for service, she’d also make my shake extra thick. Just the way I liked it.
“Hey, Boone,” she called as she rushed by with a coffee carafe to refill a customer’s mug. When she was done pouring, she worked her way back to me. “What can I get for you?”
“Black and white shake, extra thick. To go, please.” I had two weaknesses—women and food. Oh, and beer too. And playing pool. Okay, so I had four weaknesses. Not too bad, considering.
She rolled her eyes at me. “What a surprise.”
I narrowed my gaze at her. “Hey, nothing wrong with sticking to what I like.”
“If you say so. It’ll be a minute. I’ll get on it right away.” She disappeared into the back.
There was one stool at the counter open but since the place was packed and I wasn’t staying anyway, I decided to stand and leave it for someone who was eating here.
I moved off to the side and leaned against the end of the counter to stay out of the way and await my shake as I anticipated the pleasure about to hit my tongue.
From my vantage point I got a view of everyone in the diner.
There was the usual mix of people. Both locals and strangers.
At one table the mayor seemed to be in deep conversation with the head of the zoning board. I had to wonder what that was about.
Old man Buck looked to be enjoying a cup of coffee with Alice Mudd—that was certainly interesting. Was there romance blooming amid the Mudville octogenarians?
A couple of football players from the high school team, the Mudville Hogs, were scarfing down french fries and burgers at the table nearest to me.
I caught the gaze of a guy at the other end of the counter who I volunteered with at the fire department and tipped up my chin in greeting. He lifted one hand in a wave before focusing back on his kid.
Then there were the transients—most likely a blend of tourists, truck drivers, hunters and fishermen, and random people who were just driving by on the highway and had stopped in to grab a bite.
It was nice to see new people in town. My brother Stone generally didn’t agree with that sentiment, but he and I were pretty much opposites in most things.
I evaluated the crowd as a whole. Young and old. Male and female. Rich, poor. Farmers in well-worn jeans and boots, and city slickers in their designer casual weekend-wear. Mudville had become a melting pot with the reopening of both the diner and the bar-slash-restaurant in Mudville House next door.
The increasing number of newcomers diluted a bit of the local craziness. Not all of it, mind you, but a bit.
Leaning on my forearms as I waited for Shalene to put the lid on my shake, I glanced around and spotted a sight to behold coming through the door.
There were lots of strangers in here today, but only one had been worthy of a second look . . . and a third.
She had rich, deep chestnut brown hair, just about the color of the retired thoroughbred race horse we currently had at the farm—though I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate the comparison.
White collar city girl was written all over her, from her office clothes to her quick, hurried stride.
Then there was the way she seemed completely baffled by the chaos in our little small-town diner. This woman looked like she had a housekeeper and an assistant and maybe even a yard boy to handle all the unpleasant chores in her life, such as getting her take-out food.
That was all right. I was never opposed to introducing a city woman to the joys of life on my family farm. Hay lofts. Lazy floats down the river. Making out on a blanket by a bonfire at the Friday night football games.
It would definitely be her first time for all of that. There was not even a whiff of farm girl on this one. Not with that white button-down shirt with the collar flipped up in a way that I swear said, “Go on. Just try and mess with me.”
Her high heels wouldn’t make it five minutes in the gravel—if she was lucky—or in the mud—if she were not—since most parking lots around here were one or the other.
My gaze landed on the tight skirt molded to her body, from the nipped in waist to the wide flair of her hips, and all the way around her generously round ass—
Damn. Talk about showing off