By the time she was halfway through that first shift she felt as if she had never been away. Her feet had gone from hurting to feeling numb, the way they always had in the past. She smiled politely at jokes she’d heard a million times before and called out orders in diner lingo as if she’d never stopped using it.
Days passed.
She worked hard, taking on extra shifts for whoever needed time off.
Working was good for her.
After a while she began to feel almost human again—if she didn’t worry about the hollow place in her breast where her heart had once been.
But she didn’t expect that to change.
The best she could hope for was to survive like the pansies.
But to bloom as they had—that was not about to happen.
* * *
The days became weeks. Weeks became months, and everything she remembered of Isla de la Pantera began to seem unreal.
Could she have ever been so happy?
It didn’t seem possible.
But she knew the truth when she woke up crying in the middle of the night, or when she’d look up suddenly and see a man with dark hair and broad shoulders.
Roarke, her anguished soul would whisper.
Except it never was Roarke or even anyone like him. How could any man be like her lover?
As for confronting Dr. Ronald… By now, at least, she knew where he was.
All it had taken were a few questions—after all, Broadwell was a small town—and she’d learned that he’d moved to Florida. To a retirement community.
She made a mental note of the place. It would take time for her to save enough money to fly down and face him, but she was determined to do it.
And then, one hot summer evening, when business was at its slowest, fate stepped into her life.
She was leaning on the counter, trying to concentrate on the day’s newspaper, when she looked up and saw the doctor walk through the door.
She thought, at first, that she might be mistaken. He looked old and tired, and there was an unhealthy pallor to his skin.
She put down the newspaper and glanced around her. The other waitresses were at a booth in the rear, drinking Cokes and gossiping. Bernie was in his office.
She took a deep breath, then stepped around the counter into the aisle.
“Dr. Ronald?”
He smiled hesitantly. “Yes? Who is—Jennifer?” His smile faded. The color drained from his face. But he drew himself together quickly and held out his hand
. “Jennifer, my dear. What a lovely surprise. I’d forgotten you worked here. My wife and I were just—”
“Dr. Ronald,” she said evenly, ignoring his outstretched hand. “Yes. This is definitely a surprise.”
“It’s wonderful to see you, dear. How have you been?”
Did he really think they were going to have a polite conversation?
“I want to talk to you, Doctor.”