“No doubt about it, hon. You sure are Amy’s boy, bless her kind soul. Those eyes and that hair. Just like seeing your poor, sweet mama again after all those years. How old are you now, sweetheart? You must be around forty, right?”
Hank who’d been watching the entire reunion play out with a fond smile on his lips, interrupted the conversation, clearing his throat.
“Give the guy a break, will ya, Tilly. There’s gonna be plenty of time catching up with the boy. He ain’t going nowhere anytime soon…”
“Nah, it’s okay Uncle Hank. I don’t mind,” Colton grinned, looking between the two of them.
Hank, wiping at the corner of one eye, shook his head as Colton continued.
“Thirty-nine come next week, ma’am,” Colton mumbled at Tilly.
“My, oh my, you sure grew up fine. Why don’t you have a nice girl by now, maybe a few small ones?” Tilly continued to hold on to Colton’s hands as if afraid he was going to disappear in to thin air if she were to let him go.
At the mention of family, the tightness in his chest increased. With an almost non-existent shrug, he answered Tilly’s question, his voice showing just the hint of a tremble.
“The life of a soldier isn’t exactly fit for a family, ma’am. It’s just me.”Just like it’s always been,he thought to himself.
Tilly finally released Colton’s hands and crossed her thin arms in front of her chest and threw him a sly smile, her eyes now lighting up as if she were still a teenage girl looking for trouble.
“Well, that’ll soon change. Just you wait until the word gets out to the single female population in town that you haven’t tied the knot yet. Didn’t you use to go out with Darlene Dempsey back in high school? She’s just recently divorced twice now. Moved back in with her folks. Still a good-looking gal.”
Colton shifted on his feet and looked towards Hank, who was trying to hide a smug grin behind his right hand. Before Colton could reply, Tilly’s husband Vernon shouted from the kitchen that an order was ready.
It wasn’t like Colton was expecting to fight off hordes of single women in the streets, but he knew that his return would likely stir up some gossip. He didn’t expect anything less from a small town like Hayley’s Peak. He just hoped that it would soon settle down once the town realized that he wasn’t interested in a family. It wasn’t part of the plan. Never had been.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Henry
TILLY’S WAS CROWDEDand buzzing which was not uncommon for a morning on a weekday. It wasn’t every day that Henry dropped by for breakfast, however, after the early wakeup call followed by the emergency visit in the clinic, he felt like treating himself to a substantial meal. He liked coming to the small diner on the main street ? he knew most of the regulars by now and there was always someone to have a chat with if he felt like it.
As soon as Tilly saw him in the door opening, she offered him a warm smile. Wiping off her hands in her blue apron, she beamed at him.
“Henry, good to see you. How are you doing, hon? Busy morning from what I hear.”
It wasn’t surprising to Henry that the town already knew about the accident and the demise of Myrah’s dog. Bad news travelled fast in a small town like Hayley’s Peak. It wasn’t because the town’s people enjoyed bad news or dwelled on it for long, but it did give them something to talk about. He guessed that wasn’t much different from other small towns.
“Yeah, there was really nothing I could do for Virgil when they brought him in,” he sighed. It always bothered him when he lost a patient. He felt for the owners, and he appreciated that they were often fonder and more attached to their pets than to people. Especially the old widow Myrah who lived outside of town and rarely showed herself aside from the occasional visit to the convenience store or the post office. He made a note to himself that he should swing by her place within the next few days.
“Virgil had it coming, alright. I often thought that dog was born lucky ? more like a cat with the nine lives and all. You don’t beat yourself up about it, hon. You take a seat and I’ll bring you a cup of coffee. You eating as well?”
“Yeah, I thought I’d get some eggs, bacon… Perhaps some pancakes as well,” Henry trailed off looking around at the diner pulsating with life and conversation. Tilly was known for her modest but excellent food, and he felt like something sweet if he were to get through a day which had started at 3 a.m. Tilly looked at him with fondness and squeezed his right arm.
“Sure thing, hon. The place is busy this morning, but I’ll be right over with your drink. Vernon’s in the kitchen but he’ll be sure to pop out and say hi. He can’t stop ranting about his right eye being red and itchy, so I finally told him to shut up about it and go see you. I swear that man is gonna be the death of me at some point, always nagging about this and that until I call him on his BS,” she said with a giggle, failing at hiding the love for her husband in her voice.
Tilly and Vernon had been running the place for years now after Tilly lost her first husband, Duane, in a DUI when she was only twenty-five and heavily pregnant with their second child, Jason. It hadn’t been much of a loss as Duane was an unemployed drunk who used to knock Tilly about whenever he’d lost a bet or simply just felt like it. The common opinion around town was that she was better off on her own, and when the town diner was up for sale a few years later, she bought the place. How she could afford it, a single mother of two, was not exactly clear, however, rumor had it that Duane’s parents, feeling bad for all the times they’d minded their own business when they shouldn’t have, had paid for the modest place.
A few years later when Vernon came to town, it was pretty much a done deal from the get-go. Tilly had always been an attractive woman and a spit fire, so from the moment the five-year younger Vernon laid eyes on her, there was no turning back for either of them. He soon married Tilly and became more of a father to her kids than Duane had ever been. They never had any kids of their own as Vernonwas shooting blanksas he put it, but they were happier than most.
Henry looked around the buzzing diner for a free table, but before he could find one, someone hollered his name.
“Over here, doc,” he heard from the far-off corner next to the large window facing the main street. As he turned towards the voice, he recognized Hank Dietrich and his nephew Colton sitting at the corner table. They appeared to be just starting their breakfast as well.
“Well, if it isn’t this morning’s talk of the town,” Hank grinned at him jokingly. “Take a seat, Henry. We were just starting. Have you ordered yet?”
“Morning Hank. Yeah, I ordered, but I don’t want to interrupt your meal. You probably want to eat alone… Lot of catching up to do…” Henry trailed off while looking around the diner for a free table. He felt his cheeks heating from the close vicinity of the man whose image he’d climaxed to a short time ago. He stole a glance at Colton, who was looking down at the tablecloth.
“Don’t be silly, doc. Sit your ass down. Colton won’t mind, will you son?” Hank had already started pulling out a free chair and pushing it toward Henry.
