Page 11 of The Perfect Play

Now that practice had ended, my brain turned to the rest of the evening. I was scheduled again at the diner, meaning I had to hurry. Since my car still wasn’t working, I’d asked Kate to come back and get me so I could make it home with enough time and get to the diner. As I passed the baseball field, I glanced at the guys as they took grounders and fly balls on one side of the field while several were doing batting practice at home plate.

The coach tossed a ball from behind a screen to someone at the plate, and as he swung, I recognized the fluid motion of Jake’s swing. I’d worked for years to get my swing to be a cheap copycat of his, yet he barely practiced but seemed to swing with ease, sending the ball into deep left field.

He turned at that moment and saw me, a bright smile on his face, before settling back into the batter’s box. I caught myself swooning a bit and shook my head, stomping in the direction of the parking lot and making sure to keep my eyes straight forward. I wasn’t going to let him invade my life and then drop it like he’d done so long ago.

“Hey, girl. How was practice?” Kate asked as I got into her car. “Wow, you look a little pale. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. We just had to run a lot at the end, and I need some water.” I pulled my backpack from the back seat and dug around inside, looking for the water bottle I carried around at school. Taking a long swig, I breathed in, grateful I was in a car I trusted this time.

“How was your day?” I finally asked now that my tongue didn’t feel like a thick paperweight in my mouth.

Kate grinned. “It was really good. We worked on a bunch of posters for the girls’ game on Friday and then started talking about prom. We haven’t come up with a theme yet, but I’m so excited for it.”

“Prom is, like, months away. Aren’t there dances in between you have to get ready for?” Not that I was some sort of dancing expert. I’d only gone to one of the girl’s-ask dances in the fall, and that was only because Kate had forced the rest of us to go. As far as the formal ones, I wasn’t experienced in those.

“True. But the others are just smaller dances here at the school. With prom, we have to reserve the building it will be held in and get most of that done now, or else we’ll be in the school gym just like all the other dances.”

Kate had always been the outgoing one of our eclectic friend group, and Junior Class President definitely fit her. She was the most organized person I’d ever met, and I loved that she got so excited about things, even if I wasn’t that into them.

We arrived at my home with a few minutes to spare, and I thanked her for the ride before running in and changing once more. Grabbing my bike, I glanced at the clock on my phone, telling myself I was going to make it to the diner in thirteen minutes this time instead of sixteen like the day before. Yes, I’m just that competitive.

“Hey, Lou,” I said when I arrived, readying my apron. “How’s everything tonight?”

“We’ve got a lot of customers. I’m thinking some of that has to do with my large window being covered in cardboard.”

I looked through the kitchen window and saw several pieces of what looked like boxes duct-taped across the opening from the day before. “Well, it looks like you got some free advertising anyway.” I smiled as Lou chuckled, holding his stomach.

“Sara has already complained that customers just want the scoop on what happened before they order.”

I waved him off. “It’ll be fine. It’s not that exciting here in town, so when something like this happens, everyone swarms to it like flies to fruit.”

I turned to leave, then Lou said, “Oh, we’ve got a new hire that will be here in about an hour. You’re training, so get ready.”

“Who?” I asked. Our town was no city, and there was a chance I could know the person. At least knowing who it was would help me prep to teach them what they needed to know about working here.

“You’ll just have to wait and see.” The glint in his eye made my teeth clench. Lou liked surprises, but his usually turned out to be less than pleasant.

The hour passed quickly as I juggled trays of food and poured countless amounts of water and soda into glasses. The bell rang, and I turned to greet the new worker, only to see Jake White grinning at me.

“Seriously? Lou didn’t ban you from this place?” I asked, setting the pitcher of water back on the waitress stand and moving past him to the kitchen.

“He probably thought about it, but I guess he wanted to get some compensation for the window,” Jake said from behind me.

I stopped and turned. Lou’s grin earlier came to mind, and my stomach sank. “You’re the new hire?”

Jake wiggled his eyebrows and chuckled, something I used to find so funny. Right now I just wanted to knock the smug look off his face. I probably would have, too, if there weren’t so many people watching.

Shaking my head, I turned back toward the kitchen and walked in, stopping a few inches from Lou. With my hand on my hip, pointing behind me, I looked up at him and glared. “Really? This is the surprise?”

Lou turned to see who I was pointing at and nodded. “Might as well get some work out of him for the damage he did to my window.”

“And what if he breaks another one?”

“I’m right here,” Jake said, waving.

“Better get training him. I just heard another bell, and he’ll need to get some of the tables cleaned up.”

I grinned, suddenly realizing I wasn’t training him as a waiter but as a busboy. “I’ve got it from here.”

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