Jackson handed her a couple of bills and said, “Keep the change, but I do need a receipt.”
“Here you go—and thanks.” Scarlett closed the drawer with a smile.
“See y’all next week.” He slipped on his light-tan suede jacket and picked up the to-go cup of tea. “Stay warm, and don’t let the tumbleweeds cover up the diner.”
“We’ll do our best,” Scarlett said.
“Nice meeting you, Miz Carla,” he said.
“Glad to make your acquaintance. Come back to see us,” I said, amazed that I sounded a little breathy.
He hunched his broad shoulders against the cold on the way out the door. I made my way over to the booth beside the window and caught a glance of his truck pulling out onto the highway.
“He fueled up before he came in,” Scarlett teased.
“Not interested.”
“Then you are cold as ice inside,” she said.
The thing that warms me up is a good poker game.
I cut my eyes around at Scarlett. “Why don’tyouflirt with him?”
“One.” She held up a finger. “I do not date pretty guys. Two.” Another finger went up. “I have a boyfriend in Dell City. And three.” Her ring finger shot up. “He’s too old for me. I don’t even flirt with a man that’s more than two years older than I am. Jackson is thirty-eight and did twenty years in the military. Every time I look at his pretty green eyes and that sexy body, I remember that I was only four years old when he enlisted.”
I thought back to where I was twenty years before. At the age of ten, I was traveling all over the country with Frank so he could gamble. He said he was homeschooling me, and I had the books and took the online tests to pass each grade. But dear old Frank did little to nothing to help me from the time I was eight and my mother died. At eighteen I took and passed my GED test. By that time, I had been using my phony ID and living on my own for two years.
We barely had time to sit down and have a quick bite of lunch before the rush hit us. Scarlett had not stretched the truth one iota. The Greyhound bus pulled into the parking lot a few minutes before noon, and people of all ages piled out of it. Some had the look of winners at the slot machines or card tables. Others had a hangdog expression that said they were going home broke. Still more were families, most likely going home to Dallas after visiting relatives over the holidays. I had seenboth kinds on my travels with Frank, and then again when I went out on my own. Some of the new customers stopped long enough to read the day’s special written on the blackboard inside the door, but most of them headed toward the bathrooms.
“I’ll take care of the tables, and you do the bar and payouts.” Scarlett handed me an order pad. “Write down the barstool number when you take their order and then pin it on the thing over there.” She pointed at a carousel in the service window. “Rosie is really fast at turning out orders, and she’ll set them on the shelf right there. It’s going to be hectic for a little while. We’ll have to keep on our toes to get the tables cleared before the next busload hits us. I’m always glad when they don’t pull in at the same time.”
I picked up an apron from a hook behind the bar, tied it around my waist, and slipped the order pad into my pocket. Six elderly ladies had each claimed a barstool with much grumbling as they settled, so I had a full house right off the bat.
“Good afternoon, what can I get you to drink?” I asked.
“We’ll have sweet tea,” the one at the far end answered. “Put it all on one ticket. I am treating.”
I turned around and started filling six tall glasses with ice and tea—close enough that I could hear every word that was said.
The one sitting to her left gave her a sideways hug. “Thank you for this, Linda. That’s so nice of you to pay for our dinner.”
“You are welcome, Ellen Mae,” she said. “I’m telling the assisted-care place that I only won twenty dollars more than what I took with me.”
“Shame on you,” the one next to her said.
“Don’t judge me, Myra,” Linda snapped. “You have more money than God, so you don’t have to worry about whether you’ll have enough to go on the next trip.”
“As long as you go to confession on Sunday and do your penance, everything will be fine,” Myra said.
I set a glass of tea in front of each of them. “Y’all ready to order?”
Myra brushed an imaginary bit of dust from her rhinestone-studded jacket. “I’ll have the special, and Myra, I’ll go with you on Sunday. I lusted after that sexy young waiter at the last place we ate.”
“If we have to repent for that, then we’d best all go to confession,” Ellen Mae chuckled. “The special for me, too.”
“Well!” another lady huffed. “I would have done more than lust if I could remember what to do if I did sweet-talk him up to my room. And as far as Linda goes, she did win twenty more than she took with her, so she’s not lying. They don’t need to know about the two thousand above that. She’s already offered to pick up the ticket for our meal, so she’s putting the money to good use.”
“Thank you for standing up for me, Gloria,” Linda said. “Whatever I’ve got left over will go in my piggy bank for our next trip to Vegas. And I’ll have the special also.”
