I shrugged. "Probably should have thought it through better. Wasn't really thinking about where I would be driving it."
Richard rubbed his hands together as he got into the passenger seat. "Where to?"
“I can’t decide where I want to eat,” I said as we buckled in.
I looked to my brother, who met my eye contact and then winked. I wanted to go back to my favorite place to eat in River Valley, the place where Julianna and I had first become friends.
“The Flaming Onion,” I said.
Richard grinned even wider. “You are such a creature of habit."
I didn’t tell him the real reason that I wanted to go back to that diner. If he wanted to believe that I was just really into diner food, then I wasn’t going to reveal the secret.
The crowd inside The Flaming Onion was relaxed and casual. Regular folks just eating food on their lunch hour, trying to relax a little bit before going back to work. We chose to sit in a corner booth. A blonde waitress came over and sat down two glasses of water.
“I’d recognize that face anywhere,” she said, staring at me.
“Why thank you,” I chuckled, trying to act casual.
She shook her head, pulling out her book and pen. “Jake Truman. What brings you back to River Valley?”
“Business and family,” I politely replied.
She glanced over at Richard who was staring down at the menu. “I’ll give you two a bit of time to decide. Today’s special is grilled cheese made with our homemade sour dough, and tomato soup. You can also get a slice of cherry pie a la mode and a cup of coffee for half price today.”
“That sounds good.” Richard folded the menu.
“We’ll both take that,” I said, handing our menus over. "Both of those."
The waitress nodded and walked off.
“Yet another waitress and you’re not at all interested,” Richard said, taking a sip of his water. “And this one recognized you.”
I cringed thinking of all the stories out there about me. The latest was the worst, and I really hoped that she hadn’t read it online. They blew a situation completely out of proportion, claiming I had gone home with the bar owner's wife. That simply was not the case, but there was no use in arguing with people who didn't care about the truth in the first place.
Bunny and her husband were friends, and yeah, she was flirting, but only because she had gotten into a huge fight with her husband, and she was trying to piss him off. After she got in the car that night, my driver had taken her straight home. I did a lot of stupid things, but I would never sleep with a friend’s wife, and I certainly didn't want the people in my hometown thinking I would.
“I guess it comes with the territory,” I said as our waitress dropped off two cups of coffee.
Each of us put a creamer in and stirred. Richard shook his head. “Don’t you get tired of being single, though?”
I thought about his question while taking a sip of coffee. “It would be nice to find a woman to share my life with, but I don’t think that I can trust anyone. They just see me for my money.”
“I definitely get that part. Dad set us up to be financially successful, but made it harder for us to find love. If that’s even what you want. Maybe you just want to party with hot women the rest of your life.”
I chucked my empty creamer at him. “Yes, it gets old. But I just want to focus on my career. Not worry about all the drama." I sighed as I stared down at my coffee. “So, what else is new back home?”
He and I talked for a while about the latest hometown gossip, business, and our usual spout off about politics. I told him that my secretary was having an affair with her landlord, and he told me that one of the local school teachers was caught having sex with the principal. A normal trade off before lunch started.
“Here you go, boys.” Our waitress sat our food down and we both dug in, our stomachs grumbling so loud by that point that people around us were staring.
“How about we go out for karaoke tonight?”
I swallowed my grilled cheese and shrugged my shoulders. “Eh, I’m not sure if I’m in the mood. Did you end up getting a membership to that golf club?”
Richard lifted a brow. “Yes, but they’ll be closed by the time we’re done with work. I think you and I could have a lot of fun doing karaoke. It’s been years… Unless you’re just afraid that I’ll beat you?”
I gave him a look and we both laughed. “I think you’re the one who’s afraid of being beaten at karaoke. Your track record is not very good if I remember correctly.”
