The Plan: A Standalone Off-Limits Romance

by Ella James

  Which was now angled straight up at me.

  His eyes were deep honey pools, bright and intense where they lay sheltered by thick, dark eyebrows. And there were two, small, perfectly symmetrical lines creased between those eyebrows as he looked up at me, like he’d asked a question I hadn’t heard, like he’d been asking questions his entire life without finding a single answer.

  In a whoosh, reality sucked me back into the restaurant and I blinked in rapid fire, clearing my throat as I flipped to a new page in my notepad. “Can I start you off with a drink? Coffee, tea?”

  I tried to keep my eyes on the notepad, waiting for his response, but he was still staring at me. I lifted my gaze to his, tracing those two creases right above his nose. He wasn’t necessarily scowling, but he certainly wasn’t smiling.

  “Sir?”

  He blinked, but his eyes never left mine. “Coffee. Black.”

  His voice was low and modulated, like a smooth pour of the drink he’d just ordered.

  I nodded, rolling my lips together. “I’ll give you a minute to look over the menu.”

  When I was back behind the counter bar, I refilled the two customers there before pouring a steaming cup for Mr. GQ, massaging my thigh as I did. It was more out of habit than pain, but Tammy eyed me with concern from where she was piling plates on her arm in the kitchen window.

  “You okay, Coop?”

  I was still in a fog, and I stopped pouring the coffee just before it tumbled over the lip of the small, white, porcelain mug. “Huh?”

  Tammy nodded to my leg, and I looked down at my hand still massaging the muscle. It looked normal, under the corduroy black fabric of my work pants, but beneath it was the scar of my loss, the muscle weak and small in comparison to my other leg. Phantom pains still made themselves present from time to time, reminding me of what once was there — before the accident, before life as I knew and understood it had been altered beyond recognition.

  “Oh.” I stopped, smoothing the same hand over my apron before carefully balancing the saucer and cup, already heading back to the booth. “I’m fine. Phantom pains, I barely even notice them anymore.”

  She forced a smile. “Okay. By the way, what’s the story on that tall glass of water in booth nine?”

  I shrugged, pretending like I hadn’t noticed how attractive he was, the blush crawling up my neck betraying me. “Dunno. He likes his coffee black, that’s about as far as our conversation has gone.”

  “You should ask him where he’s from.”

  “And you should deliver those pancakes.”

  She grinned. “You think he’s cute.”

  “I think he’s hungry.”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  “Shut up.”

  She laughed as I slid past her and back onto the floor, hands shaking slightly as I checked in on my other booths before placing the full cup of coffee in front of my new customer. He wasn’t looking at the menu anymore. He was simply staring out the large windows of the diner, eyes distant, brows still slightly pinched.

  “Ready to order?” I asked, pulling out my notepad again. I didn’t even need it. I hadn’t written down an order in more than two years. But I needed something to look at, something other than him.

  “What makes you happy?”

  He was still staring out the windows, but when a few seconds passed without an answer from me, he turned his gaze to mine.

  And I couldn’t speak.

  My books, my dog, yoga, the way the sun always manages to come back, no matter how dark the storm.

  He didn’t raise his brows or ask again, didn’t tap his foot or wave his hand in front of my face. He just looked back at me, almost with understanding, as if he knew the question wasn’t easy to answer. Maybe he didn’t believe it had an answer at all.

  But it did. I had answers — I had plenty. I was Miss Optimistic. I counted my blessings daily. I always looked at the bright side of my life, ignoring the shadows of it, choosing to focus my energy on whatever positives I could grasp.

  Still, none of that mattered.

  He asked me what made me happy, but that’s not what he really asked.

  What he really asked was — are you happy?

  And I couldn’t speak.

  “I’ll have the steak and eggs, please,” he said after a moment, turning back to the window and reaching down for his coffee. He took a sip with me still staring at him until I finally tore my eyes away, pretending to write in my notepad.

  “Coming right up.”

  I zipped back through the diner and into the kitchen, ignoring Mr. Hollenbeck as he raised his hand at me indicating he was ready to order, too. I couldn’t take his order, not yet, not until I took a breath.

  Ray quirked a brow at me when I blew through the swinging door, spreading my hands flat on the silver metal table next to the sink, eyes closed and head down as I forced an exhale.

  “You okay, slick?”

  “Steak and eggs, please.”

  I opened my eyes again, standing straight, and Ray saluted me with his spatula. “You got it.”

  This is stupid, I scolded myself. It was like I’d never talked to a boy before, or seen one for that matter. It was no secret that I wasn’t exactly the most social girl when I was in school, especially after I lost my leg, but I had a few friends. I had conversations with boys — group projects, book clubs, customers. So why was I stunned speechless by this particular one?

  Annoyed, I blew out a breath, rebraiding my hair over my shoulder before pushing back through the door. I immediately made my way to Mr. Hollenbeck, smiling and nodding as I took his order, all the while way too aware of booth number nine.

  “So, where’s he from?” Tammy asked when I rejoined her behind the counter.

  “I didn’t ask.”

  “You should.”

  I scribbled out the check for the trucker at the end of the bar, offering him a smile and telling him no rush as I slipped it over the counter to him. Turning back to Tammy, I leaned a hip against the bar.

  “He asked me what made me happy.”

  She frowned. “What? That’s weird.”

  “I know.”

  “What did you say?”

  “That’s the weirder part,” I confessed. “I didn’t have an answer. I just stared at him.”

  “Plenty of things make you happy,” Tammy said, clearly as concerned as I was about my lack of response. “You’re literally the happiest girl I know.”

  “I know. I can’t explain it. He’s… his presence is paralyzing.”

  Tammy eyed him over my shoulder just as Ray tapped the bell.

  “Order up!”

  I grabbed the plate of steak and eggs before Tammy could say anything else, making my way back to his booth.

  “Here you go,” I said, setting the plate in front of him. “Can I get you anything else right now?”

  He looked up at me, and the faintest hint of a smile played at the corner of his lips. “No, this is great. Thank you.”

  I nodded. But I didn’t move.

  Go back to the bar, Cooper.

  “So, where ya traveling from?”

  He cut a corner off his steak, pausing to look up at me with it mounted on his fork. “Florida.”

  He popped the bite into his mouth.

  “Ah,” I said, as if it made sense or something. Nothing about him made sense. “Business or pleasure?”

  He humphed the way one would when recalling an inside joke. “Neither.”

  I watched as he dug into his egg, spilling the yolk onto his plate. The man wanted to eat in peace, I was sure of it, but I couldn’t move.

  “Well, where are you heading?”

  “Washington,” he answered easily.

  My stomach did a flip, tugging on the part of my heart tied so reverently to the dreams I’d had all my life. Washington. It was where I wanted to be, where I knew my life would really begin.

  Up until that point, he’d only made me uncomfortable — in a curious, fascinating way.<
br />
  Now, he’d made me jealous.

  “Well, that’s a long drive. Better eat up and get some energy.” I forced a smile. “Let me know if you need anything.”

  My mind raced as I allowed my body to fall back into the motions, checking on customers and delivering orders, cashing out and calling out greetings and farewells as people came and went. It was the first time in my life that it bothered me — the fact that they were coming and going, and I was staying.

  I was always staying.

  I didn’t realize I was avoiding his table until I saw he’d placed a twenty-dollar bill near the edge of it, a signal that he was ready to go. Because he would go, he would leave, and I would stay.

  Just another normal day.

  “I’ll grab your change,” I said, reaching for the twenty.

  He shook his head. “Not necessary.”

  “Thank you,” I said softly, smiling. “And, hey, have fun in Washington. It’s… that’s where I want to go. I’m saving up now. My dream school is there.” I shrugged, not sure why I was telling him. I was one-hundred percent sure he didn’t care. “Can’t wait for an October where I don’t sweat,” I added with a chuckle.

  I lifted my eyes to his, ready to walk back to the bar and leave him be, but he stopped me short.

  “Want to come?”

  I balked. “Excuse me?”

  “To Washington. Do you want to come with me?”

  For a moment, I just stared at him, the way I imagined I’d stare at a naked man running down the street or someone asking me to loan them a million dollars.

  And then I laughed.

  “Are you crazy? I can’t just go with you,” I said, shaking my head at the ridiculousness of it all. “You’re a stranger. I don’t even know your name. You could be a serial killer.”

  He watched me, those damn lines forming between his brows, and then he shrugged.

  “Okay.”

  He wiped his mouth with his napkin before dropping it onto his plate as he stood. My heart was in my throat again, because when he wasn’t sitting in a booth, he towered over me. He was at least six feet of lean muscle and hard edges, and he shoved the sleeves of his sweater up his arms a bit more, eyes catching mine as he stepped into my space.

  “You never answered my question.”

  I swallowed, body trapped in a strange limbo, torn between leaning into him and running as far as I could in the opposite direction.

  “What makes you happy?”

  My books, my dog, yoga, the way the sun always manages to come back, no matter how dark the storm.

  I opened my mouth, ready to answer this time, since I’d run over the responses a thousand times in my head at this point, but he turned before I could, leaving me standing there with a list of things that made me happy and a heart that whispered with every beat that the list was a lie.

  I didn’t move from the booth until the front door closed behind him, the echo of the little bell ringing in my ears as I silently opened the register and deposited his twenty, counting out the change and dropping it in the tip jar Tammy and I would split at the end of our shift.

  “What was that about?” Tammy asked, dropping a pile of dirty dishes into the large bucket we took turns carrying into the back. “I saw him standing all close to you and then he walked away and you just stood there like you’d seen a ghost.”

  “He asked me to go with him.”

  “What?!”

  I nodded, arms feeling foreign as I grabbed a wash cloth and wiped down the bar. “He’s going to Washington. I told him that’s where my dream school is. And he asked if I wanted to go with him.”

  “Oh, my God!”

  “Yeah.”

  Tammy stood with her hands hooked on her hips, shaking her head frantically before she threw her arms up. “Well, you have to go! What are you still doing here?!”

  I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “Oh, yeah, Tammy. Let me just go jump into a car with a random guy and let him drive me across the country.”

  “Um, yes. Do that. Go. Now.” She stole the rag from my hands, shoving me toward the door.

  “Tammy!” I wriggled out of her grasp. “That would be insane. And dangerous. He could kill me!”

  “Oh, yeah, because he really looks like the murderer type.”

  “They don’t exactly have a specific look,” I deadpanned.

  She sighed, gripping my arms in her weathered hands. “Listen to me, Cooper. You have been working at this diner since the day you turned sixteen, and saving to move to Washington since that very day, too. Now, here you are, twenty years old, still dying to get out of Mobile and still way too smart to waste your life ‘saving’ and never doing.” Tammy paused, her eyes searching mine. “You’re stuck, baby girl. And that’s okay, we’ve all been stuck a time or two before. But this is it, your chance to pull your feet from the muck of Mobile and that awful place you’ve called home for way too long.”

  I frowned, my heart sinking with her words. It was true, I was stuck, but this wasn’t a part of my plan. He wasn’t a part of my plan.

  “I… I don’t have enough yet.”

  “Yes, you do,” she said, reaching both fists into the tip jar and pulling every single dollar out of it. She wadded it up and shoved it in my front apron pocket. “This should help, and last week’s paycheck hit our accounts this morning. If you run out of cash along the way or need help once you’re in Seattle, just call me. I’m serious.” She shook her head, a crazed smile on her face. “I mean, what do I honestly spend my money on anyway other than scratch-off tickets?”

  My hands were clammy, and I wrung them together, still shaking my head. “I don’t even know if I got in.”

  “You’ll get in. If not this semester, then next, and you know it.”

  “What if he kidnaps me?!” I whisper-yelled.

  At that, Tammy paused, like she’d just realized she was stuffing me into a car with a stranger. Her eyes shot up to the door before finding mine again. “Look, I know it’s a little crazy. It’s a little scary. In fact, I think this is why I never had kids because encouraging you to do this isn’t very motherly or whatever. But, Cooper, remember what I said this morning?” Her eyes lit up again. “I could feel it. I knew something big was going to happen, and this is it.”

  “Me getting kidnapped by a strange boy was the good feeling you had?”

  “You’re not getting kidnapped, you’re getting a free ride to a new life. Give me your phone.”

  I couldn’t do anything in that moment but stare at her.

  “Phone.” She said with a snap of her fingers. She snatched the device from my hands as soon as I numbly pulled it from my pocket, and then she was tapping around on the screen. “There. I shared your location with both me and Lily. I’ll keep an eye on you the whole time. And you call me every morning and every night to check in, okay?”

  “What about Wyatt? I can’t just leave him short-staffed.”

  “Don’t worry about this place.” She waved her hand. “We’ll manage.”

  “And my parents—“

  “Are awful people who have always treated you like a mistake and a regret instead of a human.”

  My throat was tight with the air I couldn’t inhale fully, heart like a war drum under my ribs. “I can’t… I can’t do this. I—“

  “Yes, you can. He has a car. He’s gorgeous, in case you didn’t notice. And he’s a free ticket to the place you’ve always wanted to go. Cooper,” she said my name to call my attention back to her, hands on my arms again as she leveled her face with mine. “You are dying in this town. Not your body, but your soul.” Her eyes pleaded with mine like she knew from experience. “Life isn’t supposed to be safe,” she added with a laugh. “If it was, they wouldn’t call it living. They’d just call it existing. And you’ve existed long enough, baby girl. It’s time to live.”

  My eyes darted back and forth between hers, brain warring with my soul.

  Be safe.

  Take a chance.

&nbs
p; This is crazy.

  This could be fun.

  You could die.

  You could finally live.

  You don’t even know him.

  You want to.

  Leaving Alabama is scary.

  Leaving Alabama is what you’ve always wanted.

  Tammy leaned in even closer, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Your worthless parents are going to suck you dry if you stay. Don’t let them. This is it, Cooper. This is life calling.” She shrugged. “Are you going to answer, or just let it ring?”

  I think I went blind in those next few moments, because I hardly recall rounding the edge of the bar. I barely remember the feel of my heart in my throat and the sun on my face as I pushed through the front door just as he started backing out of the spot where he’d parked his convertible.

  “Wait!” I called, the sound of my own voice breaking through the haze.

  He stopped, sunglasses reflecting the front of the diner I never thought I’d leave as I struggled to catch my breath.

  “I just need to grab my stuff.”

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