Page 7 of Between Brothers

Chapter 2

Hayley

“They bothering you?”

“What?” I followed the deputy’s look up the line of booths to where Blue was watching. I turned back to refill the second deputy’s coffee and shook my head saying to the first, “No, they’re actually regulars. Blue, the one facing us, is actually kind of sweet.”

“You be careful around those guys, they have a rough reputation.”

“I will,” I said smiling and moved away from the sheriff deputies’ table and on to a different one.

Duracell got up and went outside for his usual after meal cigarette while Blue hunched over their table absorbed in folding their receipt as he usually did… even though they hadn’t paid yet. I put the coffee carafe back on the warmer and picked up the water pitcher wandering over to see what he was doing and secretly excited. I loved the little paper creations that he left me, it was one of my favorite parts about them coming in.

I paused quietly by his side. It was fascinating watching him work so finely, his long fingers wrapping a bit of green vinyl tape around a bit of straw wrapper. He looked up and smiled at me and I lost my breath, frozen in place by the look in his eyes. He took my hand gently and slid whatever little trinket he’d created onto my finger like a ring.

“I see you,” he breathed and I believed him. I believed him so hard that my throat closed up and tears very nearly sprang to my eyes. He stood up and I took an automatic step back to let him out of the booth. Still, he was so close, closer than he’d ever been and well within my personal space. I wasn’t really too surprised to find that I didn’t at all mind. Instead I held very still and closed my eyes, breathing in the scent of clean man and leather which in turn forced me into the position of trying valiantly not to shiver.

It’d been a very long time for me. A little over two years, to be precise. I opened my eyes when his thumb grazed my cheek, the barest whisper of a touch against my skin. He shoved a sheaf of folded bills into my hand and before I could find my voice, he was gone. I looked down at the wad of crisp, twenty dollar bills in my hand and looked back up and out the dark front window. Just as I made to take a step in the direction of the door, their motorcycles fired up and I jumped slightly.

I looked back down to my hands dumbly. Too much, he had paid me far too much, but I think he knew that. I set down the water and blinked. With what was in my hand, he’d left me over a one hundred and twenty dollar tip. That’d never happened to me before. I turned my hand over and looked at the ring he’d put on my finger, a delicate little paper orchid resting just below my knuckle.

I felt my heart give that little flutter and I treasured when it did that. It let me know it wasn’t completely frozen or dead. I swallowed hard and put the money in my apron pocket. I went back to work serving my other tables and sighed more than a few times doing it. At least now I knew their disappearing from the diner wasn’t me. I mean, they wouldn’t have been half so friendly to me if it was, right?

I hadn’t had the nerve to ask Melody, what with her just coming back after the awful time she had having Chandler. I was so grateful she’d returned, too. She was good at our job and it’d been a struggle to keep up without her, but I’d managed… just like I was managing now.

It’d been a long, long day and now it was dragging into a deep long night. I drifted between tables refilling coffee between stealing sips of my own from behind the counter. I was half dead on my feet by the time my dad came through the door to cook for the breakfast and lunch crowd.

“That’s enough for you, Sweetheart. You good to drive home or you need a nap in the corner booth first?”

“I’ll be fine, I can make it.”

“Get on out of here, then.”

I nodded and he wrapped fingers around the back of my neck, dragging my forehead to his lips. He smacked a kiss between my eyebrows, gave me a little shake and let me go. I emptied its pockets and unwound my apron from around my waist and heaved a sigh, folding it up, so I could stash it in a back corner beneath the register.

Straightening, I called out a last goodbye to my dad and smiled when Melody walked through the door. I would have gone regardless, but still, perfect timing.

“What happened to your uniform?” she called out, hanging her coat on the coat tree by the door. She didn’t carry her purse in here, just her ID and a bit of money in her apron. It was a good habit, and one I had adopted, too.

“Nightshift called out twenty minutes into her shift with no replacement, so guess what I got to do?”

“Aww, you look half dead.”

I chuckled, “Good to know I look how I feel.”

“I see Blue was by last night at least.”

I startled and held out my hand, unable to resist my charmed little half smile at the memory.

“Yeah, he and Cell both.”

Mel rolled her eyes, “When isn’t it Blue and Cell both?”

I shook my head, I mean, it was a valid point. I sighed again only this time it was in a bid to stifle a yawn.

“I’m sorry, Mel, but it looks like you’re on your own today.”

“Don’t you worry about that, I can handle this hungry horde. You go home and get some sleep and I’ll see you when I see you.”

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