AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well… okay, then.” Really, who was she to judge how someone else processed their grief? Lord knew there were plenty of people back home shaking their heads at how she’d chosen to deal with hers.
By the time Edie had finished her rambling story, they’d reached the edge of a town that looked like it had been plucked right out of a Hallmark Christmas movie. Adorable little Craftsman style homes lined the road, each with their own neat postage-stamp square of grass, and most of them surrounded by an explosion of colorful flowers. They weren’t perfect, though, not in the way they might be in a movie. Almost every yard was littered with toys, and several had small children running and playing and hollering the way only kids experiencing the joy of summer vacation could.
Longing was an ache low in her belly, and she forced her gaze away from a little blonde girl with a head full of curls twirling in circles in her front yard, the poofy purple skirt of her princess dress flying around her as she spun.
And then those sweet little houses gave way to what she supposed would be called the town center. Rows of shops, with a restaurant here or there, and a surprising number of people milling about. Like the homes they’d just driven past, it was quaint, but not quite Hollywood perfect. Which suited Carly just fine. She’d had enough of living her life like it was some kind of movie.
“Did you have lunch?”
Edie’s question drew Carly’s attention away from the two women arguing in front of a florist shop. “Not yet. Are you going to tattle on me?”
Unbothered by the teasing, Edie shrugged, another of those easy smiles stretching across her pixie-like face. “I might. But since I haven’t eaten either and I’d rather not get home and find all of my kitchen cabinets hanging open again, we’ll stop in at Joe’s and we can call Matty from there. Odds are it’s going to take him a bit to get out to your car anyway, so we might as well enjoy the wait, right?”
“Um, right. Yes.” It beat sitting on the side of the road, or walking through the thick South Carolina humidity, that was for sure. It could get hot back home in Nebraska, but nothing like what she’d experienced in those few minutes before Edie had picked her up.
That same wall of heat and humidity smacked her in the face when she hopped back out of the truck, but at least this time she was somewhat prepared for it. Not that it was any less miserable, but at least she had time to brace herself for said misery.
From the outside, Joe’s Diner didn’t look like much. In fact, other than the sign itself, there wasn’t much to distinguish it from the shops on either side of it.
The inside wasn’t really anything that special either, if she was honest. Cool, for which she was eternally grateful, and loud in a way that told her people came here to enjoy each other as much as the food.
But if that food tasted half as good as it smelled, she was in for a treat. A greasy, tummy-cramping treat, she imagined, but her mouth was already watering. After almost two days of subsisting entirely on fast food, she was ready for some real honest to goodness cooking.
Without bothering to wait for a hostess or a waitress or anything, Edie strode in and claimed a booth off in the far corner of the diner. Curious glances flicked their way as they passed occupied tables, and several people nodded a greeting in Edie’s direction.
Small towns really were pretty much the same wherever you went, Carly mused silently as she slid into the booth opposite Edie. It was odd being the interloper for once, instead of the town sweetheart. But instead of making her uncomfortable, the anonymity comforted her.
Here, nobody knew a damn thing about her. People might look at her with curiosity, they might wonder about her, about what she was doing here. And if Edie was the eccentric figure she’d painted herself to be, they might even wonder what crazy thing she’d gone and gotten herself into now. But Carly found solace in the one thing missing from their curious looks. The one emotion she had never been able to stand seeing in the faces of people she’d known her entire life. The thing she’d run almost a thousand miles from the only world she’d ever known to escape.
For the first time in years, nobody was looking at her with pity in their eyes. And she finally felt like she could breathe again.
When a stranded Littlemeets a grumpy mechanic Daddy, sparks don’t just fly in his garage. See what happens next in Carly’s Second Chance Daddy!
