Page 29 of Spiritwarrior

Mina pouted at him. “What’s with the cold shoulder?”

“I told you I’m seeing someone.”

Mina straightened away from him. “Like in, you’re really dating someone?”

“Not yet. I’m working on it. Currently, our relationship is in the talking stage.”

Her expression turned relieved. “That’s okay, then. I can take care of you until you get past the talking stage.”

“No. I plan to be faithful to her.”

“Jody Coleman”—Mina giggled, scraping his nerves—“you don’t have a faithful bone in your body.”

“I do now.”

Mina rolled her eyes at him and got out of the booth. She placed her palms on the table, giving him a generous view of her chest. “When you get tired of sweet-talking her, call me—you know my number. I promise you’ll get more out of me than talking.”

Jody wanted to bury his face in his hands as she sashayed out of the restaurant. Thankfully, Ginny and Sophie had gone to the kitchen.

They were still in there when the customers got up to stand by the register.

“Hey, Tate, Dustin; how are you doing?”

Tate nodded his head and lay money down on top of their ticket. “I heard you and Ginny are going to be helping out Sophie. Logan’s going to be working here after school.”

“So I heard,” Jody told the two brothers.

“You hear one of Marty’s buddies stopped by yesterday?”

“Yeah.” Jody lowered his voice. “Greer called Silas last night. We’ll keep an eye out.”

“You won’t be the only one.” Tate’s craggy face was set to no-nonsense. “We’ll do what we can to help her make a go of thisplace, but if anything happens to Logan, kin or not, blood will be spilled, regardless of who gets in the way.”

Jody didn’t look away from Tate’s gaze. “Understood.” Jody mimicked Tate’s hard gaze. “And so you understand, my happiness isn’t the only one that rides on Sophie staying in town.”

Chapter Twelve

“You’ve made a good start. The kitchen is spotless. It was always a mess when I worked here.”

Sophie stared around the kitchen proudly. “I worked in restaurants most of my life. My mother taught me to keep everything clean. To be honest, I knew if this kitchen wasn’t spotless when she got here, she’d give me hell.”

“I bet you can’t wait for your parents to arrive.”

Sophie nodded. “I’m looking forward to us not being bossed around. That’s why this restaurant means so much to me. My parents have had it rough since Mom’s divorce from Marty. He made their lives a living hell. They’ve had to move from one state to another to get away from him.”

“You moved with them?”

“Yes. I wanted to be close by if they needed me.”

“I understand. I’m close to my family, too.”

“Your family is really nice. If not for the tip they gave me yesterday, I was about to call a realtor. I don’t want my parents moving here only to find themselves jobless.”

“We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

She tilted her head to watch Ginny’s reaction. “Why?”

“The town has missed having a place to hang out. We’ve missed the food, coming to eat here after church. It’s been depressing to see the diner closed.”

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