Page 13 of Brandt's Rule

Bailey laughed, as she picked up her burger. “Was I right or was I right?” she asked, taking a bite.

Tempest nodded exuberantly as she took another bite.

“Wait! Try the onion rings!” Bailey said, dipping one in ketchup and handing it to her.

Tempest bit into the huge onion ring and moaned. “Can we come back tomorrow?”

“Absolutely!” Bailey said, laughing.

Chapter 4

Brandt had been fully dressed for hours, and was working on his second pot of coffee. Seated on his back porch, his booted feet propped up on the banister edging its way all the way around the perimeter of his porch, looking pensively out over the heavy foliage and trees, he didn’t see the landscape that every morning soothed him after his sleepless nights. He saw a female unlike any he’d ever seen, standing defiantly, her silver hair shining in the lights of her apartment, her eyes staring into his as he dared to challenge her.

His lip twitched as the chime on his phone sounded, letting him know he was now officially late for work. Smirking to himself, he switched off the alarm, then went into his kitchen, poured another cup of coffee and headed back out to sit in the same exact spot he’d been in since before dawn. He had no intention of hurrying off to work. In fact, he had every intention of being as late as he could be and still arrive in enough time to be able to call it morning. Because the last one to work had to bring coffee. And today, that would be him.

Twenty minutes later he finally picked up his phone and called Barron.

“You’re late,” Barron announced into the phone, instead of saying hello.

“I know, I know. I’m about to leave and I’ll bring the coffee. My penance for being late again.”

“Hurry up. You got the roof again since everybody else is already here, but don’t worry about coffee. Remi’s already on it.”

“But he’s not last. I’m last!” Brandt said exasperatedly.

“Yeah, but you still aren't here. He is. We are. We’re stumbling without our caffeine. He didn’t mind.”

“I was gonna bring it.”

“How about you just bring you?”

“Yeah.”

“You alright? Seemed off yesterday, too.”

“I’m fine.”

“Then I’ll see you soon.”

Brandt simply hung up without another word. He got up and walked into his house, snatched his keys off his kitchen counter and stomped out of the house. “They couldn’t keep to a damn plan if their damn lives depended on it,” he grumbled. He’d carefully made sure he was late so he would have the excuse of stopping by the coffee shop again, and hopefully catch a glimpse of the woman who’d been a constant in his mind since he’d laid eyes on her, but no, they had to go and screw everything up. He turned the ignition, put his truck in gear and stomped his foot on the accelerator, spewing gravel and red dirt behind him as he tore out of his driveway and down the dirt road toward the highway with a constant rumble in his chest.

~~~

Tempest sat at the small table closest to the counter, just to the right of the register, sipping her coffee, enjoying her breakfast and visiting with Bailey between customers.

“You might have to just go out there again. They’re kind of private when it comes to their family,” Bailey said.

“I definitely will, I don’t give up that easily. But I don’t want to be too pushy, maybe end up being seen as a threat. So, I may have to take my time. Give them a few days to figure out if they’re going to give me any true consideration at all before I decide to go back and see just how far I can nudge without pushing.”

“Unless we can find a reason for you to pay them a visit sooner rather than later. For all we know, they’re not even telling him there’s a woman looking for him.”

“If it’s even him, it might not be him,” Tempest added.

“True, but you have to meet him to find out, right?”

“Right.”

The bell on the front door jingled and Bailey’s entire expression changed as she looked up to greet her customer.

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