“I’ll take anything at this point,” Justin said. “I just need to find something. I should be working during school, but I want to focus on my grades and then try to put money away over the summer, maybe even breaks. What is it?”

  “There is this cafe called Millie’s on the way to Duke. They are open Monday through Friday, six thirty to six. They need some summer help. I know the owner. She mentioned reaching out to the local high school and I said I might know someone.”

  “I’ve worked in fast food,” Justin said. “I’ve got experience doing stuff like that. I mean is it being a waiter or putting food together?”

  “Someone to take orders and put subs together. Wait on the counter for salads, cookies, donuts. Things like that,” Bryce said, feeling better that he thought of Justin, knowing the kid would put one hundred percent in for Payton if it worked out.

  “Easy. I can do that in my sleep. Do you know how many hours it might be?”

  “No clue. She said if you are interested, to stop in and see her either midmorning or midafternoon when it’s slower and she has her other staff there so you two can chat.”

  “Thanks. Should I go over tomorrow?” Justin asked. “I’ve got time before my class starts and I’ve seen it on the bus route before. I could get off and then get back on in time, I’m sure. I’ll check out the schedule to make sure.”

  Justin was already checking it on his phone and Bryce held back his grin. “I think that will work out. I can let her know to expect you if you think you are going to stop.”

  “Definitely,” he said. “I’ll be there around ten thirty tomorrow.”

  “I’ll tell her tonight.”

  Justin was putting on his backpack. “How do you know her? Can I ask? And who should I ask for? I should know that too.”

  “Payton. Ask for Payton Davies.” He hesitated and then said, “We’re seeing each other.”

  Justin nodded his head, gave his thanks one more time, and then left.

  Bryce was getting ready to shut his laptop down when his phone rang. He noticed it was his mother and then had to stop and think if he was supposed to be there for dinner tonight. No, he hadn’t been in a few weeks and she hadn’t called to ask him either. That was odd.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Bryce. How have you been?”

  “Busy. Just getting ready to leave work now.”

  “It’s after six,” she said.

  “I know. I got held up and I was just finishing up with one of my students. Are you calling to ask me to dinner?”

  His mother laughed on the other end. “I was going to. It’s been longer than normal and I figured you were getting ready with finals coming soon.”

  “I am. But I could always use dinner at home.”

  “How about tomorrow night?” she asked.

  “That works.”

  “Have you tried out Millie’s yet?” she asked him.

  “I have. I just refilled my gift card a few days ago.”

  There was another laugh on the other end. “I knew you’d like it there. I had a few of the donuts, and man, they melted in my mouth. I wanted to buy them all, but my hips wouldn’t have appreciated the joy my mouth was getting.”

  “I haven’t tried the donuts yet, but I’ll do that next time. I’ve been going in and getting a hot breakfast a few times a week.” He’d been there again this morning and got a killer bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. “I’ve grabbed a few subs and salads for lunch to go or dinner on the way home.”

  “Sounds like I did a good job with the place.”

  “You did.”

  There was a pause and he was wondering what could be going on in his mother’s mind, until she said, “Ryder was here last week and said you were going on a date over the weekend. Some nice professor you met at work?”

  He sighed. Damn Ryder always running his mouth. Annoying little brother traits that would never end. “Yes, I went on a date. No one from work.”

  “Who was it then?” his mother asked. Nosy as always.

  She was forever on his case to find someone with the same interests as him. The same field of study. Always telling him that with as much attention and energy as he put into his career he’d have to find some woman that shared that with him. He wasn’t so sure about that now that he met Payton.

  “Actually, I went on a date with Payton Davies. The owner of Millie’s.”

  “Hmm,” his mother said. “How did that go? What could you two possibly have in common?”

  “It went well,” he said, frowning and feeling the need to defend Payton. Why did everyone always have to judge who he dated? Or was it because, as he’d realized before, he never put much effort into it and everyone knew that? Something he’d have to consider and evaluate another time. “We have a lot in common.”

  “Like what?” she asked.

  “Well, she works harder than I work, I can tell you that much. She cooks and I eat.” His mother laughed at that one. “We like sci-fi movies.”

  “Interesting. Are you going on another date with her then?”

  “Friday we are getting together,” he said, then realized he was saying more than he wanted to. “I’ve got another call coming in,” he lied to her and didn’t feel the least bit guilty over it. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” Then he disconnected the call.

  ***

  “What was that, Diane?” Grant asked when she burst out laughing.

  “Bryce. I wanted to see if he’d checked out Millie’s yet and then when Ryder said he had a date, I was curious if my plan was working.”

  “And?” Grant asked. “It’s like pulling teeth with you at times.”

  “Seems it is. Said he’d been there enough times that he had to refill his gift card. I gave him enough for plenty of visits, so something has him interested in more than food.”

  “Or it could just be the food. Did Bryce say who he had a date with?”

  “He said Payton. I had to pretend like I was shocked over it. No reason to let him think I would agree they had interests in common, so I asked how it was going.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Said they had mutual interests. Listed a few things, then thought he was being so smart by saying he had another call coming in and hung up on me.”

  Grant laughed. “He always does that and doesn’t realize we’d hear if there was another call. Did I hear you ask him to dinner tomorrow?”

  “You heard correctly. Guess I’ll have to get some more out of him tomorrow then.”

  “Just be gentle with him. No reason to push too much this early on with Bryce. You know he’s a bit more sensitive about how smart he is and how much time he spends on his career.”

  She turned and frowned at her husband of thirty-seven years. “I know my boys well. Don’t worry about me.”

  “I’m not worried about you as much as I am you’ll put your foot in your mouth and then won’t be able to extract it fast enough before you start to suffocate.” He started to rub his hands together, so she narrowed her eyes. “Of course I’m waiting for you to be wrong and let me have my hand at this matchmaking.”

  “Start working on Ryder then. You work with him; you know him better.”

  Grant burst out laughing. “Please! Ryder is your baby and up your butt more than the other two. How you think I’m going to find him someone is beyond me.”

  “Then start working on it now. Geez, Grant. Don’t leave me with all the hard work.” She turned on her heel and walked out of the room, smirking the whole way.

  She Was Good At

  Thursday afternoon, Payton was in the back mixing donut batter when she glanced up and saw her mother walking in the front door. Thankfully Kelly was still working for another thirty minutes.

  “Hi, Mom,” she said when her mother came in the back.

  “Payton. I thought I’d get a sub for dinner tonight and some salad.”

  “Help yourself,” she told her mother.

  “Can Kelly make it for me?”

  “She’s busy right now, as you can see, but if you wait I’m sure she’ll do it before she leaves; otherwise you’ll have to wait until I can do it or make it yourself.”

  “I might as well make it myself before I leave. I like extra oil on my sub anyway.”

  Payton smiled. Her mother was so wishy washy about everything in life. It was no wonder that her parents fought so much or that her mother couldn’t handle caring for her father.

  Not that her mother was to blame for anything that went on with her father. Her mother did the best she could, Payton knew that. You can’t talk an addict off the ledge when they felt the answer to their problems was in a bottle or a pill.

  What her mother could have done was cushion the remarks her father made to her over the years. Comments and statements that were done long before he turned to artificial pain relief. When she struggled in school early on, no one made an attempt to really find out what the cause was, but rather just assumed she wasn’t that smart.

  There wasn’t anything she could do about it now and she wasn’t going to stress over it either. Kelly said that she was always happy and that was because she told herself she had to be.

  She was sick of always feeling sorry for herself. Always letting what others said to or about her dictate the way her life went.

  She was twenty-six years old now—an adult– and she could support herself and run her own business. She’d been on one date with a hot smart guy that seemed really into her and she was going on another tomorrow.

  She just needed to make sure he didn’t find out about her disability.

  The last thing she wanted was for him to know she struggled to read and write. To add numbers up. Not someone as smart as him. It’d be an embarrassment if people who knew him found out about her, she was positive.

  “How’s business been?” her mother asked her, as Payton wiped down the counters. She was always cleaning. It was a pet peeve of hers and it used to drive her Aunt Millie nuts too. Aunt Millie just brushed things clean when they got in the way.

  Not Payton, she cleaned up after everything she made.

  Maybe it was the fear that she struggled so much in other parts of her life that she was terrified of messing up the one thing she thought she was good at.

  Yes, fear was a strong motivator in life.

  “It’s been great. I just interviewed a college kid this morning who is going to start working this summer when he is done with finals.”

  “Full time?” her mother asked. “Can you afford that?”

  “Not full time. Kelly and I can handle the mornings, but lunch and afternoons get busier in the summer. I’ll have him working anywhere from thirty hours or more some weeks. Depends. Either way, he seemed like a good kid and a go-getter with food service experience.”

  “Hopefully he pans out for you,” her mother said. “Most kids don’t last a week, it seems.”

  “I think he’ll be fine. He was recommended to me and I don’t believe this person would have suggested him if he didn’t think Justin had what it took.”

  She hadn’t thought to bring up Bryce’s name, but now that she said what she did, she might not have a choice.

  “That only works if the person who recommended him knows you well enough and how fast you want people to work.”

  She sighed. Her mother made it sound like she was a horrible person because she had expectations out of her staff. “I believe this person knows me well.”

  “So who is she?” her mother asked.

  “What?”

  “You said this person knows you well, I asked you who she was?”

  “He,” Payton said. Might as well get it out there. “It’s a guy that recommended him.”

  Her mother frowned like she always did when Payton mentioned men. Like she thought Payton should be single her whole life like her mom was now or grab a man to elevate her in life. “Someone that comes in here?”

  “Yes. And we’ve been on a date. We’re going on another.”

  “Payton,” her mother said, crossing her arms, getting ready for the lecture. “How many times have I told you not to date your customers. You don’t know anything about them. They could be some serial killer.”

  She burst out laughing. Her mother had said a lot of things in life that Payton stopped listening to. “Not in this case.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Well, if he was one, then you’d know since you know his mother.”

  “Who is it?” her mother asked.

  “Bryce Fierce. Diane’s son. She bought the gift card for him and he’s been in here a lot. We’ve talked and went on a date. We’re going on another tomorrow.”

  “Do you think that is a good idea?” her mother asked. “Her kids are all smart and well...you have that issue.”

  Leave it to her mother to put her down again. To make her feel like crap, as if she didn’t already feel like she wasn’t worthy enough to begin with.

  “Yes, Bryce is smart. He’s the professor at Duke. And since I’m not in college and he isn’t teaching me and I’ve managed to run my business successfully for a good year, I’d think that makes me smart enough. It’s not like I’m going to read a book to him.”

  “A good thing or he’d know right away with the way you stumble.”

  Maybe it wouldn’t have helped if her mother cushioned things back then. It seemed she couldn’t do it now. “Just let it go. We have a lot in common and it’s new yet. I like him and it seems he likes me. Why can’t it be that simple?”

  “Because it’s never that simple,” her mother said. “And I work with Diane. My God, she is going to be gabbing about this to me now. Does she know?”

  Leave it to her mother to turn it around to be about her. “I have no idea. I hadn’t planned on telling you, so please don’t mention it to her. If it comes up with Bryce I’ll let him know you know.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t be saying anything if I can avoid it. The less I’ve got to talk to Diane about the better.”

  “I don’t get it,” Payton said. “I thought you liked her. You’ve never said anything bad about her or anyone in school before.”

  Her mother might be bitter, but she wasn’t a complete bitch to people that she knew of.

  “I get along with everyone because I make sure I do. Life is easier that way. But she talks all the time. She has the perfect life is all. It’s annoying. It gets on my nerves,” her mother said, turning to walk out and toward the counter where she could make her sandwich.

  It seemed more like her mother was jealous than anything else.

  ***

  Bryce pulled into his parents’ driveway at five thirty, the same time as his father. “You’re on time,” his father said when he got out of the car.

  “I made sure I was watching the clock.” Something he’d been doing a bit more lately so he wasn’t late with Payton. Nothing like starting out on the wrong foot with someone, even if he did forewarn her he was late a lot.

  His father laughed at him. “Your mother will be happy and I can go start the grill right now. We’re just having steaks, I believe, and she made some salad or something and cornbread.”

  He loved cornbread. It was one of his favorite things. “Sweet,” he said, knowing he’d get leftovers.

  The two of them made their way into the house where his mother was putting a tossed salad on the table with some meats and cheeses in it. He planned on digging right in while his father manned the grill.

  “Look at you two walking in at the same time,” his mother said.

  “I’m hungry. I didn’t want to be late.”

  His mother handed him over a plate and he dished some salad up while his father went right to the deck to start the grill, then came back and walked to his room, probably to change.

  “How was your week?” his mother asked. “Are you getting ready for finals?”

  “It’s been good. Yeah, grading papers and setting up finals. It will be nice to have the break this summer.”

  “Are you teaching at all this summer, or taking the time off to work on your thesis?”

  “I’ve got two classes scheduled for the summer. You know I go nuts if I’m not doing something.”

  His mother walked over and patted him on the head. “You spend just as much time on campus working on your lessons for the next semester anyway.”

  It was sad but true. “Which is why I said I’d teach two classes.”

  “Maybe you should travel a little this summer. You never do anything fun. Go visit your cousins again. You had a blast that week at the brewery.”

  “I’ve thought of it,” he said. But now he was seeing Payton and knew she couldn’t get time off, so the thought of being gone for a week held no appeal.

  And of course he was getting way ahead of himself to even think that.

  By the time he was ready to leave, he was shocked his mother hadn’t brought up his date once. He didn’t know what to make of that and wondered if that meant she didn’t approve.

  Part of him almost brought it up to see her reaction, but then he’d told himself to not go there. He didn’t really want to know her opinion anyway. Not when she’d already questioned what they could have had in common.

  So instead he went home and made sure his place was clean, even though he knew it was. Anything to kill the time until tomorrow night.

  ***

  “I can’t believe you didn’t bring up his date,” Grant said to his wife. He’d seen her twitching in her seat multiple times as if she had bugs biting her butt and knew it had to be killing her to not get up and scratch that itch.

  “Do you know how hard it was to not say anything?”

  “I’m pretty sure I do,” he said, grinning at her. “So why didn’t you?”

  “Because he didn’t. He brought it up yesterday and I thought for sure if he wanted to talk about it today he would have.”