A chill drifted over Jenny’s bare arm, waking her. Pushing herself up onto her forearm, she felt a shooting pain in her neck that proved she’d fallen asleep in the wrong position and stayed that way for far too long. She rolled her head from side to side, but suddenly, age smacked her for a loop.
“Damn.” One glance at her wrist had her limbs flailing as she jumped out of bed. “Nine fifteen, shit.” A whore’s bath and a quick change of clothes later, she rushed into the diner, out of breath and overdue. “I’m so sorry, DeeDee. I, last night…”
She closed her eyes, remembering dragging out the suitcases, crawling onto her bed, and then, poof, it was morning and she was late for work.
The older woman rested her hand on her wrist. “Shh, dear. Lessy called me early this morning. She didn’t give me much information, but I have enough to draw some pretty straight lines between you and that young man you made a gourmet cup of coffee for, then refused to talk to again.”
“No! It wasn’t like that at all. No, no. No. Hell no. I just—I fell asleep before setting my alarm, and then, sorry… I have no excuse.” Jenny pressed the fingers of her free hand to her forehead. “And I am sorry, again. Yesterday? That was so unprofessional of me. It won’t happen again, DeeDee. I promise.”
“That’s not the response I’m looking for, young one. It’s time for you to open your heart. And I believe the Goddess and Fate might be taking things into their own hands—even if it is clearly against your will.” She chuckled.
Jenny faced her boss, reading anything she could in her gaze, the lines around her eyes, the smile gracing her face. “Shouldn’t they have bigger problems to deal with than my lack of a social life? I mean, seriously, the green goop, now that was a giant issue. That was where their help was needed. Definitely not dealing with my trivial crapola.”
“Trust me, they were in Zelda’s corner from day one. Who do you think brought her to this town?”
Wanda walked through the swinging kitchen doors, her eyes wide. “Thank the Goddess above you’re here.”
“I’m so—”
“No, no.” Her other boss brushed off her second apology of the morning. “I have a huge favor. I totally forgot to ask you days ago, but Bobo Baby Boy begged me for your chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips in them with chocolate frosting on top. I meant to ask if you had time to whip up a batch, because he’s been working so hard at zapping his toys up after playing, I promised him some as a reward, and it completely slipped my mind. I’d just have you zap them, but that child, I swear, he’s the only one in this entire realm who can tell the difference between you snapping your fingers and actually stirring flour and sugar together by hand. I’m so sorry to be a pain in your patoot.” Wanda held Jenny’s upper arms.
There was desperation and panic in her voice, both of which would have been laughable if her boss weren’t so starkly serious. “Wanda, of course I’ll make that kiddo anything you give permission for. That’s never even an ask. You know I love him. When do you need them?” Wanda bit her lip without answering. “So, a couple of days ago?”
“More like…a week ago?” Wanda released Jenny’s arms and laid her palms over her heart. “I feel awful, and he didn’t even remind me, I just smelled your muffins as I was walking in, and the whiff sort of slapped me upside the head, jogging my memory.”
“Go. The breakfast rush wasn’t bad today.” DeeDee ushered her toward the door. “There’s nothing more important than bribing children with sweets for good deeds. Just maybe add in an extra baker’s dozen if you have enough ingredients. My mouth is definitely watering now. Please?”
Jenny grinned. “Yes, ma’am. It’d be my pleasure. Again, I’m so sorry I was late for my shift.”
“Late for work is nothing when it comes to a tidy bedroom, my dear. You’ll understand someday,” Wanda said as she nudged her toward the diner’s front door.
“You two, you make me laugh. I promise to add extras, and I’ll hurry back as soon as they’re cooled enough to frost and box up.”
A round of thanks in unison had Jenny smiling as the hands at her back kept her headed in the direction of fresh air.
“Lessy, don’t bother calling the diner, honey. Jenny just jogged by. She must have forgotten something at home. We can just go over there instead,” Bill said from their living room.
Joshua’s nerves started to tingle. “Are you both really sure I should go with you? I think maybe it sounds safer if I just stay here and keep my mouth shut.”
“If I didn’t know better—oh wait—I do. I think your woodie is involved in that train of thought.”
“Oh my Goddess, Bill,” Joshua pleaded. “We had a deal, never repeat that horrifically visual nickname ever again. It was bad enough in college, but we’re grown adults now.”
“One of us is. The other is begging to hide from a girl.”
Fuck a duck.
He was seriously hiding from a girl—a woman. In all his last few decades, Joshua couldn’t think back to when he’d lost all his bravado around the opposite sex. He was not a playboy, but he was normally cool under pressure, and playing hard to get was his specialty. The girl next door—literally—had turned him into a tongue-tied, bumbling buffoon of a lunatic. They were in this mess purely just to apologize on his behalf, and he wanted to transport home so bad, his fingers were itching to simply snap and make it so.
He clenched his hands into fists, preventing the quick snap his fingers were about to subconsciously do. His brain, nerves, body, and libido were all at war with each other, and he seriously was about to ask if he should see a doctor. He’d never had an out-of-body experience, and if this was what it was like, he was going to scream. Joshua had never considered himself a control-freak, type A personality. However, having control over his own damn body was an absolute must, and right now, he felt completely off his rocker.
“Sit down.” Lessy pushed him backward, forcing him onto their living room sofa. “You are pale as all get-out and dripping with sweat. Bill, go get a wet cloth. Are you all right, Joshua? Should we call someone, Bill?”
“So I’m not crazy?” Joshua asked.
“About what?” Lessy asked.
“I just don’t feel, I don’t know—right. Is this what a panic attack feels like? Or maybe a heart attack?”
“Or maybe you just need to grow up and quit acting like a teenager. This is what it feels like to actually give two shits about someone. Not like your life back home.” Bill looked straight at him, his finger pointing at his chest. “You’re invested!”
Joshua could almost feel his friend’s touch like a jab to the heart. It was in his head, but Bill had nailed him.
“You like her. I’ve never seen you fall apart about a woman before. You are sunk—and over a woman you know almost nothing about except what Lessy’s filled you in on.” Bill shook his head as a smirk appeared, lining his face in absolute understanding.
“Why didn’t you just say so?” Lessy asked. “This is way more dirt on you than Vivian was able to give me, and a total game changer. Now I know, one, not to kick your fancy-shmancy East Coast, label-wearing, high-dollar-cologne-smelling ass all the way back to fucking Vermont. And two—I can help you.” She placed her hand on her hip, her brow rising slowly as she studied him. “Although, it has been very interesting getting some inside scoop as Vivian does her investigating for me.”
Joshua had never felt such scrutiny in his life. Not from even the most well-known celebrities or dignitaries who traveled with bodyguards with the ability to snap a neck without so much as breaking a sweat. Bill’s pint-sized wife was reducing him to the middle school kid he used to be, the one with money and no friends, the one with no confidence in his voice, himself, or his place in the mortal world. And he hated it. He’d struggled his entire high school career and into college to morph into the man he’d become.
He dropped his chin to his chest, unable to face her scrutiny a moment longer. “Yes,” he whispered. “I don’t understand it. I don’t know why. I don’t know her at all. But…yes. There, are you happy?”
“Very.”
Her cheerful voice made Joshua want to roll his eyes. His fingers started to twitch again, so he shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Let’s go,” Bill said, opening their front door.