Page 14

14

SUNNY

A nnabelle comes in around noon and Kane and I take a break and eat a quick lunch that Cookie made us. Chef salad with plenty of ranch dressing for me—(he knows it’s my favorite and he’s returning the favor for the honey buns)—and Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes, green beans, and a yeast roll for Kane .

We sit at the tiny table at the very back of the restaurant—the one that has a permanent, “reserved for Staff ” sign on it. No matter how busy we get, Cookie keeps that one free for his people. He doesn’t believe in letting us get run off our feet. That’s one reason Annabelle and I have stayed with him so long. He’s grumpy and crusty on the outside, but inside he’s a big softy.

Speaking of Annabelle , her eyes get wide when she sees my brother.

“Pleased to meet you— Sunny’s told me so much about you,” she says, holding out her hand.

Kane shakes and smiles politely.

“The same. You were one of her favorite people to write about.”

“Oh… I was?” Annabelle touches a hand to her blonde hair, done up in a French Twist in the back. She’s my best friend but she’s also kind of a flirt. In fact, I had been thinking that maybe she and Kane might hit it off and go out together.

The idea doesn’t seem to appeal to Kane though. He’s nice and polite but there’s no spark in his pale eyes when he looks at my friend, even though Annabelle is really pretty and way thinner than I am.

Then, just an hour after noon when the lunch rush is starting to slack a little, Charles comes in.

He’s in a brand-new candy-apple red Corvette this time— I see him through the window. His father lets him take whatever car he wants from the lot out for a test drive anytime he feels like it. I thought that was fun when we first started dating, but to be honest, it’s getting kind of old now. I’ve never exactly been a car person—all I care is that a vehicle gets me from point A to point B and it has AC in the summer and heat in the winter. But Charles isn’t like that—he always has to have the flashiest car.

He comes in, swaggering a little, looking around to see who saw him driving past the diner’s front window in the sleek Corvette . He’s dressed in golf slacks and a polo shirt—he must be hitting the links over in Clariton a little later.

Charles doesn’t really do regular work—he acts as a salesman for his dad sometimes but mostly he has enough free time to do what he wants. It must be a nice life— I have to admit I’m a little jealous. Of course, I love my job, but if I had as much time as I wanted, I’d be spending it going to college to earn a business degree so I can open my own bakery some day. That’s my big dream and I haven’t told it to anyone but Kane .

My big brother was supportive of the idea—which I appreciate. I’m afraid that if I tell anyone else, they’ll think I’m just having “pie in the sky” dreams—literally in this case, since I specifically want to open a pie and pastry bakery.

Anyway, I give Charles a peck on the cheek and get him seated at table three. I want to introduce him to Kane — I haven’t even told him that my big brother is in town yet. But Kane’s in the back washing dishes and I figure I can bring him out later. For right now, I ask my boyfriend what he wants for lunch.

“Something light, babe. Gotta watch it, you know?” He pats his stomach, which is fairly flat. As I said, he looks nice naked. But after seeing Kane without his shirt?—

No, I can’t think like that. Kane’s my big brother. I put a pin in it and suggest the Chef’s salad.

“I had it for lunch and it was great,” I tell Charles .

He frowns.

“I hope you left off the cheese and used the diet dressing, babe. You’re getting kind of chunky, you know?”

I bite back an annoyed retort. If I get mad at him, he’ll just claim he was kidding. Or he might say he was trying to watch out for my health. But just because I’m curvy doesn’t mean I’m not healthy! I’m on my feet all day baking and waitressing so it’s not like I don’t get any exercise. Besides , I’ve tried dieting—it doesn’t seem to do me any good. I’m just miserable for no reason since the scales never budge. I think I’d rather be curvy and happy.

But I don’t say any of this to Charles —it wouldn’t do any good. Instead I ask him again if he wants the salad and he shakes his head.

“Just bring me a BLT with fries on the side,” he orders.

“Got it.” Not exactly the lightest thing we have on the menu, but not the worst either. I turn to go but Charles grabs my hand and pulls me back to the table.

“Wait— I was meaning to ask you, how about I come over tonight? We haven’t had any fun for a while, if you know what I mean.”

He wiggles his eyebrows at me expressively and I suppress a sigh. Yeah , I know what he means—he wants to come over to my house so we can have sex. Only sex with Charles isn’t much fun at all—at least not for me.

To be fair to my boyfriend, sex with any guy isn’t much fun for me—it never has been. It’s not like I was hurt or attacked when I was a child or anything like that, though. It just doesn’t feel right. My body won’t get excited, no matter who I’m with.

I thought for awhile that I was a lesbian, but nope— I’m not attracted to girls either. So I guess I’m just one of those asexuals who doesn’t like sex. I mean, I can tolerate it—which is mostly what I do when I’m with Charles —but I never really enjoy it.

He doesn’t seem to notice, though. He thinks he’s doing everything right and I don’t have the heart to let him know that his kisses leave me cold and I’m just laying there counting the cracks in the ceiling when he’s going to town in the Missionary position.

So I’m not sorry at all to tell him “no” about tonight.

“Sorry, but my brother’s in town,” I tell him. “ I’m taking him shopping for some new clothes after work so I’m afraid I can’t have you over tonight.”

“Your brother?” His eyebrows shoot up. “ Babe —you mean the one that’s been in prison all this time?”

I wish I hadn’t told him that part of Kane’s story but it’s too late to take it back now.

“Yes, he’s getting his life turned around,” I say and smile. “ Look , let me go put in your order or you’ll never get to eat.”

I hurry towards the kitchen window but before I can get there, the bell above the door jingles and a group of three rough-looking men come in. They’re wearing work clothes that are grimy and covered in dust—possibly they work on a road crew somewhere or maybe they’re in construction. The three of them swagger in and look around.

“Hey,” one of them says to me. “ You serve anything decent in this joint, sweet thing?”

He seems like the kind of guy who would have those stupid “truck nuts” hanging off the hitch of his pickup but I’m never rude to customers.

“We certainly do,” I say brightly. “ Can I get you seated? You can look over the menu and see for yourself.”

“Yeah, okay.” He shrugs and they follow me to table two, right across from Charles .

I get them seated and hand out the menus, promising to come back with ice water in a minute.

“Nah—we don’t want water!” one of them says. “ Don’t you have any beer around here?”

“I’m afraid we don’t have a liquor license,” I tell him. “ Though we do have kind of a boozy pie on the menu today—it’s made with Kahlua . We call it the ‘ Do Me Dirty Pie ’.” I add.

“Hmmm, I wouldn’t mind doing you dirty, sweet thing,” the first man says, giving me the eye. “ I love a chick with a fat ass!”

I cast a quick look at Charles to see if he’s going to say anything but he’s got his head down, studying his fingernails as though there’s something fascinating about them. Fine , so I’m on my own.

“I don’t appreciate personal remarks,” I say tartly. “ Please keep a civil tongue in your head. I’ll be back shortly with your water.”

“I told you, we don’t want no fucking water!” the first man snaps, glaring at me. “ What I want is a piece of that fat ass—which is compliment, girly!”

Before I can say anything about how I don’t appreciate “compliments” like that, he reaches out and grabs my ass in one grimy hand, no doubt leaving a mark on my powder blue uniform. Not that it’s my uniform I’m most concerned with at the moment.

“Hey!” I gasp and jump away from him. “ That’s it—out!” I point at the front door.

By this time the restaurant has fallen silent. It’s so quiet I can hear the sports radio that Cookie keeps on in the kitchen while he cooks. Everyone is staring at me and the rude men. Well , everyone but Charles , who’s still studying his fingernails like they hold some mysterious secret he needs to decipher.

“Out?” The man’s lip curls in an arrogant sneer. “ I don’t think so, sweetheart—you haven’t even served us yet.”

“And I’m not going to!” I snap. “ I don’t serve people who lay hands on me. Get out now!”

“Who’s going to make me?” he demands.

Cookie must have heard the altercation, because he comes out from the kitchen, his cook’s whites flapping.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” he demands, frowning.

“This man grabbed my butt,” I tell him, pointing at the ringleader. “ So I told him to leave.”

“That’s a mouthy little bitch you got waiting tables here, grandpa,” the man drawls at Cookie , clearly not worried in the least. “ You need to fire her, talking to paying customers like that.”

“You’re no customer of mine if you’re laying hands on my staff,” Cookie snaps. “ Get out of here—we don’t need ‘customers’ like you.”

The man and his friends just sit there.

“I don’t think so,” he says. “ We came in here for lunch and we’re not leaving hungry—this is the only place to eat for miles.”

“You should have thought of that before you harassed my waitress,” Cookie says. “ Now get out or should I call the cops?”

The man laughs.

“Call the cops? Right —like you have a police department in a little shit-stain of a town like this! We’re not going anywhere until we get some lunch and an apology. Your girl there was pretty rude to us.”

Now we have a stand-off and I’m not sure what to do. The three men just sit there, glaring at Cookie who is glaring right back. He’s a good boss, backing me up like this, but he’s also in his late sixties. There’s no way he could win in a fight against the rude, grimy ringleader—let alone all three of them.

“You gonna serve us old man?” the ringleader demands. “ Or am I gonna start fucking shit up around here?”

“How about a third option—you and your friends get the fuck out of here.”

I look over and see that Kane has appeared and is striding towards us. He shoots me a look.

“Sorry, baby— I was out back, taking out the trash. But it looks like we have more trash up here that needs taking out.”

The three men take a look at him and their faces change from arrogance to unease. I can’t say that I blame them. Kane looks huge looming over their table.

He has taken off the apron he had on earlier and the black t-shirt he’s wearing is soaked—probably from washing dishes—and clinging to his muscular torso like a second skin. The sleeves are high enough that you can see his tattoos. His big body is coiled with tension and his hands are curled into fists at his sides. He looks like a man who’s spoiling for a fight.

“Hey, man,” the ringleader says uneasily. “ We just came in for lunch—that’s all.”

Kane looks at me.

“What did they do?”

“Talked nasty and grabbed my ass,” I tell him. “ Look .” I nod at my uniform where, sure enough, there’s a grimy gray handprint on the powder blue skirt, right over my left butt cheek.

“What?” Kane’s face gets as dark as a thundercloud. “ Which one of them laid hands on you, baby? He’s going to fucking die.”

Now it’s my turn to be uneasy. What will happen if he gets in a fight and the authorities are called? Nothing good, I’m sure.

“No, Kane — please ,” I beg him softly. “ You don’t want to go back to prison!”

“ Prison?” The man who grabbed me now looks genuinely afraid.

“That’s right, asshole— prison,” Kane growls, leaning over him. “ And I don’t mind going back if it means I get to fuck up the bastard who grabbed my baby sister’s ass!”

The man’s face has turned as gray as his grimy work clothes and he holds up both hands in a “don’t shoot,” gesture.

“Look, man, I sincerely apologize,” he says in a wavering voice. “ I didn’t have any idea she was your sister.”

“But if I wasn’t around to protect her, then it was just fine for you to grab her?” Kane demands. “ Is that what you’re saying?”

“No! No , I didn’t mean it like that!” the man protests. “ Hey , just let us go—we’re leaving, all right?”

“You’re goddamned right you’re leaving, asshole!”

Kane grabs him by the collar of his dirty shirt and hauls him to his feet. He starts dragging the man towards the front door. The guy stammers and begs for his life the whole time and then Kane pushes him out and gives him a boot to the ass. With a muffled scream, the guy falls down the front porch steps and onto the sidewalk.

As soon as he’s done with the man who grabbed me, Kane turns to the other two men who are sitting silent at their table. Both of them look scared to death.

“Did either of you touch my baby sister?” Kane demands, his voice a harsh, almost inhuman growl of rage.

“No, man—no, we swear!” They hold up their hands in protest.

“Gary’s just an asshole,” one of them says. “ I told him before he shouldn’t fuck around like he does but he won’t listen!”

Kane looks at me for confirmation.

“Did either of these two touch you, baby?”

I shake my head.

“No—just the jerk you already threw out.”

“All right.” Kane nods at them. “ Then you can go. But don’t ever fucking come back here again! And tell your friend he’d better learn some manners or someone’s going to fuck his shit up permanently.”

The other two men hurry out the door, apologizing as they go and keeping a wary eye on Kane who’s standing there at the door like the biggest, scariest bouncer you ever saw.

They help the guy who grabbed me up—whose name is “ Gary ” I guess. He’s still lying on the sidewalk moaning that he fell wrong. Possibly he twisted an ankle because they have to grab him under the arms and drag him, half-hobbling, towards the parking lot.

“Shut your whining—your big mouth almost got us all killed!” one of them snaps.

And then they turn the corner and I can’t hear them anymore.

Kane closes the door firmly and comes back to me and Cookie , who’s been standing there, watching the whole altercation with wide eyes.

“Thank you for handling that,” he says to my brother. “ They were right—we don’t have any police around her for miles. It might have gotten ugly.”

“I wouldn’t have minded.” Kane still looks like a simmering pot just about to boil over. His jaw is tense as he looks down at me. “ You all right, baby? Are you sure you don’t want me to go fuck them up. Because I’ll do it. I’ll be happy to do it.”

The intensity in his pale eyes scares me a little. But I’m not afraid of him— I know my brother would never hurt me. I’m afraid for the three men he just kicked out of the diner. And I’m afraid of what might happen to Kane if he takes revenge for me. I don’t want him getting sent back to prison.

“It’s all right— I’m fine,” I say quickly. “ They were just jerks, that’s all.”

“Fucking assholes is what they were,” Kane growls. He puts an arm around my shoulders. “ Nobody fucks with my baby sister.”

I feel a rush of raw emotion so intense I can hardly say what it is. I haven’t felt so protected and safe since my Daddy died. I can tell that Kane would be willing to fight or die for me and it’s a powerful feeling.

“Thank you, big brother.” I say and press myself against him for a hug. Which unfortunately, gets the front of my uniform wet.

“Uh, sorry. Got you wet,” Kane remarks when I pull away. “ I was washing the dishes—the spray back there is fierce.”

“It’s okay—it’ll dry,” I assure him. “ Oh , while you’re out here, I have someone I want you to meet.”

I take his arm and pull him over to table two, where Charles is still sitting, looking kind of sheepish.

“Who’s this?” Kane asks, looking down at him.

“Kane, this is Charles , my boyfriend,” I tell him. “ And Charles , this is Kane —my big brother.”

Kane frowns and I can almost hear his thoughts. He’s wondering why my boyfriend sat by and let me get harassed without saying or doing anything. However he doesn’t say anything about it. He just holds out a hand to Charles .

“Good to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you from Sunny’s letters,” he rumbles.

Charles shakes reluctantly, I think. He clears his throat.

“Likewise. She told me she was writing to you in prison. I just had no idea you were about to be released.”

“Yeah well—here I am.” Kane spreads his arms. “ But right now, I’d better get back to the kitchen,” he says. He looks at me. “ You’re sure you’re all right, baby?”

“I’m okay,” I assure him, though to be honest, I still feel kind of shaken up. If Kane hadn’t stepped in, we might have had a really nasty altercation on our hands and it wasn’t like Charles was going to do anything about it.

Though to be fair to my boyfriend, he’s only about 5’9 and those three road crew workers would have eaten him for lunch if he’d tried anything. Still , he could have at least spoken up for me, I think, feeling resentful.

“Okay well—good to meet you, man,” Kane says to Charles . He heads back to the kitchen and the other customers go back to eating. Show’s over, folks—we can all relax.

“Well!” I take a deep breath and straighten my shoulders. “ I guess now I should finally put in your order,” I say to Charles .

But my boyfriend scowls at me as though he’s angry for some reason.

“Forget it,” he says shortly. “ I lost my appetite.”

“What? Why ?” I ask, but he doesn’t bother to answer. He rises abruptly from his table and pushes past me towards the door. “ Charles ?” I call after him, but he’s already gone, slamming the door behind him and making the little bell tinkle wildly, as though to announce his departure.

“Well, it looks like somebody’s got a bug up his butt,” Annabelle murmurs, coming up to stand beside me. I’m not sure where she was during the altercation with the workers—in the corner, maybe, keeping out of the action. Not that I blame her.

“Yeah, I don’t know what his problem is,” I remark, frowning.

“He’s probably mad that your big brother had the guts to come rescue you when he was too scared to do it,” she remarks, giving a disdainful sniff. “ I always said you were too good for him.”

“Now Annie , don’t be mean!” I say, frowning at her. But inside, I can’t help secretly agreeing with her. Even if he thought he might get his ass handed to him, Charles should have said something to defend me!

“Well, I guess we better get back to it,” Annabelle says. “ But you let your brother know I thought what he did was amazing. Not to mention freaking hot.” She fans herself with one hand and I laugh and nudge her with my elbow. But I have to admit, she’s right. Kane was so masterful just now and yes, I guess that is hot. Or it would be if he wasn’t my big brother.

Anyway, it’s time to get back to work. I push the confusing feelings I have away and go check on my tables. I’m sure everything is going to be just fine.