by Niecey Roy
A cold blast of stale air rushed Cole when he stepped into the gas station. The girl behind the counter didn’t look up. She swiped a fingernail with magenta polish then moved on to the next nail. He’d had an idea Tatem was at the register, which explained why no one had come outside to check on the customers at the pump.
“Working hard again?” Cole asked.
Tatem shrugged and went back to polishing her nails. “Not much to do.”
“It’s a full service gas station,” Cole mused. He grabbed two sodas from the cooler against the wall and set them on the counter. “Margie was out pumping her own gas.”
Last fall, Joe’s sister took off with a new boyfriend and hadn’t wanted a teenage daughter dragging her down. Joe drove across the state line into Denver to bring Tatem home. Joe and Melissa didn’t have kids; they’d tried for years. Going from no kids to a teenager wasn’t a walk in the park, Cole guessed. He’d been an asshole as a teenager, oblivious to the world around him and how much growing up he had to do before he became the adult he thought he was. How Joe and Melissa would survive a rebellious teenager was something the whole town wondered.
“Margie?”
“Nelson.”
“Didn’t hear the bell ring.” She shrugged and raised her hand to her lips to blow on the nails. “I don’t know how to pump gas anyway.”
Cole cocked his brows. “Really? Seems to me if you’re going to steal your uncle’s car you should at least know how to pump gas.”
A month ago she’d taken Joe’s Mustang out for a joyride. The sheriff found her and a friend on the county line with a blown tire and a half empty pack of beer. Cole spent a week repairing the damage to the fender.
“I didn’t steal the car, I borrowed it.”
“Borrowed, huh?” Cole dug his wallet out of his back pocket. “The cops didn’t buy that story, either, I'm betting.”
She went back to painting her nails. “This town sucks. Don’t you all get tired of gossiping?”
He smiled. “That’s how we keep you kids in line.”
Tatem rolled her eyes. “Lame.”
Cole counted out bills and set the cash on the counter. “For the pop.”
She screwed the cap onto the nail polish then pinched the bills between her fingertips, careful not to smudge the wet paint. With her other hand she released the cash drawer. “If there was more to do in this dump I wouldn’t have borrowed Uncle Joe’s car.”
“There’s more to do than when I was a kid.”
“Like back in the dinosaur ages?” She raised obstinate brows.
“Yeah, back in the day.” Smiling, Cole stuffed the loose change into the front pocket of his jeans. “There’s a bowling alley. Try that.”
“Bowling?” She sounded as if she’d rather kick rocks.
“Bet you wish you would’ve gone bowling instead of stealing a car—a lot less community service hours for getting caught bowling.” Cole tapped an invoice pad. “Where’s Joe?”
“I dunno. He left somewhere in the truck with his tools. Said he’d be back in an hour or so.”
“Write him a note to take a look at Margie Nelson’s exhaust. Sounds like there’s a leak. Also, I pumped ten bucks into her car. Add it to her tab.”
“I don’t know how Uncle Joe makes any money when he lets everyone and their dog charge gas.”
“Joe knows who’s good for it and who’s not. Let him know I’ll be back with a car for him to look at, too.” Cole turned and walked to the door. He pushed it open. “Stay out of trouble. You’re giving your uncle ulcers.”
“I’m on probation. That’s pretty much jail,” she called after him.
“That’s probably for the best,” he said before the door swung shut behind him and cut off her response. Back when he was her age, he’d been out drinking, smoking cigarettes stolen from Trey’s aunt, and doing his best to get in girls’ pants. He’d say a prayer for Joe’s sanity.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Jay, you up there?”
Jaden opened the bathroom door and stuck her head into the hallway. “Up here!”
A moment later Mia appeared in the doorway with a bob of dark hair and caramel highlights. “Yay! I can’t believe you’re actually here! In River Bend!”
Jaden pulled Mia into her arms. “And I can’t believe I didn’t croak on the way in. I had to shower. I was disgusting.”
“I know. Cole told me.”
Jaden puckered her brows. “He said that?” She unwrapped the towel from her head. “What an ass.”
Mia leaned against the doorframe, her smile widening. “No. He said you were sweaty and irritated.”
“Okay, that part’s true.” She dropped the damp towel into the hamper in the corner. “I like your hair. It’s cute.”
Mia reached up to run her fingers through the short locks. “I wasn’t sure about it.”
“Well, I love it. You’ve never gone short before.”
“I needed a change.” A shadow touched her brown eyes and she looked away. When she dropped her hand from her hair, the locks fell into place a few inches under her chin, accentuating a slim neck. “I don’t know how Lily talked me into chopping it, but it’s growing on me.”
Jaden pursed her lips and studied her. Chopping off her long locks for the first time in her life seemed a pretty big deal. The kind of thing a person might do right before a breakdown. “Change is nice,” Jaden said, but her comment came out sounding more like a question.
“Yeah, it’s nice.”
Jaden nudged her out of the bathroom. “Please tell me you have alcohol in this house. I could use a drink or two. You have no idea how crappy it was being stranded in this heat. My perfume and hair products were gnat magnets. I thought I would either be eaten alive or sweat to death.”
“You’re just not used to it, but you will be by the time you leave.” Mia started down the stairs and Jaden followed. “I thought you were headed to the beach? I can’t believe you gave up toes in the sand to vacation here.”
“They’re sending me out on location soon, so don’t feel sorry for me.” Jaden poked her in the back. “I didn’t want to wait another six months to see you.”
“I’m glad you came.”
The hairs on the back of Jaden’s neck stood on end. The note of apprehension she heard in Mia’s voice during their phone call was back.
“Me too. It’s getting harder and harder for us to get together, it seems.”
“We both work too much.” Mia turned at the bottom of the steps. “We need to change that.”
Jaden took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Let’s do that.”
“I hurried here as soon as Lily dried my hair. I almost stopped for wine at Antonio’s, but there’s beer in the fridge.”
“Antonio’s?” She followed Mia into the kitchen.
“Only the best pizza ever.” Mia reached for the refrigerator handle and pulled it open with a backward glance. “I would have brought one home, but I figured you’d be craving breaded cauliflower. You’ve mentioned it in our last two phone calls.”
Jaden’s eyes zoned in on the carry-out boxes on the breakfast bar and her stomach grumbled. “Oh my god, you brought me Pam’s? I love you, I love you, I love you.” She popped a box lid open and the scent of fried food nearly buckled her knees, so she sat down on a stool. She popped a fried piece of breaded cauliflower into her mouth. “Heaven.” Her eyes rolled back in her head as she groaned. After swallowing, she said, “I was starving.”
“I got us the works—bacon cheeseburgers, mozzarella sticks, breaded cauliflower, and buckets of homemade ranch.” She pulled out two bottles of beer and turned, one in each hand.
“For the last hour all I’ve been thinking about is Pam’s bacon cheeseburgers.” Jaden opened the lid on the container of ranch. The little diner was an after school and weekend hangout for the kids in town. Senior year, Jaden worked as a waitress there. Without Pam, she wouldn’t have saved enough money to leave after graduation.
“It
’s Alison, Pam’s daughter, running the diner now. Pam passed away last year.”
Looking up from the piece of cauliflower she’d drenched in ranch up to her fingertips, she frowned. “What happened?”
“Cancer.” Mia pressed her lips together, her gaze solemn. “It was quick. She found out she was stage four only two months before she passed. Too late for treatment.”
“I can’t even imagine walking in there and not seeing Pam.” She should have stayed in touch, and was left with a stab of regret.
“The community helped raise enough money for her to visit Prince Edward Island.”
Jaden smiled, remembering Pam’s love of Anne of Green Gables. “She always wanted to go there. It’s incredible you all did that for her.”
“Everyone loved Pam.” Mia smiled and sat a beer in front of Jaden. “She would love knowing you crave her food.”
“I don’t know how my arteries aren’t clogged—I ate dinner there every day for a year.” She popped another piece of cauliflower into her mouth; even without being saturated in ranch it was good. “This just made my day not suck.” She lifted the beer to her lips with a smile. “Well, the fried food and you. I missed your face.”
“Not as much as I missed yours.”
“We could argue about that for hours.” Jaden laughed. She swallowed a drink of beer; the cold liquid tingled on its way down. “The perfect combination.”
“Just wait until I take you to Antonio’s. You’ll crave that instead of Pam’s when you leave.”
Jaden glanced up from the burger and mozzarella sticks in one of the take-out boxes. “I doubt it.”
“It’s the best pizza I’ve ever had,” Mia insisted and sat down on the stool beside Jaden.
“Really?” Jaden couldn’t think about anything but the burger in her hands. “The best pizza ever, in the middle of nowhere Nebraska?”
“Quit being a snob.” Mia laughed and flicked her in the arm. “Antonio is an Italian. A real one.”
Jaden sniffed in answer because her mouth was full of food.
“A real one.”
She waggled her brows. “A real one? Like with an accent.”
Mia plucked a mozzarella stick from Jaden’s box and waved it at her. “No accent. Second generation from Brooklyn.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Black hair and panty-dropping green eyes.” Then she bit into the stick.
“Panty-dropping?” Jaden paused with the burger to her mouth. “That’s a big statement. I’ll need to discern this for myself.”
“He’s very nice to look at, I promise. I’ll take you there while you’re here.” She dipped the mozzarella stick in Jaden’s ranch for the last bite.
“This Antonio sounds intriguing,” Jaden said between bites. “I love a real Italian who cooks the best pizza ever.” She swung her stool to face Mia. “I can’t believe I’m sitting here in your kitchen right now.”
“Me too. But River Bend?” Her eyes widened and panic creased her brow. “You’re not dying, are you?”
“No,” Jaden was quick to assure her. “I’m not dying.”
She cocked her head and pierced Jaden with a wary stare. “Okay, so what’s going on?”
“Honestly?” She swirled the beer around inside the bottle. “I’m worried. I got a super stressed out call from my best friend.”
Mia’s eyes widened. She wiped her fingers on a napkin and said, “You came here because I sounded stressed?”
“Not just stressed. It hasn’t been so long that I can’t tell when you’re holding something back and about to blow.” Jaden set the bottle down. “What’s going on? Cole said you’re on some festival board? How do you have time for that when you’re running an event planning business?”
She blew out a heavy sigh and dropped the napkin to the counter. “I couldn’t say no. They needed my professional help.”
Jaden lifted her brows. “You kick ass at your job, yes. But you still could have said no. Being on the board means you don’t get paid, right?”
“They wouldn’t have had the money to pay my fee.” Mia was a tiny thing, but there was nothing small about her. She was one of the most determined people Jaden knew. People expected her to take charge, which was why she’d made the perfect student body president, head of the prom committee, and captain of the cheerleading squad. Why she’d excelled in her college studies, and why she graduated with honors. Event planning was perfect for her, and she was good at it.
“So you’re busting your ass on this festival board and not getting paid. And I know you, your calendar is already booked solid with your own clients.” Jaden inhaled a deep breath and shook her head. “You’re going to give yourself a coronary and you’re only twenty-seven.”
“I probably should have said no,” Mia conceded with a sigh.
“Yes, you should have.”
“So what did you and Cole talk about?”
Jaden raised her brows. “Not much. I had heat stroke.” What she really meant was that Cole still affected her, and she was ashamed by it. “Don’t try to change the subject. We were talking about this festival that’s got you so stressed out and why you agreed to be on a board you don’t have time for.”
“I guess I am a little stressed out.”
“A little?” Jaden pursed her lips in disagreement.
“Only a little. They asked me to join because fixing events is what I do, you know?” She gestured with both hands, and Jaden knew at this point, Mia was convincing herself she’d done the right thing. “Things are a mess. The county treasurer embezzled a lot of money. It’s not good. There’s no advertising budget now, so the festival isn’t getting the coverage it has in the past and there’s so much money sunk into the event already. Thank goodness for donations or we wouldn’t even have pamphlets this year. The bands that were booked will be covered by entrance fees. I’ve pulled all the personal strings I have to get advertising space anywhere and everywhere, and as cheaply as possible.”
“That’s horrible about the embezzlement.” Jaden washed down her last bite with beer. “But still, you can’t just pick up the torch every time someone needs you. Yes, you’re an event planner, you’re good at it, they’re lucky to have you, but that doesn’t mean you should be expected to save the town. That’s just crazy talk.”
“It would be wrong of me not to help out when I’m needed.” She removed the bun from the burger then reached for the ketchup bottle.
Mia loved this town. Unlike Jaden, she had roots here, generations of family. If the town needed her, Mia would do all she could to help. It was an obligation of sorts, one Jaden didn’t share. She and Ellie had been drifters. When Jaden was twelve, Ellie’s boyfriend at the time brought them to River Bend. Jaden hadn’t thought they would stay. The town would always mean more to Mia than it ever had to Jaden.
“Did the airline find your luggage?” Mia asked around a mouthful of burger.
“Yes, thank God. I called them before I jumped in the shower. They put it on a plane back to Omaha. They’ll mail it out tomorrow, but I won’t have it until Monday. Tuesday at the latest. I’ll need clothes.”
“I’ll take you shopping.” Mia’s eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together. “We have a couple new boutiques in town, and I know the women who own them. You’ll love everything.”
“I just need a couple of things to get me through the weekend.” Mia’s idea of shopping and Jaden’s were very different. Jaden had nice things, enough to fill a small closet—Mia had four times as much, and a small bedroom she’d converted into a closet.
“Right, just a few things.”
“River Bend boutiques.” Jaden shook her head and polished off another cauliflower. She had a feeling this shopping trip would cost her a paycheck. “Unexpected, yet definitely convenient.”
“See, there’s lots of good things about River Bend. You should move back for the ranch and me.”
“Maybe you should move to Seattle.” Jaden sent her a hopeful look, though it was pointless. Mia was as much a par
t of River Bend as River Bend was a piece of Nebraska. She would live in this town forever, have babies here, raise a bunch of little Mini-Mia’s and live happily ever after. If she didn’t work herself to death, or die of a heart attack induced by stress and not enough sleep.
Mia crinkled her nose. “It rains too much in Seattle.”
“But you won’t croak from heat exhaustion in Seattle.”
“You’re barely in Seattle. You might as well move back here.”
Jaden closed the lid on the take-out box. “River Bend and I never hit it off.”
Not entirely true. Jaden and her mom had never hit it off in River Bend.
“Oh, you.” Mia rolled her eyes with an exasperated smile. “I brought my camera and laptop. Maybe I’ll go around town during the festival and write a few pieces for my blog.”
“Really?” Mia’s voice rose an octave. “You have no idea how excited everyone will be—Jaden Miller, host of The Road to Bliss, covering our little town!”
“Mia, I’m talking about my personal blog, not me calling in the television network to send out a film crew,” Jaden clarified. She had no control over which locations were filmed.
“I know! But your blog is still a big deal, even if it’s not your TV show. You have a zillion followers!” Mia reached over to take her hand and gave it a firm squeeze. “We’re all very proud of you, you know.”
Jaden’s lips puckered with amusement. “If you say so.”
Mia sent her a stern gaze. “I do.”
Jaden doubted anyone in town besides Mia cared much about what she’d done since graduating almost ten years ago.
“You’re a celebrity.”
Jaden’s lips turned up into a warm smile. Mia had always been her best cheerleader. “Not yet, but maybe one day.”
Fame hadn’t been her goal when she set out to chronicle every step that took her further from her past, and fame still wasn’t a necessity. But now that she had the TV show, and a chance to put her own mark on the world, she’d jumped in with both feet. Her career was now the most important thing in her life, her only constant. This life she’d made for herself, the person she’d become, was because she’d gotten it for herself, all on her own, hundreds of miles from Ellie.