buddy,” she said, and pulled cash from her pocketbook.
It seemed the only one in town who had a problem with her was Joan Anderson. That one person had stirred trouble. It made no sense.
But she wasn’t going to worry about it. She was going to trust the Lord to see them through.
The next morning Clarissa woke with a light heart. She slipped into her Crocs, glided down the stairs to Pete’s, poured herself a cup of coffee and ate one of the biscuits Susie had sent home with her.
“You really ought to sell her biscuits, Pete. They’re the best.”
Pete rubbed oil on the hot grill with a damp rag.
“No getting Susie Dillon off theTriple Eight these days. We had her for a while, but once Paul got his act together, she moved back out there and only pays us short visits.”
Clarissa leaned forward. She’d been joking about the biscuits. Sort of.
“Susie worked for you?”
“Susie had to put food on the table for her and her kids. She did what needed doing. She and Joan Anderson both worked here during that time. They became good friends. In fact, that’s how Jed met his ex-wife. Bethany stayed summers in Stearns for years.”
Clarissa knew Bethany spent summers with Joan. She didn’t realize the problems between Susie and Paul had led to Susie’s friendship with Joan, but she knew Pete wouldn’t talk out of turn, so she finished her coffee, cleaned up the small mess and headed to the back for her apron.
At the end of the first breakfast rush she poured Mrs. Norene and Lester more coffee marveling at how happy the newlyweds were together.
“You feeling better, Mrs. Norene?”
Mrs. Norene held out her leg. “Almost completely better. Lester takes me to water therapy in Shawnee every morning before breakfast.”
“Water therapy, huh? That’s cool.”
“She’s healing faster than people who’ve lived through tornadoes usually do according to the doctor,” Lester said with obvious pride.
The bell above the door jingled and she turned to see Paul and Jed walk in, both dressed for work. Paul’s limp almost gone.
What she wanted to do was run across the diner to give Jed a hug and kiss. What she did was say “Hey y’all,” and walk toward them with a pot of coffee.
She was the only waitress on duty for the moment. In another hour one of the new girls Pete hired would come in for the lunch rush.
“We’re here on a mission,” Jed said as she poured their coffee.
“That sounds important,” she said, finishing up and pulling out her order pad. “You two eating breakfast?”
“Susie made french toast and sausage this morning,” Paul said. “No breakfast needed.”
Clarissa put away the order pad. “So this really is a mission?”
Jed sipped his coffee. “Momma wants you to come out for dinner tonight. My sister’s coming into town, and she wants to meet you. Momma’s afraid she’ll accost you here at the diner if you don’t come out to the ranch.”
“Your sister wants to meet me?”
Jed laughed. “The whole family wants to meet you, but my sister will be here tonight. So what do you think? You up for dinner?”
Again the light and warmth and wonderfulness of her life wrapped around her. She laughed and teased, “I don’t know, Jed. That seems…”
Mid-sentence the bell jingled and a chill ran over Clarissa’s spine at the hard looks on Jed’s and Paul’s faces.
She turned, knowing without seeing who was there.
Only it wasn’t Abby and Donald Van Neys. It was the sheriff. And he held an official looking envelope in his hands as he headed toward their table.
“I’m real sorry about this, Jed, but these papers have to be served, and it’s my job to do the serving.”
Jed stood to take the envelope. “Don’t worry, sheriff. I know this isn’t your doing.”
When he sat, Clarissa wanted to take the papers from him, to keep them from hurting him, from hurting them.
But she couldn’t.
He opened the envelope and looked from her to his father and back.
“They filed for custody.”
“No judge is going to fall for that hogwash,” Paul said, an angry edge to his voice.
“They have a temporary order giving them visitation rights for now.”
“They could’ve had visitation rights any time in the last five years.” Paul’s voice grew angrier.
“It gets worse,” Jed said staring out the diner’s windows as if he couldn’t believe what he was reading.
“What’s worse?” The words were hers, but she almost didn’t recognize her voice.
He looked at her then, and she saw the hopelessness in his eyes. It scared her