Brandon shrugged, for a moment looking a lot more like the teenager he was. “It’s fine. I wanted to save up money for a new dirt bike, and Gran said if that’s what I wanted, then she had plenty of shifts here at the diner that needed to be covered. And I get to be the only one here in the mornings. I mean, besides the cook. But Gran likes to sleep in these days.”
Diana laughed. Brandon’s grandmother, Eula, was one of Girdwood Springs’s…characters, one could say. She’d been a substitute teacher at the local school when Diana had been growing up, and her classes had always been memorable.
Now, Eula was living her dream of running the town diner, which had gone from rat-plagued cesspit to food-lovers’ haven under her loving care. She was still as gregarious as ever, though – perhaps even more so, now that she wasn’t restricted by suchthings as teachers’ expected standards of behavior – but there was never a dull moment when she was around.
Still, it was one thing to enjoy hanging out with her as a friend – Diana was sure that as both a grandmother and employer all rolled into one eccentric package, she would probably get on Brandon’s nerves at times! Diana couldn’t blame him for enjoying the quieter shifts.
“Well, sounds like you’ll have the cash in no time – and if I know your gran, she won’t be able to help herself from topping up whatever you’re missing at the end of the summer.”
Brandon smiled in relief, then raised his pencil and notebook. “Do you know what you’re going to order?”
“Chicken waffles,” Diana said without hesitation, her stomach speaking for her before her brain could catch up. “And a cherry cola.”
It was way too early in the morning for that kind of thing, but Diana didn’t care – when she ate fried food, she always liked something sweet and carbonated as a palate cleanser. And darn it, she deserved to eat whatever she felt like today!
“And you, sir?” Brandon said to Calvin.
“Could I have the chocolate berry waffles and an americano? Oh, and the sausage and vegetable omelet,” he said.
I suppose being that jacked and sexy burns a lot of calories,Diana thought, before mentally slapping her forehead.Ihaveto stop objectifying the poor man.
“Coming right up,” Brandon said, before heading back toward the kitchen… and leaving Diana to her awkward fate once more.
Luckily, however, it seemed like at least one of them had regained their powers of basic conversation.
“So, how long have you lived in this town?” Calvin asked, and Diana relaxed a little. This, at least, was a safe topic of conversation.
“My whole life, more or less, apart from when I went away to college and a couple of years after that,” she said. “I never really even thought about whether or not I would end up back here, to be honest – it just felt like this was where I belonged, so I came back. Going somewhere else would’ve been strange. But what about you? Where did you grow up? I’ve just realized that I don’t actually know much about you at all.”
Which normally would’ve meant that she would’ve had her guard up somewhat, but she felt sosafewith Calvin. She couldn’t explain it.
Calvin shrugged. “Here and there, really. I was born in Trout River – that’s in Montana, don’t blame you if you haven’t heard of it – but now I move around a lot for work, so I haven’t really had what I’d call a long-term home for a while now. It suits me, but I have to admit, sometimes I do wish I had something a little more permanent. I love my job, but the constant moving takes its toll after a while.”
It had never occurred to Diana that Calvin would have to do something so humdrum as work for a living, unless he was employed as an underwear model or something. Still, she supposed that even uncannily gorgeous hunks had to get their money from somewhere.
“What do you do for a living?” she asked. “Unless you don’t want to talk about it, of course. Sorry – this is a bit like Twenty Questions.”
“No, it’s fine,” Calvin said with a brilliant smile. “It’s nothing exciting, though. I run construction sites – so I travel around a bit, getting out to different sites and making sure things run smoothly.”
The mental image of a shirtless, sweat-sheened Calvin out in the sun, wearing boots, tiny shorts, and a fluorescent vest and hard hat, paraded insistently through Diana’s mind.
Not exciting, my ass!
“That’s definitely exciting,” she said earnestly. “Or interesting, at the very least. Definitely important. I wouldn’t have the first clue how these things work.”
“It’s okay,” Calvin said. “You don’t have to try to talk it up.”
“No, seriously,” Diana said. “I want to know more. Tell me an interesting construction fact.”
Calvin tilted his head quizzically – but, apparently seeing that she wasn’t going to back down from her sudden intense need for esoteric construction knowledge, he paused for a moment, before nodding.
“Back in ancient Rome and medieval times, there were cranes that were basically powered by humans walking endlessly inside of giant wheels,” he said. “Is that the kind of interesting fact you were looking for?”
“That is exactly what I was after, thank you,” Diana said. Sure, Calvin probably thought she was a weirdo now, but at least this was better than yammering away nervously and wondering whether he could crack a walnut with his thighs. “So you’re saying that I could get a workout on a giant hamster wheel while also powering a crane? That sounds pretty cool, to be honest.”
Calvin’s mouth twitched into a smile, but he smoothed it back down into seriousness. “You’d probably get pretty worn out, but yes.”
“So, are you hiring? Where do I put in my application?” Diana asked, and this time Calvin laughed, deep and rich.
