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I reach the car and pull out of the parking lot. I need to get something to eat. Yeah, food will solve this problem. It has to. I don’t know what I’m going to do if it doesn’t. I don’t have a place to stay and I don’t have anywhere to be. I’ve got a week before I told my editor I’d be back at work, but even that is negotiable when you work from home. The reality is that I have my laptop and my notes about my latest book, so I can start working on my next project right from Storm Haven if I have to.
I just hope that I don’t have to.
The local diner is a small little dive, but it’s got some of the best food in town. At least, it did when I was a kid. I park and head inside, ducking my head under the bells and decorations hanging from the doorway.
“Well, if it isn’t Cage Konstantin,” a familiar voice says. As my eyes adjust to the dim interior of the diner, I realize that Joyce Franklin is standing in front of me.
“Joyce?” I whisper, surprised.
“That’s right, kiddo. Now come over and give me a hug,” she laughs, opening her arms. Somehow, I’m instantly thrust into my childhood, and I scurry into the diner and wrap my arms around the little old woman who helped keep me sane when I was a kid.
“How’d you know it was me?” I ask.
“It’s only been a few years, honey.”
“It’s been an eternity,” I correct her, but she waves her hand at me
, dismissing the idea.
“That’s something young folk say,” Joyce tells me. “Once you get a bit older, five years feels like nothing. Nothing at all, you hear?”
“Okay,” I smile. “I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.”
“Table for one?” She asks.
“Yep.”
“You’ve got the place to yourself,” she says. “Grab a table and I’ll be right there.”
She heads off behind the counter and I find myself moving to the end of the little row of booths. The second-to-last one was always the one I shared with Alicia, and somehow, I find myself sitting there. Only this time, I’m not flirting with the girl who stole my heart. This time, I’m wrapped up in loneliness and solitude, and the thought is completely sobering.
Why had she reacted so poorly to seeing me?
And why did my mother leave her everything?
When I left town, I never imagined that my mother and Alicia would become friends. Never. Why would they? I knew that me running off would effectively break her heart, but I did it anyway. Now I’m dealing with the fallout, and I don’t really want to. I don’t want to think about the fact that my mom might have missed me or that I never reached out to her before she died.
I don’t want to think about the fact that Alicia was there for her when I wasn’t.
“Here you go,” Joyce slides a sticky menu on the table in front of me along with a glass of pink liquid.
“You remembered,” I tell her, reaching for the strawberry lemonade.
“I never forget a drink, kiddo.”
“How have you been, Joyce?”
“I really can’t complain,” she smiled. “I’ve got two grandkids now.”
“No!”
“Yep. Billy and Susan got married right after you left. They started poppin’ ‘em out right away. Now Angela’s thinking about getting married to Kevin Lee.”
“Wow, congratulations.”
“We’ll see what she ends up deciding. She’s on the fence, you know. She’s a little nervous. Marriage, I mean, it’s a big decision. Kevin’s a good boy, though, and he’ll be good to her. She could do a lot worse, but I don’t think she could do any better. He’s a sweetheart through and through.”
“And what about you?” I ask her.
