Chapter 9
Meatloaf – An excuse to bring two people together
Fender
The bell over the door at Moon’s Diner chimes as I walk in. I scan the restaurant. There’s not a table free. Not surprising since it’s meatloaf night, which is why I’m here. This place has the best homemade meatloaf I’ve ever eaten.
I make my way to the counter and sit there.
“Hey, Fender,” Moon, the owner of the diner, stops in front of me. “You want the usual?”
I grunt.
She makes a checkmark in the air. “Check! Another exciting conversation with Fender Hays.”
I grunt again.
She giggles. “If I found grumpy men sexy, I would chase after you until you gave up from exhaustion.”
“But you’re engaged,” a man I assume is her fiancé hollers across the room.
“We agreed I can flirt with other men.”
“No, you proclaimed you can flirt with other men, Moonbeam.”
“I’m not understanding the difference.”
A pang of envy hits me at their easy bantering. I want what they have. I thought I had it once, but it was all a lie.
Moon sighs. “Do you see what I have to put up with?”
“Will you stop your bickering and get my food?” the old man next to me asks.
She rolls her eyes. “Of course, Old Man Mercury. Coming right up.” She twirls away.
“They’re up to no good,” he says once she’s gone.
I glance around but there isn’t anyone else sitting at the counter.
“I’m speaking to you, Fender Hays.”
“Do I know you?”
“I’m Mercury, one of the founders of Winter Falls.”
I lift my hand to shake his but he scowls at me and I drop my hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Liar.”
I chuckle. He called my bluff. This old guy is cool.
“Who’s up to something?” I ask.
“The old ladies of this town.”
“The gossip gals?” The gossip gals are a hoot.
“They do enjoy their gossip.”
I don’t disagree with him. There’s a reason the ladies dubbed themselves the gossip gals after all.
“They’re interfering where they shouldn’t be.”
“What do you mean?”
Before he can answer, Moon arrives with two carry-out bags. “Here you go.”
I’m confused. “I didn’t order takeout. I was planning to eat here. And this is a lot of food.” Even for me.
“And now she claims she’s out of meatloaf,” someone hollers from behind me.
Moon sticks her tongue out at him. “These meals were ordered in advance.”
My brow wrinkles. “In advance? I didn’t order in advance.”
“I have it written down.” She opens her notepad and reads, “Two meatloaf meals for Fender and Leia.”
“Leia? I didn’t order food for Leia.”
“Nonetheless.” She taps the bags. “Better deliver it to her before it gets cold.”
I glance over at Mercury to ask him if this is what he meant about the gossip gals being up to something but he’s disappeared.
The bell behind her rings. “Food’s up!”
“I’ll put it on your tab,” she says as she scurries away.
This is ridiculous. I was planning to eat here. Not at home where my roommates can steal my food. And I didn’t order a meal for Leia. Why would I order food for the woman who hates me?
Hold on. I can deliver this to Leia as a kind gesture. It won’t make up for what an ass I’ve been but it can’t hurt. Good plan. I smirk as I pick up the bags and make my way to the exit of the diner.
I can smell the meatloaf and potatoes as I walk up Leia’s porch steps and knock on the door. My stomach rumbles in anticipation.
“Good. You’re back,” she says as she swings the door open. She scowls when she realizes it’s me. “You’re not Indigo.”
I lift the bag. “I brought your order from the diner.”
Her brow wrinkles. “My order from the diner? What is going on today? First, Indigo shows up and steals my daughter. And then you show up with food I didn’t order.”
“You didn’t order this food?”
She snorts. “I didn’t even know it was possible to get takeout from the diner. Isn’t takeout bad for the environment?”
“I have an arrangement with the diner.”
“Must be nice to be a rockstar,” she grumbles.
She has no idea. Being a rockstar isn’t all it’s made out to be. Why else are all five of us hiding out in the small town of Winter Falls where no one cares who we are, fans are unceremoniously kicked out of town, and the paparazzi are practically banned?
“Do you want the food?”
“Are you kidding? I’m drooling from the smell alone. Moon is crazy but she knows how to cook.”
I hand her the bag and she frowns. “This is heavy.”
“The only way Moon would agree to give me takeout is if I accept the food on normal plates with proper silverware and promise to return it all the next day.”
I hesitate for a moment. I need to apologize for how I behaved.
“Can we talk?”
She sighs before motioning me inside. “I’m not waiting any longer to eat this food. And you better not ruin my appetite with some bullshit about how I’m a horrible mother. I have a baseball bat and I know how to use it.”
I clear my throat to stop myself from laughing at her threat. She’s growling at me, but all I can think about is how adorable she is.
She leads me to the small dining table off of the kitchen. I scan her home and notice it’s dated but clean and tidy. The walls and carpets are beige but the pillows and blankets add pops of color and there are pictures on the wall. This place has a personality.
I wait for her to sit down before sitting across from her. She opens her bag and the smell of meatloaf and potatoes escapes. My stomach growls.
She motions to my bag. “Go ahead. You might as well eat before it gets cold.” She pauses. “Or do you want to say I’m an unfit mother again? In which case, let me grab my rolling pin.”
I swallow my laughter since I don’t think she’s kidding about the rolling pin. “No. Actually, I need to apologize.”
Her mouth drops open. “Apologize? You are going to apologize to me?”
“Um, yeah.”
“This ought to be good. A man’s never apologized to me before.”
“Never?”
She shakes her head. “Nope.”
“Not even Isla’s dad when he left you?”
She barks out a laugh. “You’re funny. I never knew you were funny.”
“I’m not being funny.”
“If you knew, you’d understand.”
“Knew what?”
She wipes tears of mirth from her eyes. “How Charles packed his things in the middle of the night while I was passed out from days of not sleeping since Isla had colic. How my lawyers could never find him to sue him for child support. How I haven’t heard from him in eleven years.”
“Isla’s dad doesn’t pay child support?”
She rolls her eyes. “Why do you think I work my ass off? This house doesn’t pay for itself.”
And I was the asshole who yelled at her for working too hard.
“Sorry I said you should work less.”
She holds up a hand. “Okay. You need to stop saying the words sorry and apologize. My heart can’t handle this many surprises in one day.”
“And I’m sorry I said you weren’t a good mother.”
She narrows her eyes. “You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?”
“You’re a good mom.”
She clutches her chest. “Oh no. You did it. I’m a goner.”
She gasps as she falls out of her chair onto the floor. I stand above her to observe the performance.
Her eyes pop open. “What do you think? Worth a standing ovation?”
“You’ll have to do better. I live with Gibson and Jett remember?”
I hold out my hand to help her stand. As soon as my hand touches her, a jolt of warmth hits me and travels from my hand through my body down to my groin.
Guessing by how Leia’s mouth is gaping open, she’s feeling it, too.
I rub circles with my thumb on her hand. Her skin’s as soft as I thought it would be. I wonder how soft those lips are. How would they feel against mine? I lean closer intent on finding out.
Leia yanks her hand from mine and shoves me away. “No.”
I immediately retreat. When a woman says no, I listen. “Why no?”
“I’m not a one-night stand kind of girl.”
I knew she wasn’t. But when I touched her soft skin, I lost my mind and forgot.
“One night is all I can offer.” I begin packing up my food. “I’ll finish this at home.”
“Good idea.” She shows me to the door.
I pause on her porch. “I meant what I said. I am sorry for being a jerk.”
“Thank you for your apology.”
Thank you is not acceptance. But what did I think? I could apologize and everything would be fine between us? I’ve been a complete asshole to her. She has no reason to believe I’m not always an asshole.
I’ll have to prove to her with my actions I’m more than the asshole I’ve shown her over the past weeks.