Usually I dreaded going from closing to opening the next morning, but after Cole’s and my “roll in the dirt” last night, I was quite certain I’d burst into flames if I even tried to enter through those church doors today. By some miracle, if the flames hadn’t gotten me then, they would have when I sat next to Logan and he draped his arm over my shoulders after telling me how nice I looked.
At least the only heat I’d feel at the diner would come from the kitchen.
Thanks to waking up late, I had to shower in record time and slide into the first piece of clothing I laid my hands on in my closet. A sweetheart neckline summer dress. Maybe not ideal waitress wear, but it was light and comfortable . . . and fast.
I was dressed and down the stairs in under a minute. Dad wasn’t anywhere around when I got downstairs and I wasn’t going to stop to look for him. I was late, but I was more not eager to see him after last night’s not-so-constructive conversation.
By the time I pulled up to the diner, I had fifteen minutes to get the place ready. It was a good thing I had my comfy Keds on because I’d never moved so fast in my life. The breakfast cook, Sid, kept whistling at my impressive speed.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d bet my paycheck someone got lucky last night,” Sid called out as I went to unlock the front door. Thank goodness my back was to him so he couldn’t see the red draining into my face. “Because you have got a spring in your step I’ve never seen before, Elle.”
“It’s called waking up without a hangover, Sid,” I called back at him. “Unlike the way some people wake up every Saturday and Sunday morning.”
“Oooh, sassy too,” Sid replied. “You definitely got lucky.”
After unlocking the door, I was just heading into the break room to grab my phone and finally turn it on so I could text Cole. I’d fallen asleep so quickly last night I hadn’t had more than a few minutes to sort things out, but I still knew I cared for him. I liked him in a way that was shifting more from like to the other “l” word. I wanted him to know I was thinking about him this morning and my fleeing the scene last night wasn’t because I never wanted to see or hear from him again.
“You better get your lucky butt out here, Elle!” Sid yelled back at me. “The tables are filling up. And filling up fast.”
Of course they were. Sighing, I tightened my apron and headed back into the dining room. The first break I got, I’d call Cole. Texting was kind of weak anyways after what happened last night, and I was pretty much dying to hear his voice.
Sunday breakfast went out of the gates with a bang. We really should have had two servers on today, but with a little energy surge from me and some extra patience from the customers, everyone got their apple and vanilla bean crepes or Andouille sausage and caramelized onion crepes in a timely manner without me dropping a single order.
That almost changed when the door whooshed open and the next set of customers came lumbering in.
“Careful,” the first of the three young men in the front said with a smile my way. That was enough to snap me out of my stupor and right the tray of crepes before they toppled to the floor.
“Yeah,” the guy at the end with a familiar face, but an unfamiliar tone said. “You wouldn’t want to make an even bigger mess of things.” Cole waited for me to look him in the eyes, and when I did, I wished I hadn’t. Those green-blue eyes of his were dark and only darkened more as they stayed narrowed.
My stomach dropped. Cole was staring at me like he despised me, like what we’d shared last night meant nothing. It made me thankful I hadn’t eaten any breakfast yet.
He didn’t say anything else; he just moved by me and slid into the booth where the other two guys sat.
As I set the crepes down in front of a table of regulars, I racked my brain for what I could have done or said to make Cole so upset. Yeah, I’d snuck away from him last night, but that didn’t seem like that huge of a deal. Especially not warranting that look he’d just given me. It wasn’t like I snuck away because I never wanted to see him again. I needed to get home before life as I knew it came to an end.
There was Logan, of course. I knew Cole wasn’t thrilled with that whole concept, but it hadn’t seemed to stop him last night.
So what was it?
I mulled that over as I refilled coffee at the rest of my tables. I was stalling because I wasn’t looking forward to walking up to Cole and his friends’ table and acting like nothing had happened, pretending he hadn’t had his hands on places no other guy had before him, and imagining that look didn’t mean he would hate me until his dying breath.
Inhaling a dose of courage, I headed over to his table.
Cole wouldn’t look at me. I wouldn’t have thought he was even aware of me except his whole body went stiff when I spoke.
“Are you all ready to order?” Not exactly my friendliest greeting, but I was flustered.
“We don’t even have menus yet,” the guy sitting on the end of the booth said. He sat across from Cole and next to the other guy who . . . looked identical to him. Asking if they were twins would have been a wasted question.
“We don’t have menus. We serve two different crepes every day. Today’s sweet and savory are listed over there on the chalkboard.” I pointed to the opposite wall and tried to focus on the guy seething in silence in front of me. I swear you would have thought he was getting his toenails pulled out with pliers from the twisted look on his face.