Page 26 of Whispers of You
“The three musketeers back together again. Pleased as punch to see it. They’re at that booth in the corner.” She pointed her notepad toward a table by the windows.
“Thanks.”
“You want something to drink? I’ll grab it for you while I’m getting the boys theirs.”
I guessed we’d always beboysin her eyes. The same ones who stopped after school for french fries and root beer floats. My smile came a little more genuinely this time. “Still got root beer on tap?”
“Is the sky blue?”
I chuckled. “I’ll take one of those.”
“Coming right up.”
I maneuvered through tables, trying to avoid any questioning stares. I didn’t have the answers they were looking for.
“Always were Jeanie’s favorite. She gave you extra french fries every single time,” Chris grumbled.
“She gave you extra ice cream in your root beer float.”
Jude’s lips twitched. “So much for keeping a low profile, huh?”
“Guess so,” I said, sliding into one end of the semi-circular booth. “It wasn’t like that was going to last anyway.”
Chris took a sip of his water. “Not in Cedar Ridge.”
Gossip spread like a wildfire in the dead of summer. And since things had been relatively calm over the last several years, I qualified as news.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I hate feeling watched.”
“People are just bored,” Jude said. “Before long, someone’ll have an affair, or a kid will shoplift, and you’ll be old news.”
The tightness in my chest eased a fraction. I’d known that. It had just been so long since I’d experienced small-town rhythms that I’d forgotten. In Portland, I could disappear into the crowd. I didn’t know the neighbors in my high rise beyond a polite hello in the elevator. I didn’t have friends beyond the guys on my team. My social life consisted of knocking back a few beers at the bar around the corner from our office. Suddenly, that all seemed a little empty.
Jeanie sidled up to the table with a tray. “Two Cokes and a root beer. You boys know what you’d like to order?”
“Usual, Miss J,” Chris said.
Jude handed her his menu. “I’ll do the fish and chips.”
“You need a minute, honey?” she asked me.
Thathoneyhit somewhere deep—the familiarity of it. An honorary mother in a town full of them, always looking out for their chicks.
“I’ll take the turkey melt. Haven’t had one worth a damn since I left.”
She tapped her notepad on my shoulder. “We’ll get you squared away. Don’t you fear.”
“Thanks.”
Jude leaned back in his seat and took me in, searching. “So, how’s it feel being back?”
“Weird.” It was the only thing I could give him at the moment. I wasn’t about to open my mess of a head to friends I hadn’t seen in a decade. They didn’t need to know how I’d lost it last night or that I hadn’t slept a wink because every time I started to drop off, my dreams were filled with blood.
“I bet.” Jude’s eyes flashed with a mischievous glint. “How’s the B&B?”
He accentuated each letter as he spoke, and I scowled in his direction. “How do you think?”
Jude burst into laughter, and Chris let out a begrudging chuckle.
