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“Long as I’m not tempted by a bacon burger,” Ray remarked.
“I know a good place over on the interstate,” Lincoln said. “I’ll drive and drop you off back here to get your cars.”
Half an hour later, he was pulling into the parking lot of Lou’s Diner. He wasn’t sure why he’d wanted to come back here, but he liked the atmosphere of the place. The noise of chatter and clinking silverware rose in the air, and a line of truckers sat at the counter with coffee and plates piled with eggs or burgers.
The waitress Nancy came to take their orders, lifting her eyebrows in delight. “Well, well, if it isn’t Handsome Devil. Lovely to see you again.”
“Thanks, Nancy.” Lincoln felt his face warm as the other men grinned. “You too.”
After they placed their orders and Nancy left, Sam snickered. “Been here before, Handsome Devil?”
“Actually, I have.” He glanced at Jake. “I didn’t have a specific diner in mind when I was writingTruth. But when I picture the place where Tom meets Lottie, this is what I see.”
He gestured to the huge, eighteen-wheelers lined up outside the windows, the waitresses making the rounds with coffee-pots, the bearded cook presiding over the grill.
“I get it.” Jake took a swallow of soda. “It’s the kind of place people stop on their way to somewhere else. But it’s where Tom starts to find home.”
Lincoln nodded. He knew he’d done the right thing in giving the other man the movie rights to his book.Truthwas in good hands.
“Could you film the diner scenes here?” Sam asked.
“If they’ll let us, that would be great.” Jake squinted toward the kitchen. “Especially the scene where Tom comes back for Lottie.”
“Does he marry her?” Ray unwrapped a straw. “You never said.”
Lincoln looked at the other man. “You readTruth?”
“Nah.” Ray waved a hand, as if he were swatting a fly. “I skimmed it. Loosely. You got that big scene where Tom comes back for Lottie, but you never say if he marries her.”
“I wanted to leave that open to interpretation.”
Ray rolled his eyes. “Man, sometimes you gotta say it, you know? Tell the truth.”
He chuckled at the joke, and both Sam and Jake grinned. Ray pointed at Jake.
“Put that in the movie. Tom Dillon mans up and tells his girl he wants to be with her. That’s the point of the whole thing, isn’t it? He stops looking at the past. Starts looking at the future.”
“Yeah, but that’s all shown in the scene where he comes back to the diner.” Jake leaned forward, his expression lighting. “I can actually see it, you know? The rain, and her coming to lock the door and seeing him outside. And him taking off his army jacket to give to her…that right there is symbolic.”
“Symbolic.” Ray made a scoffing noise. “What about literal? Hell, even Shakespeare knew that sometimes his characters had to say the damned words. Just ask Grace.”
Lincoln’s heart bumped against his ribs.I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say, “I love you.”
Though his blundering remark hadn’t been nearly as poetic as Henry the Fifth’s, Lincoln had stillsaid the wordsto Grace. But now he didn’t know what to do. Hell, he’d practically stumbled over himself trying to take the confession back, even though he desperately wanted her to keep it.
He felt his brother’s brief, searching glance and turned his attention back to his food.
Jake sat back and studied him. “You ever think about writing a sequel toTruth?”
“A sequel?”
“Yeah, about what happens to Tom and Lottie. You know, together.”
“No.” A strange pressure collected in his chest.
“Might be a good time to think about it, with the movie slated for next year,” Sam said.
Lincoln had never thought about what happened to Tom and Lottieafterthey walked off into the rain together. What was the rest of their story? Did he want to find out?
He glanced at the booth where he’d first seen Grace sitting with her hair damp and her eyes brimming with tears. How different would his story be if he hadn’t approached her with the rhubarb pie? If she hadn’t asked him to sit down?
He’d spent so much time getting immersed in other people’s lives. What would happen if he finally immersed himself in his own life?
