Worth It All

by Claudia Connor

  She was still holding out his change while he stood there like an ass. “No, keep it,” he finally said.

  She glanced at the large tip in her hand, then back at him, her expression unreadable. “Okay. Thank you.” The she turned and headed for the swinging door behind the counter.

  Casey smiled and waved at him over her mom’s shoulder, and he waved back, and that’s when he saw it. Propped on Paige’s hip, her purple skirt spread out and over her knees. But her left leg hadn’t been tucked under her. It ended a few inches below her knee.

  Just like his.

  —

  “Stupid,” Paige muttered under her breath and rolled her eyes at herself. She pushed through the swinging door and into the back of the restaurant. To the right was the kitchen, to the left a good-sized space that served as the employee break room.

  Casey leaned back to see her face. “What’s stupid, Mommy?”

  “Nothing, sweet pea.” Just that, for a second, she thought he was about to ask her out. And even more stupid that, for a second, she’d wanted him to.

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” Casey said.

  “Okay.” Paige lifted her most precious baby a little higher on her hip and kissed her neck, making her laugh. They got to the bathroom just as her cousin was coming out.

  “Hey, Casey Bell,” Jenny said.

  “Hey, Jenny Penny.”

  Paige helped Casey get situated in the bathroom, then stepped just outside the door to wait out her daughter’s newly asserted independence. She wasn’t wearing her prosthesis today, nothing new. Though with kindergarten approaching, it was becoming a new worry.

  “That was one hot man sitting in your section. Again,” Jenny added with an eyebrow waggle. “Two, actually, though I only got a glimpse of the other one before he left.”

  Paige turned her face to hide any remnant of disappointment that might be lingering. “He doesn’t know my section.”

  She peeked through the crack at Casey.

  “I need privacy, please,” Casey said.

  Paige smiled and walked a few steps away to join Jenny at the skinny floor-length mirror leaning against a wall.

  Jenny slid out the wand to reapply her mascara, bringing even more attention to her big doe eyes. “Mmm. Just lucky I guess. But even you have to admit he was hot. And don’t act like you didn’t notice.”

  Of course she’d noticed. She’d only been here a few weeks, but it was impossible not to. He’d never said more than a few words to her, always polite, always quiet, but his brown eyes and easy smile were hard to ignore.

  “So hot.” Jenny sighed dramatically and leaned in, whispering, “The extremely gorgeous, rock my body, please let me touch you kind of hot.”

  “Mmm. I wouldn’t know.”

  “A travesty.” Jenny stretched her face out to the mirror and raised the mascara to her other eye. “You know he’s been coming here for weeks and not once have I seen him talking to anyone. Until now. Until Casey.”

  “Casey could coax a rock into talking.”

  “What are you going to do when he asks you out?”

  “Do you really think I have time for a man? I barely have time to pee.” It was true. She didn’t have time for a man in between her daughter, two jobs, and school. But if he had been about to ask her out, and then hadn’t because she was a mom…She’d always be a mom. Or had it been Casey’s leg? She hated to think that.

  There were generally two reactions to her four-year-old daughter’s amputated leg. People either stared, seeing the missing part before they saw her and all her perfection, which hurt, or they pretended not to see her at all. That hurt too.

  Paige tightened the hair band around her thin ponytail while her cousin fought with her long, wavy mass. Jenny with her thick, dark hair, olive skin, and voluptuous breasts. A direct contrast to her own small breasts and hair as pale as her skin. She was like the anti-California girl. Plain. Unnoticeable. Overall unexceptional.

  Her second cousin, twice, maybe three times removed, was a flirt, a bottle of sunshine and great with Casey, if a little flighty. She was the fun girl. The kind of girl a man would ask out without hesitation.

  Had she ever been that girl? Even before Casey?

  “Can you still watch Case tonight?”

  “Sure, Miss College Girl.”

  “Thank you. I couldn’t do this without you.” She gave Jenny a quick side hug as she passed.

  “Yeah, yeah. Just be careful you don’t burn out.”

  “I won’t.” If anything, she needed to work harder. “As soon as Casey starts kindergarten, things will slow down. I’ll be able to take a couple of classes during the day. You know, you could go too,” Paige said, watching Jenny continue with her hair. “Just take a few classes. See what happens.”

  Jenny smiled. “No thanks. That’s your dream.”

  True, it had always been her dream. And now they were here. Operation New Life was taking off.

  “I’m done,” Casey called.

  “Okay, baby.” When she lifted Casey to the sink, she smiled at her daughter’s sweet face in the mirror. She wouldn’t have those tiny baby teeth much longer. Paige gave her a tight squeeze, holding on an extra second until she wiggled free.

  “I put your leg beside the blue beanbag, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Casey could put her prosthesis on by herself. She could also take it off, which is what she preferred lately. She’d never pushed the issue of wearing it. Now she wondered if maybe that had been a mistake.

  She got Casey settled in her hangout and put in a children’s DVD. Big Mac had converted the large storage closet for his granddaughter years ago. Complete with beanbags, a small table, paper, crayons, and puzzles, Casey loved it. It was just for a few hours while she and Jenny’s shifts crossed paths. It wasn’t a perfect situation, by any means, but it was the best one she had. Soon Casey would be in kindergarten and knowing her daughter was having fun at school while she worked would relieve a load of guilt.

  “Okay, I have to go back to work now. It’s just for another hour, then Jenny will take you home. All set?”

  “Yep.”

  “Hey, Mommy?”

  Paige paused at the doorway. “What, baby?”

  “I’ve been thinking and I decided something.”

  This ought to be good, she thought, smiling down at her angelic face. “What have you decided?”

  “I’ve decided not to go to kindergarten.”

  Chapter 2

  JT lay flat on his back on the weight bench and stared at the gym ceiling. He wasn’t bothered by the rusted beams or exposed pipes, but the clumps of dusty shit that hung like Spanish moss made him finish counting reps with his eyes closed. And the fact that Simon was standing over him. He’d been quizzing him relentlessly for the past five minutes.

  His mind waffled between thoughts of Paige and her daughter like it had done for the past forty-eight hours. The fact that she had one, and also that the blue-eyed, fry-eating ball of sunshine had an amputated leg.

  JT grabbed the bar again, no idea what set he was on, but knowing he wasn’t done. Up. Down. Up. Down. Until his arms shook and his muscles burned. When he opened his eyes, Simon was staring down at him. “What are you looking at?”

  “You. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this pissed off. I’m having this weird Seventh Sign moment. Waiting for your head to spin or Demi Moore to pop up.”

  JT continued his workout.

  “What happened? You crash and burn with Diner Girl?”

  “No.” He’d barely taken off.

  “Did you ask her out?”

  He slammed the bar down in the rack over his head. “No.” He sat up and wiped his damp hands on a towel. He stood for Simon to start his set and stared at his friend’s legs, knees bent, feet on the floor.

  Did Paige’s daughter use a prosthesis? Did she need one? Maybe hers didn’t fit right. Her stump had been uncovered and he hadn’t noticed any signs of irritation, but he’d barely
gotten a glance.

  Maybe it was broken, or maybe she just wasn’t wearing it at the moment. He could understand that. He didn’t lie around the house in his. The point was he didn’t know, wasn’t even sure it was his business to know.

  He wasn’t a doctor or even a prosthetist. He was a biomedical engineer. He designed, he engineered, and he preferred to keep a certain distance, like a surgeon on the other side of the drape. But he’d wrestled with it for over twenty-four hours since leaving the diner and come up with nothing except that he couldn’t walk away from it or from her.

  “It’s not your leg, is it?” Simon asked, sitting up. “Your extreme pussiness about the waitress? Because if it is, I’ll have to kick your ass. Again.”

  “You haven’t kicked it yet, and no. It’s not.” It’d been eight years since he’d lost his leg, though there’d definitely been a time it had been a problem, and it had taken some getting used to.

  Take his prosthesis off? Leave it on? Or maybe hard and fast up against a wall so he didn’t have to deal with it at all, not the wide-eyed gasps or the sudden change of heart. Not the pity or the weird curiosity.

  “Well, at least that’s something,” Simon said, pausing to look at him. “You know what I think?”

  “No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.” They’d been in rehab together after Simon’s time at the VA. Hours of therapy, hours of hanging out when neither man was at his best. They were as close as brothers, maybe closer. And Simon, who was sandwiched between two older and two younger sisters, was more in touch with his feelings and using his words than most.

  “You need the love of a good woman,” Simon said. “Don’t you ever want more?”

  “Do you think maybe you’re getting caught up in the wedding fever bliss?” JT rolled his eyes and talked the shit back and forth with Simon, but yeah. He wanted more.

  But it was that wanting that reminded him his leg was the least of what had been lost that day eight years ago. And it had all been his fault.

  —

  “Don’t look now,” Jenny said, “but Mr. Fine is back and he looks hungry.”

  “Is this like Mr. Sexy Hair or Mr. Perky Pecs?” Paige moved around her cousin to refill a soda. Tonight had been busier than they expected, with the cooks churning out food and the waitstaff rushing to keep up.

  “Better.” Jenny winked.

  Paige smiled and shook her head at her cousin. Always on the hunt for a man. Her own limited experience with men didn’t make her eager for more.

  “Are you kidding me?” Jenny went on. “You’re not even going to look?”

  She finally did out of curiosity and…crap. It was the guy from the other day. The one that made her pulse beat faster. The one she’d thought was about to ask her out even if she could never say yes. Which is why the tingle on the back of her neck and the heat he brought to her cheeks was so disconcerting. She grabbed a rag to wipe around the base of the coffeemaker. “That’s not my table.”

  “It is now. He asked for you specifically.”

  “What did he say? Exactly.”

  “I said, ‘Hey, handsome, what can I get you?’ and he said, ‘Paige.’ Just like that. Paige, all deep and sexy. Told you he was going to ask you out.”

  Jenny must have read the look on her face because she added, “You don’t want him, I’m more than happy. I’d go anywhere that man asked.”

  Yeah. Anyone would. And he was looking this way. Crap.

  She made her way over to Mr. Fine, as he was aptly named, because okay, yes. He was perfectly gorgeous in a casual, slightly rugged, athletic kind of way, even if she tried hard not to notice. His hair was dark and slightly damp, a black T-shirt covered his chest, just hinting at the muscles beneath. Add to that his eyes and a faint shadow covering his strong jaw, and the entire female population was in danger of hyperventilating.

  “Hi,” she said, trying her best not to be affected by him. It would be so much better if she actually wasn’t affected by him. “What can I get you?”

  “Iced tea.”

  “Okay.” See? Just a man. No reason for this to be awkward. Except that he was here and asking for her. “Anything else? The special is meatloaf.”

  “No, thanks,” he said, his voice deep and even, his expression serious. “I wanted to talk to you, if you have a minute. About your daughter.”

  What could he possibly have to say about Casey?

  “About her leg, specifically,” he added.

  Well, now things were awkward. Her shoulders stiffened and she took a small step back. “What about it?”

  He took a deep breath and blew it out, then angled himself on the booth seat until his right leg was in clear view. His khaki shorts revealed a below-the-knee prosthesis. The socket at the top was shiny black with a silver pylon that disappeared into a running shoe. It was sleek and impressively high-tech looking.

  When she pulled her gaze back to his after several beats, she realized her mistake. She knew what it was like on the other side of stares. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” he said, turning his body back to the table.

  “No. It’s not. I just…” She wasn’t sure why it was such a shock. She didn’t know him, though she’d seen him several times. Did he always wear long pants? “I never noticed and…it’s nice. I like it.” Maybe a stupid thing to say about someone’s prosthetic leg, but it was true.

  “Thanks,” he said, his expression kind, like her comment wasn’t stupid at all. “Does your daughter have a prosthesis?”

  “Yes. She has one, but she doesn’t always wear it. It’s been bothering her lately. It probably just needs an adjustment.”

  He sat back against the booth, his eyes on hers, arms crossed over his broad chest. “I work in prosthetics, mostly bionics and artificial intelligence, but I could take a look at it. If you wanted.”

  He was back to offer to help Casey? She was still wrapping her mind around the fact that he wore a prosthesis and made prosthetics.

  “Order up! Chick fried!”

  Somewhere it registered that this was not the first call. “I, um…” She shot a glance at Mac. “I’ll be right back.”

  Paige hurried across the diner and behind the counter. She grabbed the plates from the pass, delivered them, then went for his tea on autopilot. Because he’d ordered it, and because she needed a minute.

  “Told you he was interested,” Jenny said, sliding up beside her. “So? What’s the deal? Navy SEAL? Pro athlete? Chippendale dancer?”

  “No. And he’s still not interested.” Though he was becoming more and more interesting. “He has an amputation almost the same as Casey’s.”

  “You’re kidding. I’ve never noticed,” Jenny said, automatically turning her head in his direction. Not that she could see anything from here.

  “No. I’m not,” she said, filling his glass. “And he makes prosthetics or something, and he asked if Casey had one and then offered to look at it when I said it was bothering her.” Her mouth dropped at the end of her recitation, and she stared at her cousin like Jenny was the great wizard of Oz. She needed some help here.

  Jenny’s eyes bugged. “My God, he’s melting my eyeballs and he wants to be your hero.”

  Not a very Oz-like answer.

  “If I didn’t love you so much, I’d kill you,” Jenny said. “Go. Your shift ended ten minutes ago.”

  Jenny gave her a not-so-gentle nudge in his direction and followed her over. “Hello, hotness. Paige here has to eat before she goes to her next job. Sit,” she said to Paige. “And order something or I’ll do it for you.” She added her familiar disapproving look at Paige’s all-work, no-play schedule.

  Paige set his glass on the table, then sat down across from him. “I’m not that hungry,” she told Jenny.

  “Brussels sprouts it is.” Jenny pretended to write on her pad.

  “Okay. Grilled cheese. To go. I’ll eat it in the car.”

  “She’s single by the way,” Jenny added, before leaving them. “I am too
, just in case you want to store that info away for another day.”

  Paige rolled her eyes at her cousin’s back. “I’m sorry. She’s…”

  “Outgoing?” he asked with a lift of his brow and a slow, playful smile that brought a smile of her own.

  “I was going to say something else, but she’s also my cousin.”

  “Maybe I should have started with this. My name’s Jake. McKinney.” He held out his hand.

  “Paige Roberts.” His fingers were warm and strong, and her small hand was swallowed up in his palm. It might have looked like a simple handshake, but when a man who could melt your eyeballs took your hand, stared into your eyes with his own deep brown ones, it felt like a lot more. There was a warm and unexpected quiver deep in her belly.

  He let go and she tucked her hand in her lap. “So, you make prosthetics?”

  “Yes.”

  He didn’t look like a kook, more like a really sexy underwear ad, but this was her daughter they were talking about. “She has an appointment at Shriners Children’s Hospital coming up.”

  “That’s three hours away.”

  “I know, but it’s free and…” And it was difficult to schedule appointments, miss work. In fact, her next appointment was over a month away. She wasn’t sure what was wrong, but it would be better to get it looked at before Casey started school.

  “Here.” Jenny joined them with Casey in her arms, saving her from her own awkwardness. “Little Bit wants to say goodbye. I’m going to clock out. Be right back.”

  Casey knelt on the booth next to her and smiled easily at Jake. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” Jake returned her friendly smile. “How’s Eric?”

  “Good. His name’s not Eric, though. It’s Leon. He changed his mind.”

  Jake nodded thoughtfully. “Another strong name.”

  Casey leaned across the table between them, going for the sweeteners. “Do you want some sugar? What about a pink one?” Her fingers tightened on the edge of the paper, and she reached for his glass. “Can I put it in for you?”

  “Ah…sure.”