by M. Mabie
“Yep,” I answered as I kept eating. I was hungry too, but, unlike this guy, I liked to enjoy my food.
“Did she call you ... Mutt?” he asked, his facial expression confessing he thought he’d heard wrong.
“Yep.”
“Why would she call you that?”
I hated that question, but I gave him my stock response anyway.
“It’s a family name.”
Which was true. If my mom hadn’t been such a friendly lady, I’m sure it never would have stuck. Before he could say anything more about it, I asked him a question to change the subject.
“What were you shitting about in your vehicle when I walked in?”
He leaned forward, propping his elbow on the table and ran his fingers over his head. Something he’d done a few times already. Must have been a nervous tick.
“Well, I’m the new dentist in Dr. Carver’s office, and I’ve been moving all day.”
That was all he needed to say. I hated moving. Not that I’d ever moved, but I’d helped friends move plenty of times, and it was total bullshit. He could have stopped there and I would have called that justification, but he continued.
“I had a flat on the U-Haul about two hours into the drive. Then when I got here I realized I’d packed the new house keys in the trailer. I had to unload some of the boxes on the driveway until I found the one they were in. I don’t have any food in the house and I was starving. So I drove here, remembering there was a restaurant on this corner, and just as I pulled in, my check engine light came on.”
Shit. That was a bad day.
“Damn.”
“Yeah, but, honestly, it doesn’t seem near as bad now.” His eyes locked on mine and a flutter of something came to life in my stomach when he smiled at me again. “Everything looks a little better on a full stomach. You know?”
He sure as hell looked better to me on a full stomach.
Just before I let those exact words slip from my mouth, Diana called from the kitchen.
“You two doing all right out there?”
“Yes, that was amazing,” Vaughn answered.
“Diana, this is Vaughn. He’s the new dentist, and he’s moving into the old Robinson place, right?” I knew that was right because I’d seen the for sale sign was gone from the yard the other day and hadn’t heard of anyone else buying it. It was the last house in town on the road out to our place. I loved that house, but it was going to need a lot of work.
“I guess. It’s the house just south of town on this street.”
Diana came over to shake his hand and clean up our plates. “Well, it’s nice to meet ‘cha. Welcome to Wynne. I’m Diana. I’m always open ‘til eight, but I usually shut the kitchen down at seven, seven thirty. We’re closed on Mondays and only open from eleven to five on Sunday. You can always call something in if you’re running behind.”
“I appreciate it, thank you. I’ll remember that,” he said, his voice calmer than it had been before. “By the way, that was incredible. I’m sure you’ll see a lot of me.” He was much more charming once he ate a meal and stopped to catch his breath—even after his shitty day.
Diana blushed and waved a hand at him.
“You have my ticket, Di? I’ll settle up with you,” I said, knowing she wanted to get the hell out of there. She had a new grandbaby at home, and since her daughter, Faith, was now living with her, she probably had a ton of things to do before she even sat down herself.
“No. Honey, your daddy got yours earlier when he and Dean were in. Dean said he was probably gonna clean up and head down to Sally’s or The Tap. You ought to go down. I think there’s a band somewhere tonight.”
Although that sounded fun—or as much fun as was possible on a Saturday night in a small town, population 3,400—I was ready to take my shoes off and just have a beer in the garage at my workbench.
“Not tonight, I’m licked.” For those of you not from Wynne, that means tired, but in that moment I knew what I’d said and who I’d said it in front of. I quickly glanced to the man I’d only known for about thirty minutes and fire burned under my embarrassed cheeks. “I’m tired,” I corrected in case he thought I’d meant something else.
He failed at hiding his amusement, but didn’t laugh at me, which I appreciated.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I was rough around the edges for a chick. I always had been. I was raised by my grandpa and dad, in a town where kids didn’t go to the arcade, they went to a creek. Where we didn’t go to the beach and get a tan, we bailed hay for the neighbor and got burned. I barely wore makeup, and most days my hair air-dried from my rolled down truck window on the way to the shop.
I only dated one guy in high school, and he turned out to be a real ass, which was okay because the poor dope was as bald as a knob and his wife slept around on him with the bartender at The Tap. Other than him, I’d had my share of hits and misses, but nothing major. The dating pool in Wynne was shallow, a lot like the gene pool.
I could out-fish any man in our county. Clean my catch twice as fast.
It was known that I could change a tire faster than Dean, when push came to shove.
I even killed all my own spiders, and I wasn’t afraid of the dark.
Yet, there in Diana’s diner, I was blushing like a Barbie doll because I said the word licked in front of a man whose face I couldn’t quit staring at. I’d be lying if I said saying it hadn’t brought up certain explicit images in my mind.
Simply put, I was a bit hard up and it had been awhile. A long while. I needed to get out of there before I really made an ass of myself.
In my reverie, I’d missed what Vaughn and Diana were saying. My thoughts had drowned out their words. I got up and headed for the door.
“I’ll see you Tuesday, Diana. Nice to meet you, Vaughn,” I said as I stepped out into the warm spring night about to cross the street to my old pickup truck.
Before I knew it Vaughn was outside, too, saying, “Hey, you said you worked over there. You think they’d be able to take a look at my Escalade next week? Like I said, the check engine light just came on. Hopefully it isn’t anything major, it’s not that old, but I need to get it checked.”
I turned around and walked backwards, not wanting to stop in the middle of the street, but not wanting to be rude.
“Sure, bring it up on Monday. I’ll see if my dad or Dean can hook it up to the diagnostic thing. Shouldn’t take too long.” I spun back around, jumped up on the curb and opened my truck door. It creaked—which I thought of as an anti-theft feature, even if I never locked it—then I hopped in. I chanced a look back at Vaughn, who was still standing there by the door of the restaurant.
I cranked my grey beast to life and rolled down the window.
He shouted, “Thanks for the sandwich.”
“See you Monday. I hope tomorrow runs a little smoother for ya,” I shouted back as I pulled out and headed for home. He lifted a hand and gave me a little wave as I drove off.
I slowed a little as I rode past the old Robinson house. We lived on the same road, but we were out of town about a mile and a half and they were the first house on the edge of the city limits. I drove past it nothing short of twice each day.
I saw the boxes he’d unloaded to get his house keys on the driveway, stacked neatly against the garage door. The whole bungalow needed a new coat of paint, and maybe even a new porch. As far back as I could remember, it had always been that color and it had never been remodeled, only maintained—if you could call it that. There were dowels missing from the railing on the porch and the screen door on the side was never shut and latched all the way. Sometimes it would swing in the wind if the weather was bad. It needed a new roof, too.
I’d been in it a few times as a child, and I was sure the inside was just as dated and neglected. It was nice that someone was going to fix it up.
I smiled to myself and my boot pushed down on the gas pedal, speeding up on my way out of town.
I didn’t know Vaughn,
but anyone who would move to Wynne—from anywhere—and fix up one of its oldest houses, and take over for a dentist who’d been a lifelong resident ... well, he had to be pretty ambitious. And sadly, that’s one thing our little town lacked.
Ambition.
I pulled into our shed, where I normally parked, and killed the engine. It was only a little after eight, but I knew if I started on the lures I’d be up all night. And I had to get those invoices straightened out in the morning.
So instead, I grabbed a beer from the old fridge next to my workbench, let the tailgate down on my truck, and sat there in the dark, thinking about the new guy and watching the stars.
Read more ROOTS AND WINGS here.
Also by M. Mabie
THE WAKE SERIES
Bait
Sail
Anchor
THE KNOT DUET
Twisted Desire
Tethered Love
STANDALONES
Fade In
All the Way
CITY LIMITS SERIES of STANDALONES
Roots and Wings
Sunshine and Rain
Smoke and Mirrors
THE BREAKING TRILOGY
Break My Fall
Break Me Down
Break the Faith
About M. Mabie
M. Mabie is a writer who made thousands of readers hate to love (and love to hate) the angst-filled contemporary romance, Bait.
Mabie lives in Illinois with her husband. She writes unconventional love stories and tries to embody “real-life romance.” She cares about politics but will not discuss them in public. She uses the same fork at every meal, watches Wayne’s World while cleaning, and lets her dog sleep on her head.
She has always been a writer. In fact, she was born with a pen in her hand, which almost never happens. Almost. M. Mabie usually doesn’t speak in third person.
She promises.
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