Page 7 of Juan

He frowned. Amber did not have a poker face, and he’d bet his eyeteeth she was lying. Why would a note to herself make her so jumpy?

“Everything okay?” he asked.

She forced a smile. “Everything’s fine.” Her eyes darted down and to the left.

“Amber?” he said.

“Miss?”

Saved by the bell. Or a customer. Amber gave him a lopsided smile, a real one, then turned to the window. “Hi,” she said. “What can I get you today?”

His unasked question went unanswered the rest of the afternoon as they served lemonade until the last drop ran out midafternoon. Amber totaled the receipts as he, Dulcie, and Miguel loaded the truck to take all the supplies back to the school, where a handful of students would help them with the cleanup.

“We blew it away,” Amber said, her smile as bright as the afternoon sun.

“Don’t make me torture you with more jokes to get it out of you,” Miguel teased.

“Two thousand and one hundred dollars,” she said. Miguel whooped, and he and Dulcie clapped, throwing in a cheer as well. The pair deserved it. They’d worked hard this past week to pull everything together.

“Come,” Miguel said, slipping his arm through Amber’s and leading her away. “Those two will shut up the stand while we meet Olivia and tell her the good news.”

“Congrats, you two,” he said, Dulcie echoing his sentiments.

Amber pulled away from Miguel and came toward them. “We couldn’t have done it without you two. Thank you,” she said, giving Dulcie a hug, then him. The undercurrent of uncertainty he felt in her brief embrace put a damper on all the good feelings.

No matter what, he had to make this right. She deserved better from him.

“You sure you don’t need any help with cleanup?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No, having you two wait for the city to come pick up the stand is a huge help. It lets us leave now and get a jump on all that.” She jerked her head toward the truck.

“I’ll text you when it’s been picked up and check in, just in case. Or give me a call,” he said.

The dull ache in his chest eased when she smiled at him and said, “Yes, Juan, I’ll call you if we need any help,” echoing their text string from that morning.

He still needed to make sure she knew she had his support if she chose to step into the dating world, but with that smile, and little bit of sass, he felt better about his chances.

“How long do you think it will take?” Dulcie asked after Amber and Miguel drove away, jerking his head to the stand. The city owned the structures and rented them to vendors during the weekend’s events. It made it easier for the vendors as they didn’t have to set up or take down or store the structures, but it did mean they were at the mercy of the public works department when it came time to close up and “return” them.

“One way to find out,” Juan said, pulling out his phone and pointing it at the QR code sticker on the door. To their surprise, the truck was free and arrived twenty minutes later. Another twenty minutes after that, he and Dulcie were walking back to their trucks parked on the other end of Main Street.

“I’m going to stop by Rita’s, see if they need a hand,” Dulcie said, referring to the bar the club owned on the north side of town. “What are your plans?”

“I’ll give Mantis a call and see where he needs me,” he replied. He’d rather be home at the club stewing about what to say to Amber and whether he should press her on that note, but he wasn’t that selfish. If his brothers needed him to help somewhere, he’d go. It would be better for him anyway, even if it wasn’t his first choice.

To his surprise, when he climbed into his truck and made the call, Mantis had nothing for him. Not wanting to feel like a slacker, though, he checked in with North at Rita’s, and he, too, said they were all good. Five guys were there, and Dulcie would be a sixth. Plenty of hands.

Turning his truck toward the clubhouse, he headed home; a shower, food, and a beer top of mind. Unfortunately, by the time he pulled into the lot, a familiar edginess had crept into his bones. And he knew of only one way to manage it.

Two hours later, dripping with sweat, his muscles aching with the combination workout and trail run, he stepped into the cool of his room, his body blessedly at ease for the first time since that afternoon.

The crunch of tires on the parking lot drew him to the window and he watched, sipping water from a bottle, as Amber parked her car and climbed from her seat. Glancing at the clock on his bedside table, he wondered if she planned to shower and head back out. Maybe to meet up with one of the guys who’d given her his number.

Setting aside his thoughts on that question, he tossed his water bottle onto his bed and headed to his bathroom. He wanted to catch her before she went out again, but first, he needed to shower.

Chapter four

Climbing the steps to her room, Amber pondered the words Juan had all but whispered earlier. You were a different woman last year.