Chapter 10 Cal
TEN
CAL
Itossed and turned for most of the night.
By the time I gave up on sleeping and hauled myself out of bed at dawn, I felt like I’d been dragged by a bull.
It didn’t help that the mattress I was sleeping on had more lumps than my mom’s gravy.
I stood under the hot shower spray—which was thankfully strong—hoping to wash away yesterday’s fiasco at the Thorne ranch.
I didn’t feel as if I’d succeeded, but once the water started running cool, I got out and dressed, then decided to go for a walk to clear my head.
My next scheduled appearance wasn’t until tomorrow, so I had today to dwell on my thoughts and figure out a way to get through this without stepping on too many toes.
Main Street was quiet at this hour, which I chalked up to the local ranchers dealing with morning chores before venturing into town. I walked past darkened windows, my mood remaining equally dark.
“Hey, man, careful where you’re walking.”
I was startled at the voice coming from so close to me and managed to stop before running into a large, heavily tattooed guy with a bunch of boxes on a hand cart.
“My bad. I wasn’t paying attention,” I said. “Oh, hey, you’re the cook from the diner.” I realized I was standing in front of the Bite and Brew, but like everywhere else, they weren’t open yet. Too bad. Another plate of those biscuits and gravy sounded about perfect right now.
“That’s me. Marc Diaz.” He held his hand out for me to shake. “And you’re Cal Pierce. I saw you compete at Rodeo Grit down in Austin last year. Those roping tricks you were doing between events were fantastic.”
“A Guinness World Record adjudicator was there to monitor and score my attempt.”
“And?”
He genuinely looked interested and I grinned. “That was my second world record.” I glanced over at the hours on the door and was disappointed to see that the diner didn’t open for another hour.
The disappointment must’ve have shown on my face, because Marc pointed to the door with a head tilt.
“If you want to come inside, coffee is already brewing. It’ll take me ten minutes to get these boxes unloaded and the grill fired up, but if you don’t mind giving me a hand, then I’d be happy to repay you by making you something before we open.
” I readily agreed and helped him bring the boxes inside.
“Grab yourself a cuppa and take a seat at the counter. I’ll be right back.”
I found the clean mugs and poured myself a cup, then doctored it up before taking my first sip and wow. I smacked my lips.
“Good, right?” Marc asked. “I get the beans from Carly’s Coffee, down on the corner. Coffee in all its variations is her domain, so I figured rather than compete with her, I’d stick to brewing and let her handle all the rest.”
That sounded like smart thinking to me. I watched him pour himself a cup and drink it black. Unfortunately, I’d had too much gas station coffee over the years and these days, my stomach would rebel at drinking it like that.
Marc looped his apron around his neck and clapped his hands.
“What can I get you to eat?” I was on the verge of asking for biscuits and gravy again when he made some suggestions.
“I’ve been playing around with curing my own bacon.
The plan is to have it up on the menu later this week.
You’d be doing me a favor if you gave it a try and let me know your opinion.
I can make you up an omelet to go with it, unless you’d rather have French toast?
Bread’s homemade just like my biscuits.”
I rubbed my stomach and did my best not to drool at the offering. “That all sounds fantastic.” I blew out a breath. “Would I sound too indecisive if I said ‘chef’s choice’?” Clearly this guy was no line cook. He didn’t need me telling him what to do.
He clapped me on the back with enough force to push me forward on the stool.
“Nope. I got you.” We made small talk while he cooked and I ended up wiping my mouth a couple times to hide the drool, which did threaten to fall.
Finally, he set a plate down in front of me loaded with eggs, bacon, and French toast with some sort of fruit topping.
My first bite of bacon with the custardy French toast made me groan. From the look on Marc’s face, he was pleased at my enjoyment. I was halfway through my meal before I felt satiated enough to slow down.
“So, what’s a guy with your culinary expertise doing running a diner in a town this small?” I asked him. It didn’t make sense to me.
“The best reason. Love.” I must have given him a skeptical look because he chuckled.
“I was working in a restaurant in Vegas when Aurora came in with some of her friends. They were doing a girls’ only weekend for her birthday and in an instant, I knew I was looking at my future wife and mother of my children. ”
“And the rest is history?” I said and he shook his head.
“Oh, hell no. She wanted nothing to do with the big, tattooed guy who thought he was God’s gift to women. She didn’t hesitate to knock me down a peg or two.” He chuckled and his eyes had a faraway look, as if he was remembering their first meeting.
“I kept hoping she’d come back to the restaurant but she never did.
I couldn’t get her out of my mind. So, I called in every favor I could with some friends working at the hotel and managed to find out her name and where she was from.
On my next days off, I hopped on my bike and headed to Poplar Springs.
To say she was surprised to see me would be an understatement.
But we hit it off all the same. I knew I couldn’t go back to Vegas, and she had no desire to live anywhere else.
So, I called my boss and told him I wasn’t returning and took the job as line cook here in the diner.
When her parents retired, we took over.”
“Wow.” I wasn’t sure how else to put it. “And you don’t regret moving to a small town?”
Before Marc could answer, there was a click and the door to the diner opened.
Aurora walked in along with two toddlers.
“Daddy!” The two kids ran to Marc and he scooped them up and whirled them around while they squealed.
He planted loud kisses on their cheeks before giving his wife a softer, sweeter kiss.
“You’re early, what’s up?”
“Taking the twins out to Lost Valley Ranch for the kids’ ride,” Aurora said before turning to look at me.
“Wow, you look like a Thorne. Has anyone told you that?” She held out her hand.
“Hi, I’m Aurora. You were having breakfast with Rafael the other morning and you made that smartass comment, right? ”
“Yeah, that was me. Cal Pierce.” I shook her hand. I wasn’t sure how much was okay to share since I hadn’t had the chance to talk to Laura about it.
She didn’t say any more about it and managed to scoot the twins back out the door. Once she was gone, Marc leaned against the counter with his arms crossed and stared at me. “You could be a twin to Luke. What’s up with that?”
Dammit. I liked Marc already, but I didn’t want to cause problems for the Thornes if they didn’t want anyone to know about me.
I wiped my mouth with the napkin, hoping to buy myself a few seconds to come up with an answer, but then Marc held up his hand. “You know what? Forget I said anything. When the time comes, if there’s something to share, I’m sure we’ll all hear about it. Now, more coffee?”
I nodded, relieved not to have to say more. We chatted about other things until his servers arrived and the diner opened. I tried to pay for my meal, but Marc wouldn’t hear of it and threatened to ban me from the place if I pushed it. Chastised and full, I left and decided to keep walking around.
I passed the town hall and headed toward a fenced off construction area.
There were signs proudly proclaiming that it was the future site for the new community center.
Adjacent to it was a park that also looked new.
The trees were on the smaller side and all the play equipment looked shiny and clean.
There was also a sign advertising the rodeo, complete with a picture of me astride a chestnut mare.
The brim of my hat was pulled down low over my brows and I was mid-swing with my lasso.
My manager must have sent them the pic. I had no idea where it’d been taken.
As much as I loved competing, the rodeos all tended to run together.
My phone rang and I was surprised to see it was my sister. “You’re calling early.” In the background, I could hear loud, angry wailing. “Uh-oh, what happened?”
She snorted into the phone. “I told Matty he couldn’t wear his dinosaur costume to school. He’s currently throwing a tantrum on the floor. I’m waiting him out.”
“I know it’s April, but how bad would it be for him to wear it?” My phone pinged, and I looked at the pic Jen texted me and started laughing. It was a picture of my nephew lying on the floor, wearing a blowup T-rex costume. “Ah.”
“Any chance you could talk to him? He listens to you.”
“Sure. Put him on.” There was a pause and then I heard my nephew sniffling into the phone. “Hey, bud. What’s going on?”
“Mommy’s being mean!” And then my nephew launched into all the ways my sister was essentially undermining all the fun in the entire world. It took some doing, but I managed to calm Matty down and then Jen was back on the line.
“Please tell me you got him to agree to change?” she said.
“If all goes well, he’ll be headed to school dressed like me. I figured boots and a hat was a better option than trying to sit in those little-kid chairs dressed as a dinosaur.”
“Thanks, Cal.” I was expecting my sister to wrap up the call at this point, but instead she said, “Talked to Mom. She told me how you got blindsided. How are you doing?”
“Still reeling.” I filled her in on lunch and then told her about the incident with Henry and the horse.
“Calvin Edmund Pierce, don't you dare tell me you told a solo mom what was and wasn't okay for her only child!”
“Well… when you put it like that, I might’ve.” I pulled the phone away from my ear while my sister spent the next couple of minutes berating me for undermining someone else’s parenting and for sticking my nose in where it didn’t belong when it came to what was best for a kid I had only just met.
“Okay, I get it.”
“So, you’ll apologize for being a horse’s ass?”
Once I agreed—and my nephew came out suitably dressed for school—we got off the phone. Since I wasn’t going to see Amy until tomorrow, it would give me enough time to figure out an apology. I hoped.