Chapter 6 Rae
RAE
SIX YEARS AGO
The bell rang, echoing through the restaurant, causing me to drop my ball of dough, and for what had to be the millionth time that day, I ran to the front to see if he’d come in.
“Raelyn Vernon Jackson, if you drop that dough one more time!” My mother scolded me from the back of the kitchen as I moved out front, searching for the newcomers, and other patrons sitting around tables, but the counter, where he usually sat, was empty. The spots were filling up fast.
“Excuse me.” I moved a sign that I had printed and laminated and taped it in front of the space he liked to sit. “This spot is reserved.”
“Reserved?” Jonas Stellate whined, sipping his coffee. “For who?”
I stood up straighter. “A VIP.”
He shook his head, muttered a few things under his breath, and moved down a few spaces. I pulled the name I’d also printed and laminated from my apron and set it down on top of the tag.
Davis Brenton.
The first draft I had made had little hearts circling his name, but Nora talked me out of keeping them on there.
“Rae, get your rear end back here right now!” my mother yelled from the kitchen.
Taking one last glance around the space, I ran back and hoped I wouldn’t miss him this time. Nora said he’d come in last Friday, while I was at school. The only reason she knew about it was because she’d been sick with strep, and her mother’s store sat across from my parents’ diner.
I worked the dough without thinking, without feeling. All I could think about were his eyes, and whether or not he’d be smiling when he saw the sign.
Thirty minutes later, I wandered back out on my break, not hearing the bell ring or any fuss, and there he was talking sternly to Carl, the shift manager.
His navy eyes were murderous as he pointed a finger at the counter where I’d put his name sign.
I crinkled my brows. I’d reserved him a spot; why wouldn’t he be happy about it?
I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it ended with Davis picking up the sign I had made and throwing it in the garbage on his way out.
It felt as if he’d tossed my heart in there with it.
Later, Carl had gently taken me by the arm and walked me out back, sitting on a milk crate.
“You can’t make those signs anymore, kiddo.”
My face flushed.
“Davis is an oddball, and he doesn’t like to be noticed. So things like that, they make him uncomfortable.”
Nodding, I kept my eyes down, still too embarrassed to look my father’s friend in the eye.
I asked, “Can you keep this between us?”
He stood, let out a sigh, and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Honey, he’s five years older than you…a crush is harmless, but I need to know you understand that he’s too old for you. But yes, I’ll keep it between us.”
I smiled, my face turning a horrible shade of pink. I was going to die of embarrassment.
“I know he—”
“That means he’s twenty-one, Rae. He can drink, and you can’t even drive yet, baby girl. Let the crush go.”
I had just turned sixteen…I didn’t have my license yet, but it wasn’t too far-fetched to imagine myself with Davis. Carl was acting like I was in middle school or something.
Placating the man whom I knew more as an uncle than a boss, I gave him a firm nod and stayed outside for a while longer after he went back inside.
I understood the age difference, I did. I just also knew that soul mates wouldn’t care about a thing like age. Davis was my soul mate. There was no one on this planet that could tell me any different, and I’d wait as long as I had to for him to see that.