“Which one bothers you more?” I asked, a brow raised. “Me being older or me being a doctor? Cause in my opinion, neither matters when we’re both consenting adults.”
Her fingers tapped nervously on the steering wheel as she considered my question. “Of course, it matters, Major. I barely have my life together at thirty, and you’re a doctor.”
“That sentence tells me it’s not the age gap that matters to you. I love being a doctor, but that’s not all that I am, Jaelyn. I like to think I’m deeper than that.”
“You are,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
“I suspect you meant that since you’re a waitress, that means I would never be interested in dating you.” Her shrug was choppy, but I could read between its lines to see I was correct. “For the record, you’d be wrong. There is so much more to who you are than what you do. I can say that as many times as I want to, but until you’re ready to believe it, we’re at a stalemate. In light of that, I’m not going to hold you to your word about dinner. If you'd like to go out with me on Saturday night, feel free to text or call me. Okay?”
Her nod was short as she started the truck and left the park without a word. Something told me I had just pushed Jaelyn Riba too far out of her comfort zone to be smart, but there was something about a woman who thought she had no worth that rankled every nerve I had. Truthfully, I knew it was smart not to get involved with her. She didn’t need someone like me to complicate her life, but at the same time, the look of fear, sadness, worry, and hurt in her eyes came at me like a challenge every time. It was as though she wanted me to be the one to wipe it away and replace it with happiness and satisfaction.
Oh, the last one would be easy if I took her to my bed and showed her how beautiful she was, but that wasn’t the kind of happiness and satisfaction that would last. That was the kind that complicated matters, so for now, I’d have to bide my time and wait for her to decide if she could see past my job to the man I was or if she’d let the fear decide for her.
As the diner came into view, I smiled out the window as I prepared for battle.
Chapter Nine
The sun was warm on my back today, but with Halloween just around the corner, days like this were coming to an end. I didn’t mind. Most people thought I was weird for preferring the cold temperatures, but I couldn’t account for their poor taste. The colder, the better, as far as I was concerned, and living in Bells Pass meant we could see snow on Halloween. It likely wouldn’t happen this year, since that’s tomorrow, but they were predicting cold rain tomorrow night. I didn’t mind that either. It meant the diner would be hopping, so my brain was occupied with work instead of worrying about where I would live.
“Hey, Jaelyn!” Ivy called from across the street, and I waved as she jogged over to me after looking for cars. She wasn’t alone. A few other members of the girl gang followed her like baby ducks as they crossed. I chuckled at the image. There was a saying in Bells Pass that went, ‘where there’s one, there’s another,’ and they were always referring to the girl gang.TGG, as we like to call ourselves, is always accepting new members. Come one, come all, as we like to say, and we use the power of numbers to participate in a wide range of community service events.
A few years ago, we even managed to pull off a wedding between a desperate groom and a reluctant bride. Notreluctant to marry her groom, but reluctant about having a big wedding. Hazel was afraid no one would come, but how wrong she was. So many people came that the park was packed on that November afternoon. Hazel wouldn’t be joining us since she was just about to deliver their first baby any day now. The thought made me smile. They were going to be great parents.
“Wow. I can’t believe I beat you all here,” I said when they reached me. “I’m the newbie.”
“But you had the day off,” Heather reminded me. “We didn’t.”
“Wrong!” Ivy called out to her. “Jaelyn opened the diner this morning even though it wasn’t even her day to work.”
What Ivy didn’t say was that the only reason I opened the diner was to bury my head in the sand about my problems. Today was the day they were picking up my camper, which meant I had to be out early. It was a few days sooner than planned, but the weathermen were predicting a hard freeze, and the owner was getting nervous. Rightly so, since I couldn’t afford to repair frozen water lines.
When one of the other servers called in sick, I volunteered to cover the shift. There was no sense in Ivy going in when she had to have the kids ready for school so early. Besides, tonight I started my official couch surfing days. My first couch was at Ivy’s. Covering a shift was the least I could do, considering I was now dependent on their kindness for a few months. After insisting I’d be happy to drive to Saginaw for a room, she stomped her foot and refused to talk to me until I stopped talking ‘nonsense.’ Honestly, after the meeting yesterday at Evergreen Acres, the idea of leaving Bells Pass was out of the question. I suddenly had new opportunities here that I wouldn't have anywhere else. A pair of blue eyes floated through my mind's eye, and they were attached to a man wearing a t-shirt and handing out tacos with a smile. I shut that down immediately because the unhoused server would not be the first choice of a well-respected doctor in any timeline.
It was easy to see that this excursion was my boss’s way of distracting me from my pathetic life. I loved her for it, but itwouldn’t change anything. It was hard for me to give up my independence and let people do things for me, but in this case, I was willing to do so because I loved this group of wonderful girls. They weren’t helping me out because they had to, but because they wanted to. Besides, it wouldn’t be forever, I told myself. Now that I’d finished all the customized books for Halloween, I’d made well over a grand, which didn’t seem like much, but to someone who needed to pay off debts and save for an apartment, it was a windfall. I had already listed my Christmas options, and book orders were pouring in. If they kept up the way they were, I’d have to pull some late nights to complete them all, but I wasn’t complaining. Once Christmas was over, the book orders would dwindle here and there until Easter, but since I implemented my business plan, I’d be better prepared for each holiday as they approached. I could finally see a way out of debt, as long as I remained frugal and worked extra shifts over the holidays.
We ribbed each other a bit as we walked up the only hill in town, pulling snow sleds behind us. It wasn’t steep, but it had a nice slope, making it the perfect sledding hill in winter. “I’m still confused why we aren’t waiting to go tobogganing until we have snow,” I said, each step harder than the last. Okay, maybe it was a little steeper than I thought.
“You said you love tobogganing,” Addie said from behind us, her breath even and unlabored. She was used to chasing her two-year-old twins around, which kept her fit.
Not that I wasn’t fit. Being a server at The Nightingale Diner was extremely physical, but I’d already worked a shift that had started way too early this morning.
“I do love tobogganing,” I agreed when we got to the top of the hill. “But in the winter, when there’s snow. How does this even work when it’s October?”
“The same way regular tobogganing works,” Ivy said. “Except these toboggans have tracks that go through the grass. It’s a spring and fall kind of activity,” she clarified. “The grass has to be dead, so the tracks don’t catch on the thick tufts. You gotta wait for them to mow this for the final time, and then you have a few weeks of great tobogganing.”
“Apparently, you’ve been doing this a long time,” I said, taking my place behind her on one of the toboggans. To say I was nervous was an understatement. I couldn’t risk getting hurt, but she assured me it was safer than jogging. I adjusted my helmet just to be extra sure my head was protected.
“I grew up in Bells Pass,” Ivy said. “Shep and I used to do it every Halloween. It was the only way he could enjoy the sledding hill since the winter air was too hard on his lungs.”
Shep has terrible asthma. It wasn’t that long ago that he would often end up in the hospital several times a year. Now, with the advances in asthma medication, he had fewer issues with it, but he was still careful about his triggers.
“Are you sure this is safe?” I asked, glancing at Heather and Addie as they pushed off and headed down the hill with a whoop.
“Girl, this is the least dangerous hill in existence. You’ll be fine. Just don’t put your feet down to stop. We won’t go as fast on the grass as in the snow, so we’ll stop easily at the bottom. Ready?”
“Ready, boss!” I said, laughing as Heather and Addie reached the bottom and yelled for us to follow.
Ivy pushed off, and then we were sailing, the wind in our hair and laughter on our lips as we flew down the hill. A fun afternoon was just what I needed to release some of the stress I’d been dealing with over the last month. It was a short-term solution to a long-term problem, but I would take the little bit of fun for now and think about everything else later. We were almost to the bottom when we hit a bump, and then the toboggan shifted forward, tossing me onto the ground, where I rolled several times. I came to a stop on my back to stare into the cloudless sky.
