The man behind the counter was clearly not buying it. But he answered her question anyway. “That guy took off a few days back, and he always paid with cash. Lady, I’m going to guess he didn’t want to be found. I’d give up if I were you.”
The phrasegive uptriggered Kat in a way she was sure the man who spoke it didn’t intend. She couldn’t give up. She had to keep trying. “Thanks for your help,” she said. And she left the motel, drove across the street to the diner, and parked there.
Walking into the diner conjured a surge of memories Kat wasn’t quite ready to deal with. She sat down at the same table she had shared with Cole the day she hired him. Her eyes burned, but shedidn’t allow herself to break down. She was on a mission, and that was when she was at her strongest.
The server, a young woman who was probably still paying for tuition, approached and asked, “Can I get you a coffee?” When Kat looked up, the server’s eyes twinkled with recognition. “Oh, it’s you! Welcome back.”
“You know me?” Kat couldn’t help asking. She didn’t frequent this particular diner. At least, she hadn’t frequented it since high school, so there was no way a server this young remembered her from those days.
“Yeah, of course I do,” the server said. “You met our regular one day. He was so good-looking and so mysterious, and he always showed up in the morning at the same time. We couldn’t stop wondering about him. And then, one day, you met him here. He’d always come alone before, so you made an impression.”
“Ah,” Kat said. “That makes sense.” She wrung her napkin in her hands. “Has he… Has he been back here in the last couple days?”
The server shook her head. “Sorry, no. He stopped coming here a couple weeks ago. Are you not a couple? We were sure you were.”
Kat shook her head. “Not exactly. I hired him. I’m his boss. Well, I was anyway. He left without getting his final paycheck, so I was trying to find him. Did he ever pay with anything other than cash?”
“Nope,” the server answered. “Always cash. Good tipper, though. We never minded seeing him here. We used to argue about who got to serve him.” She blushed. “So, you’re saying he’s single?”
“I guess.” Kat shrugged to hide how painful that question was to answer.
“Wish I’d known that sooner,” the server said with a chuckle. “I would have asked him out. You don’t see a face that handsome around these parts very often.”
“True.” Kat ordered coffee and lunch to end the conversation. All she wanted to do was get back to her cabin and wallow in her own misery, but she thought it would be unforgivably rude not to order something, especially since she’d taken a table during the lunch rush. Then, it occurred to her. She’d been far more emotional than usual. Maybe it wasn’t because she was missing Cole so much. Maybe it was the pregnancy. She told herself it was definitely true because she needed to believe it. Even though it probably wasn’t.
Before she left the diner, she paid her bill and left an extra nice tip because Cole had done so in the past, apparently. Now, she was competing with him in her own hometown. Her mood quickly went from depression to irritation, which was a better place to be for getting things done. She no longer had the urge to wallow. Now she had the urge to get things done.
She went back to the ranch and broke out another piece of furniture to put back together. But it wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be, and she got frustrated. That quickly gave way to depression again, so she was right back where she started. She fell back on the floor in a dramatic fashion and fully gave up on the furniture.
Five minutes later, there was a knock on the door, and Kat shouted, “It’s unlocked!” without really thinking about it. For a moment, before she remembered it was impossible, she wasexpecting Cole to walk through the door. But of course, it couldn’t be him.
Tony walked through the door and saw her flat on her back on the floor. “Kat!” He rushed forward, worried. “Kat, are you OK? What happened?”
She sat up to show him she wasn’t incapacitated and answered, “I hate hex keys.”
Tony heaved a relieved sigh and crouched down in front of her project. “Me, too,” he said, picking up the tool in question. “But I’ve got a lot of practice.” He started putting the shelves together for her. She didn’t know whether to be grateful or bitter that it seemed so much easier for him. “You know,” he said, twisting the key like it was something he’d done since he was an infant, “it’s OK to ask for help sometimes if you need it.”
“I know that,” she said, and then she completely lost her composure and burst into tears. Where it had come from, she couldn’t have said, but she was pretty sure she could partly blame the little bean growing inside her. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do,” she sobbed.
Tony scooted several inches away from her, and she could hardly blame him. She would have done exactly the same thing. He let her cry for a few minutes before breaking in. “Is there anything I can do?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m an idiot. I just… didn’t think. I didn’t think it could end. All of a sudden, it’s over, and now I can’t go back. He’s gone, and I’m pregnant.”
Tony’s eyes widened in shock. “Are you serious? That’s what the doctor told you? Is that why you’ve been so tense lately?”
“Yeah. I’m so sorry. I haven’t been myself at all.”
“You’ve been fine,” Tony said. “You know, when my wife was pregnant, she had all kinds of strong feelings that she hadn’t had before. She used to say, ‘It’s OK because I’m feeling for two now.’” He laughed quietly as he remembered the past. “So, that’s what I’d say to you now. It’s OK to have bigger feelings than usual because you’re feeling for two.”
Kat laughed through her leftover tears and shook her head. “Thanks, Tony. I can see why my uncle worked with you for so long. You’re the best.”
“Well…” He grunted and pushed himself to his feet, pulling the shelves up after him. “I think these are going to look nice.”
“How’d you do that so fast?” She rubbed the tears from her eyes and looked up at the perfectly assembled shelves.
“Like I said, lots of practice, lots of experience. It’s all you’ve got when you get old.” He smiled down at her, and she felt a little like her Uncle Roy was smiling down on her, too. “If you need help, feel free to ask. Me and the rest of your family, we want you to succeed. We’re banking on it even. I think your brothers even have a bet going.”
Kat laughed, forgetting her tears for a moment. “Really? Which one bet against me?”