Page 77 of Peaks and Promises

Summer

It felt good to be working again. Although I hadn’t been out of a job very long, being unemployed made me anxious. My thoughts would spiral, and I’d worry about how I was going to take care of Nate.

And I didn’t want Paul and Marlene to think I wasn’t willing to pull my weight. They’d already done so much for me—including watching Nate while I was at work. I didn’t want to have to ask them for anything more than they were already doing.

Fortunately, the Copper Kettle Diner had needed a waitress. It wasn’t full-time yet, but Rob, the owner, had assured me he’d do his best to put me on the schedule as much as possible.

My shift was almost over, my last table finishing their meal, and I grabbed a rag to wipe down some tables. I wasn’t familiar with all the side work yet, and no one had told me to do anything else, but I wanted to stay busy.

Things were coming together in Tilikum faster than I could have imagined. Reese spent his days working on the house we were going to rent. I had a job. Nate spent a lot of time with Reese’s parents, and he was happier than I’d seen him in a long time.

It left me wondering when the bottom was going to fall out. Because it always did.

I wanted to believe this was how things were going to stay. Calm, stable. But in reality, most of it was built on fiction. I wasn’t Summer Haven, and Reese and I weren’t always going to live together. He wouldn’t always be there to watch out for us. And no matter how nice they were—or how quickly they’d accepted us into their circle—the Havens weren’t really my family.

I’d need to keep that in mind and not depend on them too much. Eventually, I’d be on my own again.

“I’m serious,” a man at the booth behind me said. “Reese Haven is back.”

The mention of his name caught my attention. A man and a woman sat together chatting over their food. Chatting about Reese.

It wasn’t the first time I’d overheard townspeople mention him. Everyone had questions.

“I wonder why he was gone so long,” the woman mused.

“I don’t know. But he brought a wife and kid with him.”

“Did he? That must have been a shock to the family. I wonder if they knew.”

“Hard to tell,” the man said. “But they didn’t run him out of town, so that seems like a good sign.”

“The Havens are good people.”

She was right about that. They were very good people. Some of the best I’d ever met.

As if on cue, Reese himself came in the front door. He drew the eyes of more than a few customers.

“That’s him right there,” the man in the booth said, lowering his voice.

“No it isn’t. That doesn’t look like him at all.”

“I’m telling you, it is.”

Stifling a laugh, I ducked behind the counter to put away the rag. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that, either. Apparently the Reese Haven who’d returned to Tilikum looked a lot different from the one who’d left.

He took off his sunglasses, and his eyes swept the restaurant, as if he were assessing the area for threats. He did that wherever he went, and I got the impression he wasn’t even aware of it.

“Hi,” I said as he sat on one of the stools at the counter. “You’ll never guess who I met today.”

“Who?”

“Santa Claus.”

The corners of his mouth lifted. “No kidding?”

“He gave me a candy cane.”

“An old man giving out candy? Sounds suspicious.”