The One Place (3 page)

Chapter 6

I had spent the rest of the morning walking, stocking up on absolutely do or die supplies, and locating the diner Ruthie talked about. Not wanting to go to the diner for a few more hours, I wandered over to the playground and park area that was on the opposite side of the street from the diner. I sat down on the bench and laid my head back, just soaking up the sun. It felt good to just relax and let the sun heal me from the inside out.

I had always loved the sun and the way it seemed to warm you all the way into your bones if you sat and soaked it up long enough. Kayla and I used to sit out in it all the time when I was younger. We were never the kids inside on the couch watching TV. We both leaned towards being tomboys and loved to catch minnows in the creek, wrestle, and toss a ball around.

I didn’t grow up in New York. I grew up in small-town Georgia. I went to New York to try to make something for myself in a career. I look back on that as such a foolish move. I loved the life of a small town, but when I got to New York, I met Jenny. The rest just kind of fell into place. I missed my parents and Kayla, but not enough to leave Jenny in a time of need. I put them on the back burner, temporarily, so that I could help my friend. Unfortunately, temporarily turned into permanently pretty easily and I had no Jenny to show for it. I chose not to believe in it being my destiny because if that was the case, destiny was a real cruel bitch.

Curious as to how my plan had turned out, I got up from my bench and walked across the street and down four store fronts to a little internet cafe. Talk about going back in time. It had been a long time since I used a place like this for internet access. These days, back in the heavily populated world of New York City and the like, there was free wifi everywhere and everyone had their own devices for using it.

I paid my fee at the register, walked over to my computer and signed on. As I waited for it to boot up, I tried to calm my nerves. I needed to see how much time I was going to have and if I was going to have to alter my plans. If things hadn’t gone the way I had hoped they would, I would have to leave Joplin and find a way to get my family safe. Andrew would be after me
and
them if he found out I left because of willpower instead of a bomb.

I pulled up the search engine and typed in New York explosion with the date, and after scanning through a few articles got what I was looking for:
Natalie Dalton, Fiance of Business Mogul, Andrew Highland, Presumed Dead in Coffee Shop Disaster.
Just reading the headline made me feel sick to my stomach. That was exactly what I wanted but you could never guess how freaky it is to read your own death announcement in a news article. You’re supposed to be gone for that part, hopefully floating off to a better place with pretty scenery, white-clad angels, Morgan Freeman as God, and all of your dead loved ones.

That was all I could take. I immediately cleared my search history for good measure, shut the computer down, and got the hell out of there.

********

I had a little more time to kill so I went back over to the park and laid on the ground on my back looking up at the sky. I let my introspection lead me where it always did.

I hoped that heaven really was like that and that Jenny had gone there and found peace. Where ever she was, it had to be better than where she was coming from.

Chapter 7

I walked into the diner Ruthie had told me about when I met her, determined to leave there with a waitressing job. A lot of people would probably say that my last job was the good one. That working here waitressing would be a huge step down. But not me; I wasn’t a lot of people. Besides the fact that this is the type of job I would have to go for since I had no past- or one I was willing to talk about or explain, anyway- it was the job I wanted. I wanted a simple job in my simple life. I wanted to talk to people day in and day out and share experiences through them. Find out about their jobs, families, and troubles. That was the person I was. The real me. I loved people and I loved living. I wanted to live as many lives, through as many people as I could and waitressing was a great way to do that. At least it was in a place like this.

From the little time I had spent here, I could tell Joplin, Tennessee was a town that embraced people. Waitressing for these people wasn’t just a service. They wanted you to know them, and they wanted to know you. I could at least get on board with the first part. As for knowing me, they would. Just not the past. In fact, they would probably know me better than anyone had ever known me before. I didn’t have to be meek, worn-down Talie anymore. I could be the
real
me, just Talie.

“Natalie! Hey! I’m so glad you came. I already talked to John and he says if he meets you and you’re not a total moron, the job’s yours!”

“Hey Ruthie. That’s great. I guess I’ll turn down the moron today then.”

Ruthie looked a little confused, but smiled nonetheless. She was nothing if not upbeat in the face of her confusion since I had met her. I liked her so much already. She wasn’t the sharpest tack, but she had a heart of gold.

“Did you find a place to stay yet? I know I don’t have a lot of space, but I will work something out if you need me to, girl.”

See? Absolute heart of gold. I smiled at her and answered, “That’s ok Ruthie. I don’t quite have it worked out yet, but I’m working on it.”

“I have a bed at my house if you’re looking for a place to stay.”

I turned my head from my new friend Ruthie to see the most attractive man I had ever seen. I’m sure someone might have a differing opinion, but if she’s out there, I would like to meet her. Tall with dark brown, roughly-spiked hair (the kind of hair that some guy in a magazine spent hours getting from a crew of people, but naturally, as if he was just born with the perfect hair), slightly faded levi’s with just the right tightness factor, a tight black t-shirt that stretched over all the right muscles and dark brown workboots. That was just the beginning. His arms were the perfect mixture of unbelievably built but not too bulky, with pronounced veins in his forearms leading down to his perfect long-fingered hands. As my eyes worked their way over his body and up to his face, I almost gasped. A strong jaw led into a perfect smile with straight, white teeth, a perfect nose and then the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. They were a blue-green with a rim of perfect gold outlining his pupils and little flecks of brown danced throughout the blue-green color like glitter.

I finally pulled out of my beauty-induced stupor long enough to realize that I had yet to give this god-like man a response.

“Oh, thanks, that’s nice of you, but I don’t even know your name.”

“Tucker Cody.”

Well, great. I didn’t mean I literally needed to just know his name. Geez. Who was this guy?

“Well, thanks again, but all the same I’m not real big on taking someone’s spare bed who I’ve just met and have no real information about. I appreciate the offer though.”

I turned back to Ruthie, ready to continue our conversation, but apparently Tucker wasn’t done with me.

“I wasn’t talking about a spare bed, and don’t worry, I don’t even need to know your name.”

What an asshole! Was this guy serious?! Jesus. If this is the kind of men I was going to meet in this town, I was beginning to think I was screwed.

I had to shake this guy. I wasn’t ready for this, even though he was incredibly, unbelievably, deliciously hot. So, I decided that my disgust is what he wanted. He was trying to get a reaction out of me. So I gave him the opposite: a calm reply. A definite no to his invitation, but a calm one all the same.

“Sorry, I don’t ever share a bed with anyone because I’m prone to nightmares.”

Something flickered in his eyes and he gave me the biggest, most playful grin I have ever seen and went right on with his game, not in the least deterred by my attempts to deflect him.

“That’s ok, I’m a sufferer too. I’m prone to night-horniness. Just pin me down and stroke me and I’ll be ok. I’m sure there’s a similar solution to your problem.”

I struggled, fighting with all I had, trying to suppress my grin. But it was a battle fought in vain. “Charming.”

The way he spoke to me could have easily been offensive, but with Tucker Cody, it just wasn’t. You could tell he was the kind of man who had a lot of women and enjoyed them,
thoroughly
. But he would never touch a woman if it was unwanted. Lucky for him, with the way he looked and a smile that dropped panties, it was rarely unwanted. If ever.

Still flashing an all out smile he said, “That’s what they say.”

Fighting the pull of Tucker Cody was going to take some work. “I’m pretty sure you’re trouble.”

“Not usually. But for you...maybe. What was your name?”

“I thought you didn’t need my name.”

“Changed my mind.”

“It’s Natalie. Natalie...Jenkins. People call me Talie...or Nat, whatever.”

Shit
. I was going to have to work on that. I planned and planned for this. I decided to keep Natalie because I figured there was no way I could easily transition to people calling me some other name. It would be too obvious not answering or acting weird all the time, so I decided to give myself that. There had to be tons of Natalies out there so I figured that was safe. I chose Jenkins as my new last name because it was my grandfather’s first name. I figured it would be easy to remember and get used to. What I should
not
be doing is almost saying my former last name, or giving out my unusual nickname that Jenny gave me all willy-nilly. Jesus. Get it together Natalie. There was just something about this guy that made me less censored with my responses, and that was definitely the last thing I needed to be.

As I brought myself back to this world and looked back up at Tucker, I caught him mouthing my nickname quietly to himself as if rolling it around in his head. Yep, this guy was definitely trouble.

“Natalie Jenkins. I’ll be sure to remember that.”

With that, he turned on his boot, said “Ruth” with a chin nod of familiarity, to her reply of “Tuck”, gave a few chin lifts and a flick of his fingers and he was gone.

Chapter 8

When Tuck left the diner, it was all I could do to get Ruthie not to talk about him. I just wasn’t ready to go there. I had other more pressing matters to attend to like making sure I could feed, clothe, and shelter myself. You know, little stuff.

I finally got Ruthie on topic and got her to take me to meet John, but not before she got out one statement that I could tell was killing her to keep in.

“Nattie, I haven’t seen Tuck like that since...in a long, long time.”

Nattie? I guess that was my new nickname a la Ruthie.

As curious as that made me, I didn’t want to talk about this, not right then, so I held her eyes and gave her silence. She took the hint.

Needless to say, I got the job. Turns out John was so desperate for help as well as eye-candy, that whether I told him anything about myself or not was completely irrelevant. He said I could start working tomorrow morning during the breakfast shift and work as many shifts as I could handle after that. That was perfect for me. I had yet to find a place to stay, my money was dwindling, and I didn’t have any sort of a life outside of work yet, so spending my days earning a living and getting into a routine seemed like the ideal strategy.

After I got done talking to John and said my goodbyes to Ruthie, I set out for the hotel. It looked like I was going to be spending another night with good ole Jezzy, but that was okay. At least I had gotten a job that day, and the cash was going to be flowing in as well as out.

As I walked I thought of Jenny. After that first night that I walked in and heard Andrew yelling, I started trying to get to the bottom of what Jenny’s story was. How could such an awesome girl be with such a douche of a guy? It just didn’t make sense to me, so I figured there had to be more to the story. I had nowhere else to start in my investigation so one afternoon while we were out to lunch I asked Jenny, “Jen, how could you be with this guy? It just doesn’t fit. You’re so special and have so much love to give, both of which he seems to have no desire to explore.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, Jenny’s face paled to a shade of white I didn’t know was possible. With a tremor in her voice she whispered with fierce strength, “Talie, stop. Promise me you will let this go. I’m telling you, drop this. Please. You are too important to me and I don’t have enough people like that left.”

She was visibly shaken so I gave her what she needed. “I promise I’ll drop it, Jenny.”

She relaxed back into her chair like a heavy weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She believed me because I never lied to her or went back on a promise. Too bad that was about to change. But it was different this time. This was about getting Jenny safe and away from Andrew. Not to mention her plea had unearthed some new questions that I needed to get to the bottom of.

I walked into the hotel office fully prepared to be talked to death by Jezzy again. I smiled brightly as I approached the counter and said, “Jezzy, looks like you’re stuck with me again. I need my room for another night.”

Jezzy smiled back, shook her head, and answered, “No way. Sorry, I heard you got a job, so that means you are officially a resident of Joplin and residents don’t stay in the hotel.”

My face fell as I contemplated where in the hell I was going to stay tonight and what a ridiculous rule that was to have. And where was she getting all of this information? Must be Ruthie.

Desperate, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t above begging. “I really need the room, Jezzy. I’m going to pay again, obviously. Can’t you let me stay just one more night?” I almost pouted my bottom lip, but I thought that might be overkill.

Her face brightened in a way that said she clearly knew something I didn’t. “Oh no! I’m sorry Natalie, I didn’t mean to make you think I was kicking you out! I have another place you can stay. I know someone with a place that he rents out close to the diner, so it should be perfect for you! He already said it’s yours!”

That was awesome, but I didn’t have the money for a deposit or first month’s rent yet. “I really can’t afford to pay rent up front right now.”

She jumped up and down, bouncing her knockers in my face again and exclaimed, “That’s the best part! He says the first month you can stay there rent free and then pick up payments next month when you get on your feet! Isn’t that great?”

That did sound great. What it also sounded was suspicious. However, I was not in the position to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“It’s furnished, right? Because if it’s not I’m kind of-”

This time Jezzy cut me off and surprised me while she did it. “Screwed?”

Barking a startled laugh in her face, I responded, “Well...yeah.”

“Yeah, we thought about that! We asked around town, and everybody who had somethin’ extra sent it on over! It’s not anything special, but you should be set up for now.”

Feeling an aching warmth inside me from the kindness and generosity that Joplin was already giving me, I couldn’t stop the tears from forming in my eyes. I stopped them from falling, but it had been a long time since I had actually cried. Knowing there was no way I could really tell Jezzy how thankful I was or what a difference I felt in my life in just a couple of days, I just mumbled, “Thanks.”

Jezzy gave me directions and the key to my new apartment. I left the hotel, turned the corner, and walked back down the street, hooking a right at the park like she told me to. I spotted a dark grey, old (but in good shape) apartment building on just the other side of the park. It would only be a three minute walk to the diner for work, at most. It was perfect, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed it before when I had been soaking up the sun on the bench.

Once I found the specific apartment I was looking for (Luckily, it wasn’t hard. There were only three apartments in the whole building and they all sat in a straight row like attached townhouses.), I stuck my key in the lock and turned the knob. I opened the door, pulled my keys out and closed the door behind me. The first thing I noticed was that there were two strong-looking deadbolt locks on the door. I turned my head to see an alarm panel on the wall with a sticky note attached explaining the old code, how to reset it, and all kinds of other important information. Why did the owner of this place have such stout security in a small town? Especially for a place he had for renters. Oh well, it didn’t really matter, this place was turning out to be way better than I could have hoped for.

I walked down the short entryway hall and came out into the living room. There was a forest green couch along the wall parallel to the front of the building. It was old but clearly still in good condition. In front of the couch was a coffee table that was oval in shape with a glass middle outlined by a dark wood rim. As nice as the coffee table was, my eyes wouldn’t focus on it because sitting in the middle of the table was a vase filled with a dozen of the prettiest peach roses I had ever seen. The shade of peach was pure and crisp and the edges of the petals had a red outline. There was a card sticking out of the side so I hurried over to see what was going on. I picked up the card, pulling the flap out from where it was tucked in the envelope and slid the card out. In computer printed script all it said was
Welcome Home, Talie
. I turned it over looking for more, but there was nothing. No indication of who they were from. It could be anyone with the way Ruthie and Jezzy talked, not to mention the whole town was in on furnishing this place. Oh well, it didn’t matter. No matter who they were from, it was easy to see I had picked the right place to settle down.

I turned to the right, to see a galley-sized kitchen, but the living room side was open and had an island with stools. I walked in, opening the fridge to see if I needed to turn it on or make any adjustments to the temperature, to find it stocked with a case of Coke. Holy moly, these people fucking paid attention. Wow, I would have to keep that in mind. If I wanted any secrets I would have to guard them like the secret service guards the President- with my life. I shut the fridge and turned around making my way back out of the kitchen and continuing down the hall to find a half bath on the right, followed by a linen closet, and a door to the bedroom at the end of the hall. The bed was along the back wall with a nightstand on each side and a dresser was on the wall to the left. The front wall held the doors to both the full bathroom and the closet.

I couldn’t believe how great this place was. I took the time to put away what little things I had in my closet and bathroom, locked up, and called it a night. I was asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow. It felt good to be home.

********

I got ready the next morning, made my coke, locked up and started my walk to the diner for the breakfast shift. I was wearing my jeans and a lime green t-shirt and had pulled my hair into a ponytail so that it wouldn’t be in my way. I would have to get some more clothes at some point, but so far it just hadn’t been that important.

I wasn’t as rested as I thought I would be because I had dreamed of Jenny last night. After my conversation where Jenny asked me to stay out of it, I did just the opposite. I starting asking Jenny’s other friends, the ones who had known her before I came to New York, some background information on Jenny and Andrew. I had asked Jenny before, but she always brushed me off. She always seemed like there was something painful in her past, but staunchly refused to talk about it. Pooling all the answers together that I had gotten from Jenny’s other friends, while trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible, I discovered that Jenny and Andrew had moved to New York two years before I did or five years ago. Doing the math involved that would have made Jenny, 24. The same age that I was when I moved to New York two years later. They also told me that about a year after that, they thought Jenny and Andrew were having problems, and it looked like she was going to leave him.

Yeah, I bet they were having problems.

Anyway, apparently, as much as it seemed like this was the case, the next week Jenny was back from where ever she had gone (they had no idea of the location), and everything seemed to be perfect in paradise between Jenny and Andrew again.

Though, I’d bet that, knowing what I know, Jenny’s light was a little bit dimmer after whatever happened to bring her back.

The sound of someone whistling brought me out of my thoughts, and I realized I must have completely zoned out. Looking to my left to find the source of the whistle, I saw a sweaty Tucker Cody in a pair of cobalt blue athletic shorts, running shoes, and nothing else, hanging from a bar on the playground doing chin-ups.

God, make that a sweaty, ripped, tan,
fucking
delectable Tucker Cody. Jesus, he was gorgeous. He had a defined six pack and his shorts sat low on his hips exposing the heart-stopping “v” that guys had. He also had a tattoo on his right side that looked like an abstract design but only half done.

He dropped down from the bar and jogged my way. I started to get myself psyched up to go a few verbal rounds with him when he came up right beside me, winked, and then kept on running to the end of the park, left, and then down Main Street towards The Goods.

I didn’t know what happened. He went to all the trouble of getting my attention, but didn’t say one word to me. I was beginning to think I would never know what to expect from him.

********

I had just finished my first breakfast shift and was taking a fifteen minute break, when Tuck walked in. He was wearing his jeans and workboots again but with a baby blue t-shirt this time. He looked
awesome
. I was starting to think there was never a time when Tucker Cody didn’t look awesome. I looked to his face to see his blue-green eyes scanning the entirety of the diner. They stopped on me. I was sitting in a booth in the back to get off of my feet after a busy morning for the little time that I could.

The morning had gone pretty well. I had met the other waitresses, Toni and Annabelle. Ruthie, usually didn’t work the mornings, I was told, because she liked to stay out late with her boyfriend. Boyfriend was said like it was a dirty word when Toni and Annabelle explained this to me, so I made a mental note to look into that. Toni was a mid-sixties chain-smoker with a voice and body to match. Skinnier than skinny, she was maybe 95 pounds, at a push, and Annabelle was an early twenties young mother with three kids at home and a soft, sweet, almost musical voice. They both helped me out when they could, not at all hesitant to bring me into their fold. I did pretty well, but I didn’t have the speed or proficiency that they had. I wasn’t completely familiar with the menu yet and therefore, wasn’t ready for memorizing orders. So, writing was slowing me down, as well as not being familiar with the regulars. A bunch of people never even ordered. Toni or Annabelle would just put in the order and take it to the table when it came up. I usually picked things up pretty quickly, so I figured as soon as I met all of the regulars, I would get it. Tommy and Jimmy were a couple of them that apparently came in every morning and had a meal rotation- Hungry Man Special Mondays, Eggs Benedict Tuesdays, Western Omelet with a side of bacon, breakfast potatoes, and white toast on Wednesdays, so on and so forth. I thought I would probably get bored with that if it were me, but it worked for them. They were also really nice guys. Flirty, but innocent enough. And they left me a tip even though I didn’t do anything for them today. “Take it as a welcome present for being the new girl,” they had said. All in all, everyone was still super friendly and it felt like I was settling quite nicely.

With a smirk on his face as he approached me and slid into the booth, Tuck spoke. “Already slackin’ on the new job, I see.”

Annoyance started to bubble inside me and I snapped back, “I’m on a break.”

If anything, Tuck’s smirk just settled deeper into his face and he continued to goad me. “A break? What have you worked, a few hours? Seems pretty ridiculous to me.”

Really starting to get angry I replied in my snarkiest tone, “Well, I don’t see you working either,
Tucker
. Seems to
me,
that I’m not the only one on a break after just a
few hours
of work. I don’t even know what you do! For all I know, you don’t work at all! I certainly haven’t seen it.”