One booth of folks left and another pushed into the diner at the same time. Vicky hurried over to clean the table and get it ready for the newcomers. She glanced at the clock. Ten thirty. By this time most days, she was sitting at a booth or the counter with Nettie and Jancy having breakfast. It was beginning to look like there would be no letup until the noon rush. How on earth Nettie kept up with the orders and still had time to get her blue-plate special going was a miracle. The scent of ham, sweet potato casserole, and baked beans blended with all the breakfast food and made Vicky’s stomach grumble.
Jancy breezed back into the diner and through the swinging doors. She tied an apron around her waist and was about to start helping Nettie when Vicky stuck her face in the window. “You come on out here and take care of the counter. I’ll do kitchen duty.”
“I don’t mind,” Jancy said.
“My daughter and I need some space,” she said.
“Oh, yeah?” Jancy’s brows shot up.
Vicky joined Jancy and Nettie in the kitchen. “She says she’s not going back to school in the fall.”
“It’s a long time until then. She might change her mind,” Jancy said.
“She’s a lot like you, Vicky. When she makes up her mind, wild horses couldn’t get her to change it.” Nettie stirred the pot of beans.
“Got any advice, Jancy?” Vicky asked.
“Fightin’ her could make her set her heels even harder. Might be smarter to let it alone for a while and let her figure out for herself that it’s not such a good decision,” Jancy said.
Nettie chuckled. “The way they both like to argue a point until it’s died a dozen times, that won’t be easy.”
“I just like things settled and planned out,” Vicky said.
“Don’t know what to tell you about that,” Jancy said. “In my world, things were never settled or planned.”
“Will you talk to her?” Vicky asked.
“Every day.” Jancy smiled.
“I mean about this crazy notion.” Vicky sighed.
“I’m the last person you should ask to do that. You know about . . .” Jancy stumbled over the words.
“You are probably the best person for the job,” Nettie said.
Emily poked her face into the window. “Hey, I could use some help out here.”
“Sure thing.” Jancy passed her on the way back out into the dining room, where she picked up an order pad, wrote on it, and then handed it to Shane.
Shane shook his head. “It’s Ryder’s turn to pay for breakfast. Give it to him.”
“This is not a bill. It’s my new cell phone number,” Jancy said.
Ryder reached for it, but Shane snatched it away.
His fingertips grazed hers, and the little bit of chemistry did not surprise her one bit. “Thank you, Jancy. I’ll get it programmed into my phone soon as we leave.”
She refilled their coffee cups and carried the pot down the counter, making sure everyone had a warm-up. When she reached the end, Ryder was standing there with his billfold in his hand. “Shane was right. It’s my morning to pay. And Jancy”— he lowered his voice—“don’t break his heart. He’s my friend and . . .”
She rang up the amount and took the bills he offered. “I won’t. I promise.”
“W-we ready to go?” Shane walked up behind Ryder as Jancy made change. “I’ll call you this evenin’.”
“Be lookin’ for it.” Jancy smiled.
Half an hour later, the diner was suddenly empty. Vicky cleaned off the last table in the deafening silence and grabbed the broom to give the floors a quick sweeping before the next onslaught of customers, but Nettie took it from her hands.
“It don’t look too bad. Let’s eat right here in the kitchen. Jancy, would you pour four cups of coffee? Emily, you help her bring them back here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Emily groaned. “I didn’t know there were even that many people in Pick.”
“There’s not. Some of them were from Frankston and up in Berryville,” Vicky said. “Some of them are most likely sent from Carlton to see what’s going on today and to pick up any gossip. I hope they heard Ryder offer to hang his carcass on a barbed-wire fence.”
“Like they do coyotes?” Emily brought in two cups of coffee.
“Exactly,” Nettie said. “I’d pay Ryder in free lunches if he’d put him on the fence for me.”
“Nettie!” Jancy exclaimed.
“It’s the truth.” Nettie shrugged.
“Why don’t I give y’all another truth to shriek about,” Vicky said with a sidelong look at her daughter. “Emily says that she’s finishing up the last of her degree with online classes.”