“Everett, why do you keep looking at me like I’m sick?” Katie hissed after Rill had left the kitchen.
“I’m not looking at you like you’re sick.”
“You are so. What’s going on? Did you and Rill have a fight this afternoon? He’s acting very strangely.” She glanced down the hallway uncertainly. “Although he is writing again. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
Everett grunted and closed the dishwasher.
“What is wrong with you?”
“My hip hurts like hell, if you must know,” Everett responded tetchily.
Katie sighed. “I’ll get you some Tylenol. I knew it was worse than you were letting on.”
If she thought she was going to get anything more that night out of her brother or Rill, she’d been wrong. Everett took his Tylenol and was soon asleep on the couch.
Rill never came out of his bedroom.
Katie stood outside Rill’s door for nearly a full minute, undecided about whether she should knock or not. She knew Rill wasn’t comfortable with the idea of them having sex. Now that Everett was here, he was only more conflicted about his desire for her. She’d read that conflict like a flashing neon sign on his face when he’d stared at her in the shower earlier.
Well, she wasn’t going to beg. She had some pride left.
Despite a restless night, she sprang out of bed the next morning at six, excited for her meeting with Monty. It was a crisp, crystal-clear fall morning. Technicolor leaves shivered in the trees and formed a thin carpet on the ground. Neither Rill nor Everett had stirred by the time she left the house at seven thirty.
She picked up the paper sack she’d placed in the passenger seat before she got out of her car and headed for the diner. Barnyard was scratching his ear with his hind leg when she approached the door. His pumping leg paused and he looked up at her with doleful brown eyes.
“Come here, boy,” she said softly. He wolfed down the leftover chicken from their dinner last night. He looked up at her soberly as she fastened a flea collar around his neck. “There you go. No more itchy fleas.”
The diner was as crowded as Katie had ever seen it and smelled of bacon and maple syrup. Even though Katie was early, Monty was already there, reading his paper and making a good dent in a stack of pancakes. He lifted one shaggy eyebrow when she slid into the booth across from him.
“You came, huh?”
“I said I would, didn’t I?” Katie replied loftily. Her attention was on the group of twenty or so people toward the rear of the diner. “Is Olive running a meeting?” Katie asked, nodding toward Olive, who was speaking now while the rest of the group listened.
“Yeah, it’s most of the folks from the co-op and the Trading Company. Two big things on their meeting agenda today—the same two big things that are always on their agenda,” Monty said. He noticed Katie’s raised eyebrows and explained further. “One—how to stop that damn gambling boat. Ol’ Marcus Stash over there”—he nodded at the weird guy with the buzz cut who worshipped Sherona—“he’s going to birth a heifer the day that boat opens. Two—they’re trying to figure out a way to get the word out to the world about Food for the Body and Soul. My Olive, she’s the one who’s always pushing for that.”
Even though Monty’s voice sounded just as gruff and brusque as usual, Katie felt warmer toward him for saying “my Olive.”
She nodded toward the group. “Marcus Stash? What’s that man do for a living?”
“Stash used to be an Army Ranger, years back. Real patriot. He’s got a piece of land he raises sheep on. That farm’s passed down to him from generations of Stashes. Solitary type, Stash is. He used to be okay, but this riverboat business knocked a screw or two loose, if you know what I mean. Or maybe those screws were rattling around in his skull since he returned from the army. I never did completely believe the honorable discharge line of crap he sold people around here.”
“If he’s so solitary, how come he’s always in this diner?” Katie asked, even though she thought she already knew the answer.
“I’m guessing there’s something about this diner he likes an awful lot,” Monty replied blandly.
Sherona was standing next to Stash, listening to Olive and holding a coffeepot. Stash put a hand on her hip. Sherona jumped slightly and looked over at him. She smiled as she refilled his cup, but Katie decided Marcus Stash’s infatuation was unrequited. Maybe Sherona had finally declared Rill a lost cause, but she hadn’t transferred her affections to Stash.
Katie beamed at Sherona when she approached the table.
“Hi, Sherona. Nothing for me. Oh, but if you’d get me another loaf of that delicious seven-grain bread, we could sure use it.”
“Sure thing. I hope that means Rill is eating a little better.”
“I’m trying,” Katie said. Maybe she’d been wrong in thinking Sherona had designs on Rill when she’d first come to town, but she didn’t think so. She had a sneaking suspicion that if Rill had shown an ounce of interest, Sherona would have been all over him.
Sherona filled Monty’s coffee cup and went behind the counter. Stash’s face was turned toward Olive, but his eyes followed Sherona as she put Katie’s loaf of bread in a paper sack and set it on the counter for Katie. The guy was seriously infatuated.
“So . . . why’d you tell me to come here, Monty? You said it was something I could do to make a difference,” Katie said. Her curiosity had been mounting all weekend.