Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 106839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
No one.
I go back down and check the locks on all the doors and windows. Then I take my shotgun back up to my room and lay it down in the bed next to me.
Maybe it’s crazy.
But then again, maybe it’s not.
Even though my weekend was very busy with work at the compound, I could’ve found time to swing by Rosie’s place at some point. But I had already planned this day and anyway, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
It’s Monday, which means Rosie Harlow is working at the diner in Revenant. She’s gonna have her hair pulled back in some messy old-timey updo, she’s gonna be wearing a pink waitress uniform, and she might even be clicking some gum.
So I’m gonna pay her a little visit down there and I’m gonna show up in style.
The motorcycle isn’t mine—it belongs to Lucas, the leader of a colorful motorcycle club here in Revenant called the Deceivers that riles up the Revival people up in Disciple every now and then as part of the script. He’s Collin’s cousin. But it’s a nice bike with a stars and stripes theme to it.
I’m dressed like Lucas’s twin—clothes not borrowed—with a black biker jacket and boots to match, a white t-shirt underneath, and some faded, nearly threadbare, jeans.
I park the bike in front of the diner, revving it up and making noise to announce my arrival. Things are always dead down here in Revenant on Mondays, so there’s really no one to see me. Just the woman who matters.
Rosie is peeking out the window as she wipes down a table and when she realizes it’s me, her whole face lights up. And that smile makes all the trouble it took to create this moment worth it.
I open the door to the diner and find her waiting for me at the hostess station. Now Rosie Harlow is an actor. She don’t live in Hollywood and she’s never played a part outside of the Revival, but she knows a scene when she’s presented with one. And besides, I already told her we were gonna court in costume.
So she’s ready for this and when she says, “Good morning,” to me, it comes out like a coo. “Table for one?”
“How about… table for none?”
One eyebrow goes up. But she doesn’t break when I turn and start walking over to the jukebox. I brace myself with both hands as I lean down, pretending to study the songs inside. Then I casually look over my shoulder so I can side-eye her.
Rosie Harlow is smiling, wondering just what the hell I am gettin’ up to. I glance around the diner, which isn’t empty, but nowhere near full, either, and find Jonesy Price, the cook and owner of the Revenant diner, winking at me from behind his kitchen counter. I cleared all this with him first, as one does when they are about to disrupt a working day to charm the skirt off a woman.
I turn, just as the distinctive opening of ‘Stand By Me’ begins to play. Then I lean against the jukebox, letting her get a good look at me. Her smile grows and when I push off, extending my hand in her direction as the song eases into that first verse, she blushes.
We’re only about ten steps apart, so it’s just moments later when she takes my hand and I spin her around in a complete circle, hugging her up close to me when she stops.
She’s looking right into my eyes, her face filled with intrigue, fascination, and probably a little bit of embarrassment too, since we’re dancing in a diner, she’s on the clock, and there are a dozen people watching us.
I hold her close, my arms all the way around her waist, our bodies moving slowly to the beat of the song, and I whisper in her ear, “Let’s go for a ride on that bike outside.”
She huffs out a little air. “I’m working, Amon.”
“Well, if you want to come with me, I’ve taken care of that little problem ahead of time.”
We stop dancing and she looks up at me. “In my waitress uniform?”
“Go check your locker.” She huffs again. But I just encourage her. “Go on. Check it. I’ll be waiting out front.”
Rosie looks around, finds Jonesy’s beaming face on the other side of his kitchen counter. He says, “Go on. Get out of here. We got ya covered.”
She looks back at me one more time, then lets out a breath and makes her way to the back where the break room is.
I salute Jonesy with two fingers to the side of my head. “I owe you one.” And then I go out front and arrange myself on the bike, sitting sideways with legs kicked out in front of me, arms crossed, so when Rosie comes out a few minutes later, she can get a good long look at me.