by Sadie Allen
Sunny’s eyes searched my face, probably seeing the tension lined there, but I gave her a short nod to let her know I would be fine.
“You sure?” she whispered, her eyes straying over to the group that was watching us.
“Yeah.”
She then gave me a small smile and touched my bicep as she walked by, sending electric currents throughout my whole body.
When I looked back at Asher and his group, I saw that Asher had a calculating look on his face as he stared at Sunny’s retreating rear end. Meanwhile, Ashley had a look that I couldn’t quite pin down. It looked both angry and curious at the same time.
I had just bent down to start cleaning up the spilled milkshake when Asher’s voice rang out again.
“Wonder if Sunny is single … Any of you know?”
I tried my best to ignore him, but everything in me wanted to tell him she was taken and to shut up.
“I don’t know, man. Wouldn’t mind finding out for myself, though.” That was Logan’s voice. He had replaced me as Asher’s best friend.
I had never liked him, not even when I was a part of their crew. He was a nasty piece of work, always bragging about what girls he had tagged. And when I said bragging, I meant, he told us every little detail about his hook ups. It was like the girls weren’t even people.
Now, I had been a player before I got with Ashley, but I never ran my mouth about the girls I had hooked up with. I didn’t like it when they did that to me, so I didn’t do that to them. And if I had heard anything they said about me, that had been it—a good story with no repeats.
“Dude, you can have a go at her after I tap that—”
My body trembling, I shot to my feet, making sure my shoulder hit the table and sending the rest of the beverages flying and spilling all over the table and its occupants.
Ashley started screaming, and the guys were cursing, trying to stand up to get the cold liquid off their laps.
“You did that on purpose!” Asher bellowed.
I simply shrugged. “Oops. It was accident. Clumsy me.” I tried to look sheepish, but the smile on my face negated that effort.
Asher looked like he wanted to haul off and hit me. He knew better, though. I had faster reflexes and a longer reach on my side. Therefore, he was going to hit me where it hurt—my wallet.
“You’re paying to have all our clothes cleaned if you want to keep this job.”
“Nah, I don’t think so.”
“No? I’ll make sure Sally fires your ass, and if she doesn’t, I’ll make sure she loses customers. No one will eat here after I’m through.”
I frowned, knowing that was a valid threat. He could cost Sally’s business customers just because he could.
Before I could say anything, I heard a raspy voice say, “What the hell is going on here?”
I turned and saw Sally’s small figure standing behind me with her hands on her narrow apron-clad hips.
“Your bus boy just spilled milkshakes all over my friends and me on purpose. I want his job,” Asher’s voice rang with a superior authority. He really was a douche.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not in need of another bus boy, so no, you can’t have his job, young man. I can tell you what you can do, though.”
Asher’s face turned bright red as he stuttered, “Th-That’s not what I-I—”
“You can march your happy butt on up out of my diner,” Sally continued, plowing right over him and not letting him finish. “I heard you and your buddies spouting trash.”
“But he—”
“I don’t give two hoots. Now, you and your friends get the heck out of my diner. And Corey, don’t think I won’t be calling Eunice about who her grandson is running around with and how they’ve behaved here today.”
Corey’s face paled, and his mouth snapped shut.
“Big mistake,” Ashley snapped. “After our father is through with you, no one will want to step foot back in here. Say good-bye to your diner.”
Again, I was worried about the possible threat of Asher and Ashley’s dad, so I turned toward Sally with every intention of quitting, but she shocked the crap out of me by bursting out with laughter.
Not giggles, not chuckles, but large cackles.
When she pressed her hand to her chest and started coughing, I patted her on the back. She cast me a grateful look then turned back to the silent group of teenagers.
Ashley’s face was pinched, clearly annoyed that her threat had not had the desired effect.
“Listen to me, you spoiled little hussy …”
“Now wait a min—”
“Your daddy isn’t going to do jack crap to me,” Sally continued, talking right over Asher. “If you haven’t noticed, the people who come in this place are not your subjects. Go ahead and tell your daddy that Sally Lafayette was mean to you. I bet the first thing outta his mouth will be him asking you what you did to piss me off. Your daddy ain’t the only person in town with influence and a reputation, darlin’. Me and this diner … we’re a local institution. So, get your bony butt out of my place.”
There was a stunned silence where no one moved, not even the other customers who didn’t even bother to pretend they weren’t watching the show.
“Right. Now.”
When Asher and Ashley still made no move to leave, Sally bent forward from the waist and hollered, “Get! Shoo!” as she flipped her hands forward and waved them toward the door like she would an unwanted pest.
They jumped when she had raised her voice and bolted for the door, Asher and Ashley both looking back at Sally with identical expressions: jaws clenched, eyes squinted, and their mouths tight with anger. It was kind of creepy seeing how much they looked alike in that moment.
“You okay, Judd Jackson?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
For the first time in a while, I felt the weight that I had been carrying lift just a little bit. Sally having my back meant something to me, and I knew from then on, I would do anything Ms. Sally asked of me.
“I don’t know what you ever saw in that Klein girl. Wait a minute, I take that back. Yes, I do.” She gave me a knowing look, and I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks.
“Well, I better start cleaning this mess,” I said quickly, hoping to change the subject before Sunny got back. Again, I wasn’t that lucky.
I heard a throat clear and twisted around to see Sunny standing there with a broom and dust pan. She was looking everywhere but at me, and her cheeks were a pretty shade of pink.
I looked back over at Sally, who she just winked at me before she told Sunny, “Judd told me about y’all taking a cooking class up at the school. You know, you can practice here in my kitchen after work. You already do quite a bit, Sunny, just let Judd tag along. Teach him a thing or two. As long y’all turn everything off and lock up, which y’all do, anyway, I don’t care. I have more room and probably more tools and equipment than either one of you, and especially since Sunny’s daddy tore up Wanda’s trailer.”
“You sure? We’d hate to be an imposition,” Sunny told her.
“Nah, you’re not bothering me, as long as you clean up and lock up. It also wouldn’t hurt if you saved me some of whatever you cooked, but you know that already.”
“What do you say, Judd?” Sunny asked, looking over at me with the most beautiful smile that made my breath catch.
“Su-Sure,” I stuttered.
I looked over at Sally, who smiled her large denture-filled smile, looking pretty pleased with herself. Then I narrowed my eyes at her, but she just winked then strolled back toward the kitchen.
“I guess I better clean this up,” I said on a sigh as I bent down to do just that.
“I’ll come back over and help you after I take care of my tables.” Sunny gave me a small smile then took off.
Judd
WE SPENT THE REST of the afternoon and evening working after Sunny made good on her word and helped me clean up the spill. Nothing else dramatic happened, thank God. The dinner crowd cam
e, the dinner crowd left, and before we knew it, it was closing time.
Everyone had already left, so it was just Sunny and I in Sally’s kitchen. It was weird being here so late at night with the front of the diner dark and quiet.
Sunny came over and handed me a knife and a cutting board. Then she walked away to get white onions and mushrooms from the fridge, bringing them over and placing them in front of me.
“Are you sure you trust me to do this?” I could hear the uncertainty in my own voice. I couldn’t remember ever cutting up a vegetable in my life.
“Just try your best.”
I gave her a look that doubted her sanity, but I did as I was told.
“I think Mrs. Shannon lied when she said that baking was the hardest,” I commented after a couple chops. “This seems more complicated than measuring ingredients and pouring them into a bowl.”
She just shook her head, not saying anything else.
Sunny and I worked in companionable silence, me butchering vegetables, while she was cooking some ground beef on the stove top. It was nice.
“Are you really okay?” Sunny asked, breaking the quiet of the kitchen.
“Yeah, I’m getting kind of used to it.” I sniffled as I continued to chop the onions. When I first started cutting them up, the aroma hit me straight in the eyeballs. As I continued to work the knife, the stinging and watering nose and eyes lessened.
“That’s good.”
“The onions are a pain because they’re making my eyes tear up, but it’s easier than I thought it would be. Do you think they make eyewear for cutting up onions?”
Sunny giggled, and I felt like I had won the state championship all over again.
“Well, if they sold eyewear for cutting onions, I bet you could find it on a late-night infomercial or on Amazon. But that wasn’t what I was talking about.” Her voice went soft toward the end, and I wondered what she wanted to know.
She didn’t make me wait.
“I meant … Are you okay with seeing Ashley? Well, I mean … after seeing Ashley with another guy.”
I stopped what I was doing and stared over at Sunny, who was concentrating very hard on cooking that ground beef. Her cheeks were red, and her lips were tucked into her mouth.
When I didn’t answer right away, caught up in staring at her, she rambled on, “Uh … Forget I asked that. It’s really none of my business. It was a stupid question. Of course it had to be hard … I mean—”
“Sunny, you can ask me whatever you want. It’s really okay. And no, it surprisingly wasn’t hard seeing her with Corey. I’m actually okay.”
“But … But I thought you were in love with her?”
I took a moment to collect my thoughts, wanting to be honest with her as well as myself.
“Well, I thought I was, too … but I think I was more in love with the idea of her.”
“The idea of her?” Sunny gave me a side eye with that question, and I figured it was because she didn’t think much of Ashley Klein.
“Well, it was so easy. We’ve known each other our whole lives, and she was my best friend’s sister, so she was always there.” I shrugged. “Our relationship just felt organic at the time.”
“But then it wasn’t,” she added.
“But then it wasn’t,” I agreed.
“Speaking of easy … So, you and her … uh …” Her whole face turned red, and she coughed. “You … uh …” She sighed. “Never mind. This is really none of my business.”
I couldn’t help laughing at her discomfort. I thought I knew what she was getting at, especially after the easy part.
“Yeah, she and I would hook up.”
My cheeks got hot. I didn’t normally talk about personal stuff like that. I mean, in the past, how could I talk about hooking up with Ashley with my best friend when that best friend was her brother? That was some kind of bro code or something. Now Asher and I weren’t even friends, and there were no bros to share a code with.
“Oh, I … I didn’t mean …”
“Didn’t you?” I raised my brow at her back peddling.
“Yeah, I guess I did.”
The red now spread across her neck and chest, and I had an almost uncontrollable urge to run my lips there, to feel the heat and the thrumming of her pulse in her neck.
“Looking back now, I can see what I had with her wasn’t love. More like lust. I mean, I thought I’d feel at least something when I saw her with him, but I didn’t.”
Sunny had gotten quiet again, but I could see a small smile playing at her lips. She must have liked that last revelation.
Now that the topic was on the table, I was curious …
“So, Sunny, have you ever—”
“No.” She made a choking noise, but answered on a coughed.
“No?”
The thought of her not being with anyone made me happier than it probably should have.
“No,” she said in a firm voice.
It also made me curious.
“Why?”
“What do you mean why?”
“I thought that was pretty self-explanatory. I mean, why haven’t you …?” I let the question trail off, hoping Sunny would fill in the blanks.
“I haven’t exactly had time for a social life in the past few years.”
“So?”
“What do you mean so?”
“Why do you keep asking that? I think my questions are pretty clear. A lot of people do it, and they aren’t exactly dating, if you know what I mean.”
When a hurt look crossed her face, I wanted to kick myself. I didn’t mean to imply that she was … well, easy. She didn’t seem like the type, so I didn’t know why I had asked that stupid question.
“Look, I’m—”
“Just because I grew up poor and live in a trailer park doesn’t mean that I have sex with any guy who asks me. Or because my father’s a drunk doesn’t mean that I’m easy. I have daddy issues, but not daddy issues. I’m not sure I’m ready to even think about having sex with anyone. It’s a decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly, and I’m not just going to ‘do it’ because everyone else in our school has.”
“Sunny, I didn’t—”
“I just know when I make the decision to … Well, it’ll be with someone I’m in love with, someone I’m committed to. I’m not going to be barefoot and pregnant, stuck in this town and that trailer. I have plans and goals, and they’re not here in Sand Creek. Lastly, it’ll be with someone who’s going to stick around and won’t leave me high and dry, as Grana liked to say.” By the time she finished, her chest was quickly rising and falling, and I felt like a complete douchebag.
“Sunny…”
She turned to face me, her eyes downcast and cheeks pink. “Listen, Judd—”
“No, Sunny, listen to me. I’ve been trying to apologize. I’m sorry for insinuating that you are something you aren’t. I didn’t mean it that way. I don’t know why I even said something like that.”
She looked up at me from under her lashes, and I felt a weird ache in my chest.
“I’m actually glad that you haven’t been with anyone.”
Her head popped up, and her brows furrowed as her mouth dropped open. She looked so adorably confused that I wanted to hug her, but I didn’t, because that might be weird. We were friends, right? Maybe friends who hugged? Would she think that was weird?
When she didn’t say anything, I felt compelled to apologize again.
“I really am sorry.”
She closed her mouth with a snap, and her face cleared. I couldn’t really read the look on her face. It was almost contemplative.
“Why are you glad about that, Judd?” Her voice was soft, almost hesitant.
I froze. My mind racing. I couldn’t pin down any one thought.
“I don’t know … I mean …” I looked down at the mess I had made from chopping all the vegetables for the sauce we were making and couldn’t seem to find the right words to describe what I was feeling. Not that I could
find them in the piles of mushrooms and onion. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure I wanted to examine it too closely.
When I couldn’t seem to get anything else out, she let me off the hook.
“It’s okay, Judd. I’m sure it’s because we’re friends. Friends look out for each other, right?”
I was both relieved and disappointed. Relieved that she had confirmed that we were friends, yet a part of me that I wasn’t looking too closely at was disappointed that we were only that. It was lame, but I was going to take the out she had offered me.
“Right,” I croaked, still staring at the piles on the cutting board.
“I’m sure you’re just glad that I didn’t give it to some jerk who hit it and quit it.” Her voice sounded different, almost disappointed, but I knew that couldn’t be right.
I tried not to wince at the “hit it and quit it,” knowing I had been that guy just a year ago. I doubted that had been lost on Sunny.
“Yeah, I’d hate for someone to take advantage of you that way.”
And I meant that. I would absolutely hate that for her. I didn’t even want to think of some nameless, faceless guy putting his hands on her.
Sunny interrupted my turbulent thoughts when she strolled over. My body tensed as she came in close enough that I could smell the subtle hint of some fruity fragrance as she scooped up my pathetic looking vegetables. Then I released a breath I didn’t know I had been holding when she walked away and threw them into the pan with the ground beef.
I looked around, not sure what I should do next.
“Why don’t you open these cans, and then boil some water for me?”
“Okay, I can do that … I think.”
I hoped. I knew how to work a can opener at least.
“Anyone can boil water, Judd.”
“You don’t actually know that.”
When Sunny narrowed her eyes at me, I figured it would probably be smart to shut up now.
Again, we worked in silence. I opened up the can of tomato paste and fire-roasted tomatoes, and then filled up a large pot with water to boil. I looked at the stove and had a flashback to the time I had tried to heat up soup in Sunny’s kitchen. I turned the knob for the burner I wanted, and it clicked until a flame appeared. Then I cranked that sucker all the way up and set the pot on it. I was feeling pretty good after that. I hadn’t cut my finger off while chopping vegetables; I had gotten the burner to work; and I was in a kitchen with Sunny, just the two of us.
