Chapter 5Luke
CHAPTER 5
LUKE
A familiar face gives me a lopsided grin, a hand raising in greeting as I make my way down the aisle of an old fifties-looking diner. Checkered floors, red booths, a long sit-down counter where people can enjoy their meals solo, or with a friend. Every inch of the walls is covered in pictures, and if memory serves me correctly from when I spent my summers in Santa Rosé, it’s a lot of local places and people in the frames.
It’s seven-thirty in the morning after my most recent shift and I’m ready for a nap, but the diner smells incredible. Bacon grease, sweet smelling syrup, and some spice I can’t decipher makes my stomach growl in hunger.
“What’s up, man?” I ask my cousin, Carter, as I drop into a booth across from him.
He texted me last night on shift, wondering if I was free today, early, to meet him. It seemed a tad unusual, considering he runs a successful home renovations company here in town. They tend to get started early in the morning, but considering he’s the boss, I guess it’s easy to make an exception.
“Bro,” he says, rubbing his full, but trimmed beard. “You’re never going to believe this.”
No beating around the bush. Okay. The menu I just picked up gets set down and I sit back in the booth. Carter is pretty chill, which is why we’ve always gotten along so well, and why I spent the summer between high school and college with him in Santa Rosé.
“Alright. What’s going on?”
Pulling out his phone, he swipes through it for a minute, and just when I’m about to ask him if he came to talk, or sit on his phone, he slides the thing across the table.
Hailey.
Hailey stares up at me from the screen. And not the Hailey that Carter knew ten years ago, but the Hailey from the present. With her hair to her shoulders, and the side swept bangs. She’s not looking at the camera, but rather at someone who isn’t pictured. She’s happy. Smiling and laughing, and full of life.
My chest tightens. That smile is the one I remember from that summer. The one I fell for. It isn’t one I’ve seen since I started at the fire station. Not even close.
I glance up at Carter, my eyebrows pulling together in confusion. “Why do you have a picture of Hailey?”
After my initial shift at the fire house, Carter was my first call. He was witness to that summer and knew exactly how I felt about Hailey. He was the only one who would understand the gravity of the two of us being under the same roof now. It didn’t hurt that he was the only one in my family who’d had my back the last several months.
“So, my mom joined a new book club. It’s her new thing, I guess,” he says, dragging his coffee closer to him. The tiny white cup looks a bit ridiculous in his big paws. “She met this other woman, and the two of them got talking about me and this woman’s daughter.”
I lean forward in my seat, pointing at his phone. At Hailey. “The daughter?”
Carter nods, a shit eating grin splitting his face. “Yep. Apparently Hailey’s mom has been trying to hook her up with guys, but all the dates she goes on have been shit. And you know how my mom’s been trying to set me up since Sarah and I broke up.”
Sarah was Carter’s long-time girlfriend, but they broke up three months ago when Sarah accepted a job in Ohio. Carter tries to convince himself that he’s okay, but I don’t think he is. I think his mom, my aunt Darlene, sees that, and is trying to fix it for him.
“The other day one of the girls at the station asked Hailey about a blind date,” I say, almost to myself as I recall Quinn asking the question that led to the showdown between Liam and me. “You’re the blind date.”
“My mom called yesterday and asked if I was free tonight. Guess who wants to go on a date,” he says, wearing a smug grin. “And guess who said yes.”
A million questions fill my brain all at once. Carter and Hailey? On a date? What the?—
And what does he mean tonight? Tonight is the engagement party for Nate and Savanna.
And if Carter has a picture of Hailey, did he talk to her? Or did my aunt send it to him? And if she sent it to him, why didn’t she recognize Hailey? Or did she? She knew how screwed up I was after that summer.
“Bro, it’s brilliant watching the tires spin up there,” he says, bringing me out of my question spiral, tapping his temple and then pointing at me. “If you’re wondering whether you’re going to kick my ass for taking Hailey out or not, never fear cousin. I have zero plans on taking her anywhere. But you, my friend…”
My eyes widen after a moment of staring, his words sinking in. “Par-pardon?”
“It’s the perfect plan,” Carter says, picking up his coffee mug to take a sip before he waves it at me. “You show up as her blind date, and then the magic between the two of you starts working just like it did ten years ago, and pretty soon you’re in her pants, and the world rights itself.”
There’s nothing I can do but blink. Thoughts don’t fully exist in my brain. I’ve entered some kind of weird twilight zone where my cousin has frickin’ lost it.
“Are you out of your mind?” I hiss at him, leaning forward, my forearms resting on the table. “Hailey hates me. If I show up there, I’ll be lucky to survive with my balls intact.”
Carter waves me off dismissively. “Bro, please. That woman wants your balls, she isn’t going to do anything to jeopardize them.”
“Oh lord, you are out of your mind,” I mumble, rubbing my hand over my forehead before pushing it through my hair which has grown just a little bit more. Soon I’ll be able to run my fingers through it. If I live that long. “You realize that you’re talking like the last ten years haven’t passed us by, and things between Hailey and me never went sideways?”
“Oh fuck, c’mon. She’s the one that deserted you, remember? I still don’t understand why she’s so angry with you after that bullshit she pulled,” he says, spinning what I presume to be an empty mug between his hands. “Have you asked her yet?”
“And give her a chance to bite my head off? No,” I tell him, glancing to my left when the waitress sidles up to the table.
The place is busy, so the fact that she hasn’t come by yet is no surprise, but I’m thankful that she brings a pot of coffee with her. She fills Carter’s cup, then mine, and even though I haven’t fully looked over the menu, the special on the front with bacon and eggs, a couple pancakes, hashbrowns, and sausage links looks good, so I order that.
When she’s gone, I turn my attention back to my crazy cousin. “How’d you get her picture?”
“My mom got it from her mom, I think.”
My brows furrow. “Didn’t she recognize Hailey?”
Carter laughs, dumping a couple packets of sugar into his coffee cup. “Man, you were such a goner back then. My mom never actually met Hailey. The couple of times she was at the house, no one else was around. Though, with eyes only for Hailey, it shouldn’t surprise me that you don’t remember.”
I sift back through my memories, trying to recall the times she was at the house that summer, but he’s right. Hailey is at the forefront and the rest is mostly a blur. I could probably conjure every single outfit she owned and wore in my mind, but who was near, and who wasn’t? I have no recollection of that.
“Are you sure it was tonight?” I ask, diverting the conversation a different way.
While it doesn’t bother me to think about that summer, I don’t want to do any kind of deep dive and get myself trudging up more memories than have already assaulted me in the last ten days. Longer, if I’m being honest. Since I decided to move to Santa Rosé, I’ve had memories of Hailey come up, especially when my brain is silent. One reason I seek thrills and try to keep myself busy at all times.
“Yeah, there’s some party going on,” Carter says, reaching for his phone. He swipes through it for a second and then nods like he’s confirming. “Hailey and I talked a bit?—”
My tone is sharper than I intend when I snap, “What?”
“Relax, bro,” he says, rolling his eyes. “I haven’t been sexting her at all, I promise. Once I said yes to my mom, she gave me Hailey’s digits. We just texted about what the plans were, and she said she needed a date for tonight for some party for her boss. She hoped I was free.”
His head snaps up then, and he looks at me inquisitively. “If it’s a party for her boss, doesn’t that mean it’s also your boss?”
“Yes, you moron,” I tell him, grabbing a packet of cream from the little bowl, ripping the top off of it to dump it in my coffee. “It is my boss, and I was already going to the party.”
“Brooo! It’s fate. How isn’t this perfect?” Carter looks like he’s just solved all the world’s problems. His chin is high, his chest is puffed, and the twinkle in his eye says that he’s feeling pretty darn good about himself.
“Hailey is going to be pissed,” I remind him. “I don’t need to give her another reason to be angry.”
Or to give anyone else a reason to be angry. Yesterday’s shift was definitely the best of the three I’ve worked, and I’m guessing it has to do with Nate. The ice that surrounded me and the station thinned to the point that Brody even handed me a cup of coffee this morning before the rest of the house was up. I half expected there to be salt in it, but was pleasantly surprised when it was normal.
Unless he spit in it.
If I show up as Hailey’s blind date, I can only imagine the way the house is going to react. And then what? I’m back to being frozen out? No thanks.
“Tell me again why you picked Santa Rosé?” Carter asks, lifting an eyebrow from across the table.
Forcing myself not to shift under his scrutiny, I grab my spoon and stir my coffee. “Because you’re here and you’ve been in my corner my whole life. That didn’t change even after the shit in Waco.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he waves dismissively again then takes his own spoon to dunk in his coffee. “You can spew that bullshit to everyone else, and sure, maybe I was a part of it since I stood behind you. But don’t try to tell me that the thought of Hailey didn’t factor into your relocation choice. You could have gone anywhere across the country.”
There’s no answering that without admitting out loud that she crossed my mind once or twice, and I refuse to acknowledge it. To him or anyone else.
When I don’t respond, he continues, “If she hates you, be your charming self. Get under her skin in the good way, bro.”
“She’s expecting a guy named Carter,” I finally say, and he nods, but shrugs, making me ask, “She seen your picture?”
“Yep,” he answers, stirring his coffee. “But if she recognized me, she didn’t let on.”
My eyes narrow at the man across from me, taking in his appearance, and how it’s changed in ten years. When we were kids, Carter carried more weight on him. He’s turned it into a lot of muscle these days. Getting into the carpentry business probably helped with that. The beard is new too. He was a fresh faced kid back then, and his hair was buzzed, much like mine was when I first got to Santa Rosé. Add in the tattoos that cover his arms, and he looks completely different.
It's not hard to believe that Hailey wouldn’t recognize him. Not to be a jerk, but he went from a four, max, to an easy nine.
“C’mon,” Carter nudges. “Where’s your sense of adventure? Where’s the guy who used to love giving Hailey hell and watching her reaction? This used to be your favorite pastime. Do you really want some other guy giving it to her and watching her love it?”
Looking away from him, I watch our waitress grab two plates of food from the service window. I’d be willing to wager that it’s our breakfast, though I don’t feel as hungry as I did when I first walked inside. My stomach swims with nerves. The kind I get whenever I’m about to do something reckless as heck that sets my soul on fire.
He’s right. It did used to be my favorite pastime. Heck, it still is, even though I know I shouldn’t antagonize her. I don’t shy away from the hard road, I embrace it. It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t rise up to this occasion.
Plus, I really, really don’t want it to be some other guy giving her hell. I’d be remiss to admit it out loud, but finding out she was single the other day sparked an ember inside of me I long thought extinct.
But that dang cup of coffee this morning. That peace offering from Brody… or at least what seemed to be one. If I show up at Hailey’s, does any ground I’ve somehow gained in the last shift disappear? And am I willing to let it?
My eyes slide to where Carter’s phone is on the table, recalling the picture of Hailey smiling. If I do this, I may never be allowed to consider myself smart again. This is the worst idea. She’s never going to smile like that tonight if I show up as her date.
But… what if she does?
I meet Carter’s eyes, and though I haven’t spoken a word to him, I see the triumph there. He already knows my answer. He’s probably known it since last night when he devised this asinine plan.
Inhaling a deep breath, I lift my head. “What time do I pick her up?”