Oh God, it’s happening already.
I nearly face plant into my coffee and catch the bemused expression on the waitress’s face; at least, someone finds it amusing.
“I’ll get you some breakfast.” She pats my shoulder and moves away before I can answer.
“So what’s the plan?” I ask trying to distract her from the guy behind me. Although she focuses on me, she keeps sneaking furtive glances over to the counter.
“We could hang around here,” she suggests out of the blue, and my jaw drops. I thought this was a pit stop.
“We’ve been here for five minutes.”
“I get a nice feeling about this place.” It’s the only explanation she offers.
“Meghan,” I groan.
“What?”
“You and your feelings-”
“Have they steered us wrong?” She looks at me expectantly. Meghan goes on her gut instinct; normally, that’s why we wind up places.
“Look what happened last time, it didn’t have such a good feeling,” I mutter, and I regret it in an instant when her face falls.
“You know why we ended up there.” She’s right; our last stop was out of necessity, not choice. I got caught racing, and we skipped town the next day. Because we were running low on money, we stopped and Meghan got a job immediately. Although I now know why he hired her, he was the same guy who had her up against the wall with his arm to her throat. The two of us sit in silence until the waitress returns with breakfast and sets it down in front of me.
“Excuse me.” Meghan reaches for her hand, stopping her from walking away. “Is the waitress position advertised in the window still available?”
“Sure is, honey. You interested?”
Meghan looks at me and I shrug; she’s the one with the feeling. If she got a job she liked, then I could try to convince her to stay a while longer.
“You got any experience?” The waitress pulls over a chair and sits down.
“Loads.” And Meghan starts to rattle off the places she’s worked. Never for very long but she isn’t afraid of hard work. I tune out and concentrate on eating my breakfast.
Satisfied with her work history, the waitress extends her hand. “I’m Peggy. When can you start?”
“As soon as you want. I’m Meghan.” She takes Peggy’s hand to shake it. “I don’t suppose there’s a hotel around here? We need to find somewhere to stay.”
Peggy's smile widens and she leans forward, dropping her voice. “There's a small apartment above the diner that would be big enough for you and your …” She is so fishing for information, but Meghan doesn’t bat an eyelid.
“Brother. This is my younger brother, Max.” Satisfied with that answer, Peggy claps her hands and pushes up from her seat to clear my plate away.
“Perfect. You can move in there then.”
A frown forms on Meghan's face. “I don’t have a security deposit yet.”
Oh, yeah. Because we left in a hurry, there was no way to get our last one back.
“Don’t worry about that. We’ll sort something out.” Peggy waves her hand dismissively and moves away.
“That was lucky,” I drawl, leaning back in my seat and wondering what in the hell there is to do for fun in this town.
“Told you I had a feeling.” She appears brighter, and on the surface, it looks as though she’s forgotten all the drama from last night.
“Yeah, whatever,” I mutter as Meghan pushes up from the table and approaches the counter to pay. Turning my head, I watch the two guys track her progress. The taller guy’s eyes light up with interest and his gaze lingers on her while she stands patiently, seeming to ignore them but she’s not. She’s being subtle, but she’s checking them out too. I’ve seen this shit too many times.
It will only be a matter of time… Bored, I turn my attention to look out the window at the truck that’s pulled up outside. Two people, around my age, maybe a year younger climb out. The windows of the dinner are open and I can hear them quarrel.
“Come on, Storm, I’m starving.” A tall, lanky boy with blond hair slams the door of the truck.
“Fuck off, Aaron. I told you not to call me that.” A slim girl in ripped jeans and a white tank top jumps out of the driver's side and slams the door. ‘Hank’s Auto Shop’ is written on the side. Her eyes flash with anger as she shoots him a look of annoyance. He chuckles and throws an arm around her shoulders before wrestling her into a headlock. They struggle and my mouth twitches with suppressed laughter as I watch her wriggle free and punch him hard on the shoulder. Maybe I’m reading it wrong, but they seem more like brother and sister than anything else. That thought pleases me to no end, and my smile widens. Things around here just got a little more interesting.