Sweet and Wild - Carmen Jenner Page 0,31
proud of you.”
I laugh, because I’m not sure we’re talking about the Winchester boys. With the exception of Wyatt, I doubt they’ve missed me all that much, and I guarantee they have no idea what I actually do in New York City. “You mean Wyatt’s been singing my praises, right?”
She purses her full lips. “Nope, West and Wade too.”
I frown, not entirely sure what to make of that information.
“You know I was real sorry to hear about your daddy. I would have been at the funeral, but I had this place to run.”
“Oh, it’s okay. I …” I’m not really sure what to say. I didn’t just run out on Colt and my family twelve years ago. I left my best friend without a word too. “It’s been a long time, Zadie. I’m real sorry I never returned your calls. I just … I needed a clean break.”
She gives me a wistful smile. “Broke a lot of hearts when you left, Lemon Winchester.”
I glance at the diner patrons still eyeing me warily as they pretend not to listen in our conversation. “I’m startin’ to see that.”
“I get it. What happened to you and Colt was just awful.”
I give her a tight smile, but I have no words. What happened between me and Colt was awful. Maybe we would have gotten through it or maybe we wouldn’t have, but now we’ll never know. I took that away from us. I broke us into a hundred thousand tiny little pieces, and it seems like me coming back made us shatter into a million more.
“I always thought wild horses couldn’t tear you two apart.”
“Yeah, well, now we can’t stand to be in the same room as one another.” I sigh and shake my head. “Enough about me. What have you been doing since high school?”
“Oh, nothin’ much. Just bought myself a diner, is all.”
My eyes grow as round as saucers. “The Buttermilk?”
“Yes, ma’am. I figured it was time to pay them back for all of those milkshakes and fries we ran out on without paying for as kids.”
I laugh. “Oh my God. I’d forgotten all about that.”
“Well Betty hadn’t. She almost wouldn’t sell me the damn place.”
I chuckle and turn to glance at the corner booth we always occupied in our teens. Irene Bennett glares back, and leans in to whisper to Wilma Withington over their coffee and pie. Looking over the rest of the diner’s patrons—several sets of eyes dart to their food or out the window abruptly. Some things never change. I was the talk of the town as a wild seventeen-year-old, and now that I’m a grown woman who has made something of herself, people are still damn talking.
I roll my eyes and turn back to Zadie before picking up my menu. “So, what’s good here?”
“Girl, you know everything is good here. You’ve been away too long.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lemon
Eighteen years old
I pace the floor of my tiny bedroom and stare at the object in my hand. Positive. I squeeze my eyes tightly closed and sit on my bed.
“Lemonade?” Wyatt bursts into my room. “Mama says …” He frowns, staring at the expression on my face and then his eyes slide to the pregnancy test in my hands.
“Oh, fuck!” For a minute he just stands there and stares, and then I start to cry and he closes my bedroom door and comes to sit by me on the bed. “What’s it say?”
“I’m pregnant.”
“Holy shit.”
“I’ve barely finished high school. I got plans for college.”
Wyatt frowns and pulls away. “What?”
“I got a scholarship for art school in New York.”
Wyatt shakes his head. “You’re leavin’? Since when? Do Mama and Daddy know about this?”
I shake my head. “No one does. I didn’t even know how to tell Colt.”
“But … you’re not leaving now, right? I mean, you can’t move to New York now that you’re pregnant.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know, Wyatt. I don’t know what the hell to do.”
“Lemonade?” Colt calls from the stairs, and Wyatt jumps to his feet.
“Shit. What do you want me to tell him?”
I wipe the tears from my cheeks and stash the pregnancy test under my pillow. “Nothing. He’s gotta find out sometime, right?”
“Wait, you’re gonna tell him with Mama and Daddy on the front porch?”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not stupid, Wyatt.”
“You’re righ—”
“Lemon?” Colt calls from the other side of the door and opens it wide. His smile dissolves instantly. “Darlin’, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Let’s just go.”
“Lemon?”
“Bye, Wyatt.” I jump up off the bed and grab Colt’s hand,