C is for Carter

“It’s on the house,” Lauren said. “If it makes you feel any better, we always give away the leftover pieces at the end of the day, and this was all that was left of the one we had this morning. So you’re just saving the evening crew the trouble.”

“That’s not so bad,” Deacon said, eyeing the cake. “If you don’t want your piece, I’ll eat it.”

“The hell you will,” Everett said.

Lauren turned her attention expressly to me and spoke a little lower. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Lauren.”

She smiled on one side of her mouth and then turned away, walking toward the back. I watched her go and then saw Everett and Deacon staring at me.

“What?”

“Aren’t you going to ask her out?” Everett asked. “I mean, I thought you would have already.”

“Yeah,” Deacon said. “Why haven’t you?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But I think I’m going to.”

“Good,” Deacon said. “You two would be good together. Plus, it would give us an excuse to come down here for lunch all the time.”

“I thought you already had an excuse, Mr. All-Day Breakfast,” Everett said.

“Another excuse,” Deacon laughed. “I’ll take all of them I can get.”

“Me too,” I said.

We wrapped up our meals, finishing off the cake in impressive speed, and then took our bill to the register to check out. The other waitress ran our order, and Everett tossed the money on the table for the tip. I saw Lauren walk by in the back for a moment, and we caught sight of each other for a brief second. I waved, and she waved back before I turned and left with the boys.

8

LAUREN

The next day was my day off work, so I went over to Desiree’s house to spend some time with her. Harleigh was at a doctor’s appointment with her twins, so it was just the two of us relaxing on her back deck. She brought out coffee and cookies, and I shamelessly dunked one and nibbled my way through it.

“Did you hear about all the drama at the diner yesterday?” I asked.

She gave me a grin. “No. But I would love to. I managed to get both of the little ones down for a nap at the same time, so I am primed and ready for some gossip.”

“Well, don’t get your hopes up too high,” I said. “It isn’t anything too juicy. Carter just stopped by the diner when my ex happened to be there.”

“Seriously? I know he offered to come by and see if you could take care of things, but I thought you said you didn’t want him to.”

“I did,” I said. “But he showed up anyway. And he made Ashton leave. It was kind of amazing. To be honest, I didn’t think anything would get to Ashton. He is one of the most bullheaded people I’ve ever met in my life. Well, I don’t know if I would actually describe him as bullheaded so much as just incredibly wrapped up in himself. He has an exceptionally high opinion of himself and believes without a shadow of a doubt he should have whatever he wants, whenever he wants it.”

“And that includes you?” Desiree asked.

“Unfortunately,” I said. “It seems he has decided we aren’t really broken up. Or that being ‘broken up’ is more of an interpretive state that doesn’t mean we aren’t a part of each other’s lives, and I don’t still belong to him.”

“I’m glad Carter got him away from you.” She grinned a little wider. “And I feel like maybe you’re glad he was the one to do it too.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, feigning confusion and innocence. “I was just glad he was gone. It was nice of Carter to do that for me, but it would have been nice of anyone.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, obviously unconvinced. “It definitely would have been that nice of anyone. I’m just saying I think that maybe you are particularly glad Carter was the one playing the hero. And maybe you think that he is especially nice.”

She was doing her best to seem witty and playful with her light-hearted teasing, but I didn’t play into it. I wanted to keep my crush on Carter to myself. I wasn’t big on being open about my feelings to anyone, but especially when it came to having an attraction to someone and not knowing where they stood. After so long with Ashton and being accustomed to having him dictate my life, I wanted to stand on my own and make decisions for myself.

I still wholeheartedly believed in love. I just didn’t want anyone else feeling like they got to be involved in my love life. Or lack thereof. My crush on Carter was getting stronger by the day, but that was mine to deal with. I didn’t want to let anyone else know and open myself up to them teasing me about it or, worse, trying to force anything from happening between us.