The Prince's Resistant Lover Page 0,9

painfully slow search. She was working on a new program that would speed up the process, but so far, she’d run into glitches.

“Honey, you’ve got to get a life,” Linda admonished. “I was so excited this morning, hoping that you’d actually gotten a man. The one yesterday that was sitting in the booth over lunch time, actually. Now he seemed like the kind of man who knew his way around a bedroom,” she chuckled. Thankfully, Linda was filling up salt shakers and looking down, so she didn’t see the blush that covered Wyndi’s neck and cheeks as she filled the napkin dispensers.

She cleared her throat. “I’m not looking to have fun until I’ve found my brother.”

Linda stopped and put the salt shaker down. The older woman – with her bleached blond hair and bright pink lipstick – might look like a tacky, Hollywood version of a truck stop waitress, but she had a warm heart that was filled to bursting with the need to care for every person who crossed her path. And right now, the main person in her path was Wyndi. “Darlin’, what if you never find your brother? What if this…thing…you’ve created just doesn’t work?”

Wyndi had asked herself the same question and the answer terrified her. She refused to think about the possibility that she was alone in the world. She and Royston had been siblings who’d fought and yelled at each other, but he’d always been there for her as well. She knew that he had a temper and was stubborn, but if he’d gotten into trouble because of it, she’d find him, get him out of whatever trouble he was in and they’d be a family again. The foster care system had torn them apart after their parents had died in car crash, and the result had been a nightmare for her and her brother. They’d been separated, placed in separate families at a time when she’d desperately needed her big brother. She rapidly blinked back the tears that formed at the memories. She was scared for Royston, thinking his temper might have gotten him in trouble, maybe even in prison. He’d been so hotheaded as a kid!

“If this doesn’t work, then I’ll find something else that will. We were separated after our parents’ died, but he was a good guy. I know he’s also out there looking for me. Somehow, some way, we’ll cross paths. I just know it.”

Linda gave Wyndi a gentle hug, then picked up all the refilled shakers and set them back onto the tables. “Well, I think you should have a bit of fun while you’re searching. What’s wrong with enjoying life even while you’re digging through files for a clue?”

Deegan Hunter, one of the dock workers turned around and smiled brightly. “I agree, honey. I can help you with that!” he chuckled.

Wyndi laughed softly, shaking her head at Deegan’s renewed ploy to get her to go out with him. “Not in this lifetime, Deegan.”

“Ah, honey, you’re just not giving me a chance.”

Wyndi turned to face the thirty-five year old divorced man. He had the demeanor of a grizzly bear at times, but really was just a giant teddy bear. “Deegan, you stop smoking for a month, and then we’ll talk. Deal?”

Deegan’s hand automatically went to his pocket where his second pack of cigarettes for the day was stored. His face was almost comically horrified and he shook his head. “I think you’re lying,” he came back to her.

Wyndi laughed and shrugged her shoulders. “I might be,” she challenged. “But then again, we might have the most wonderful date imaginable.”

Deegan’s eyes widened with hope. “What if I went down to just one pack a day?” he offered, trying to get her to compromise.

Wyndi instantly shook her head. “No deal. Those cigarettes are going to kill you and you’ve got three kids to support. I know Nancy might even take you back if you quit smoking.”

Deegan’s eyes almost popped out of his head with that statement. He’d fallen in love with his wife in the eighth grade and he’d never hoped to meet another woman after that. But she’d kicked him out last year, demanding that he clean up his act or get out. He’d stopped drinking every night, but that meant his smoking had increased. The man simply had an addictive personality, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t figure out a healthier addiction to rely upon.

The afternoon wore on, but because waitressing wasn’t the most intellectually stimulating, she had plenty