sarah’s words.
“I figured that might be the case. I think Red maybe got it in her head that the job would be one thing, and when it didn’t turn out to be like she thought it would, she didn’t know how to cope.”
Lily nodded. “I think that’s part of it. She’s a good NP, really she is. I hope she can find what she’s looking for. Crap, that’s rain.”
The sky in front of them had darkened considerably, and the wind was picking back up.
Warren cursed. “Yeah, and lots of it.”
The deluge hit them a couple of miles down the road, forcing traffic to a crawl for several miles before it finally came to a complete stop. After a little bit, the rain died down to a steady drizzle, but the traffic didn’t move.
“Um, this is not a good sign,” Lily said int
o the quietness of the cab. “Wreck, maybe?”
“Probably.” Warren put the truck in park and grabbed his phone. “Let’s see what we can find out. Good thing we filled up before we left.”
The silence that spread between them this time was definitely tinged with awkwardness, and a thousand things ran through Lily’s head, starting with the kiss and ending with his statement to Skylar. By the time he spoke a few minutes later, she was ready to crawl out of her skin.
“Looks like there was a mudslide on up ahead. We won’t be getting through here tonight.”
She pointed out the windshield. “Maybe he has some advice.”
A state trooper was making his way back toward them through the line of traffic, stopping at every vehicle.
Warren rolled the window down, letting in a steamy burst of humid air as the trooper reached them. “What’s going on?”
“All this rain caused a slip. There’s a turn-around just a little ways up, and we’re sending as many people back down the interstate as we can. Think you can swing this rig through it?” He indicated the trailer with his flashlight.
“Yeah, it shouldn’t be a problem. We can just go back and pick the highway up in Mt. Vernon,” Warren said.
The trooper shook his head. “There’s a big wreck on the highway that’s going to take them hours to clear. Unless you want to go cross-country, you’re not getting north anytime soon. I’m sorry.”
Warren glanced at Lily. “Okay. Well, are the hotels still open or are we going to be stuck in the truck all night?” There was a strong hint of self-deprecating humor in his tone.
The trooper smiled. “If you make it back to Mt. Vernon before the rest of these people behind you, you might find a room. Otherwise, you’re looking at going all the way to London.” He glanced over his shoulder at the moving cars. “Just follow the crowd.”
“Will do. Thanks. Stay safe out here.”
He saluted them and walked on, leaving Warren and Lily staring at each other. When Warren started laughing, she shook her head.
“And you think my sense of humor is perverse,” she said.