The diner had gotten quiet, and I was busy designing tattoos in my head when I heard the door slam. I looked up and saw the other musing I thought about when the shifts were slow and I was doing other tasks.
Deacon was too old for me. I knew it in the logical part of my brain, and I tried my hardest to remind myself of that every time my mind drifted over to him, but still, I started spinning daydreams of us together. And that didn’t do a whole lot of good. My heart didn’t agree with my head. Not even a little bit. From the first time I saw him come into the diner, I was hooked.
I waved at him, and Deacon waved back with one of his warm smiles before heading over to the counter. He must have called an order in and was just coming by to pick it up. At this time of day, he, Carter, and Everett would be hard at work at their logging company.
I glanced over at him a couple of times while he waited, wondering if I should go talk to him. It wouldn’t be all that strange. It wasn’t like we’d never interacted. Carter was Lauren’s husband and the close friend of Brett, Harleigh’s husband. He was also friends with Aiden, the husband of another of our friends, Desiree. And that put us right in the midst of the tight friend group, so we’d had the chance to talk a few times.
But it wasn’t like we’d gotten into any deep conversations or spent hours connecting. I didn’t know of anything we had in common other than being in the same friend group. And as the youngest gal, I was pretty sure he thought of me like the little sister of the other women, so I did my best not to make my attraction to him too obvious. I didn’t want him feeling like some kid was fawning over him, but that didn’t stop me from stealing some looks whenever I could.
3
DEACON
Looking forward to the bonfire made the entire week worth it, but just barely. A host of mishaps, though non-lethal, had mostly befallen me instead of the rest of the crew. I had done everything from catching a hunk of wood to the face—to falling down a small hill and scratching up my elbow—to getting a nasty sunburn on my neck that was only just now starting to heal. It was enough to make a man want a big beer, a rare steak, and eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. I was fixing to get all three.
The beer would be provided at the bonfire, and this time it was expected that it wouldn’t be a large group of people from all over town. Since it was more like a cookout, it would be the group of us and maybe a couple of extras. Still, bonfires attracted people somehow by word of mouth, and there was never any telling who might show up uninvited.
That meant the beer had to be plentiful, and Carter and I were on the case. While the week had been especially cruel to me and my aching bones, it had been rather fruitful for the company, and Carter was in a fine mood. When work ended, rather than catching the ride back home with Everett, I rode with Carter back into town to pick up supplies.
Carter had a baby at home and wanted to get done quickly, which was why I was enlisted. With his leg acting up from the shrapnel he carried and reminding him of the day he saved my life, he would need someone to push the carts and haul the heavy stuff. Not that he would ever admit it. He didn’t need to. Everett and I always did what we could to accommodate him without ever mentioning it out loud. We all knew why we needed a ramp beside the front steps to the office, and why we needed to have a place set up for him to sit down on-site while working, but no one talked about why.
Similarly, all Carter had to do was mention that he was going into town to get a bunch of supplies, and one of us would volunteer to go with him. We knew how challenging it could be for him, even on a good day. I grabbed the cart and leaned over it as I slowed down for him to catch up. He was using his cane that day and grimacing a little. I’d make sure he could keep pace.
“Glad you suggested the bonfire tonight,” Carter said. “Brett was beside himself, excited to get together with everybody.”
“I bet,” I said. Brett had twin daughters and wasn’t always available to hang out with the group when we had something going. If he did, it was because Aiden and Desiree were involved too, and the event had become child friendly. Bonfires were expressly not child friendly.