Page 68 of Forever After All

“But we all have,” Jess said.

Linc clicked his tongue behind his teeth. “Not like me.”

Jess opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. The second time, the words came out. “I believe you, but I also…don’t want to. Everyone deserves a second chance.”

“You can’t deny the truth. Mr. Chambers helped…is helping me turn things around. He gave me a job when he probably shouldn’t have, and it came with one condition.”

“That you don’t do anything stupid?” she guessed.

Linc thought back to the first time he met the old man. He’d just gotten released and hopped on a bus to Wyoming. He wanted to be as far away from Memphis as possible, and Cody was the cheapest ticket.

After a week back in the real world, Linc still hadn’t found a job or a place to live. He knew next to nothing about the area, and housing was sky high.

Still, he ran out of money in Blackwater and happened to stumble into Deano’s Diner around the time the morning crowd started showing up.

Linc ordered a cup of coffee and a biscuit with bacon just as Mr. Chambers walked in.

Mr. Chambers looked like your average grandpa with gray hair sticking out from underneath his worn cowboy hat. His flannel shirt was neatly tucked into his jeans around his bulging belly, and his boots had seen better days.

Linc hadn’t given him a second look.

“You new ‘round here?” Mr. Chambers asked behind him.

“Just passin’ through.”

A beat later, the man behind him asked, “You sure?”

Linc turned and gave the old guy his attention. “Why?”

“You don’t look like a tourist.”

A woman set an empty Styrofoam cup on the counter and pointed toward the coffee maker. “Help yourself.”

“I’m not a tourist.”

“Then what are you doin’ here?”

Mr. Chambers had rushed the words “what” and “are” together until it sounded like he’d said water, and Linc rubbed a hand over his face to try to hide his grin.

When Linc didn’t answer, Mr. Chambers stuck a hand out. “I’m Ronald Chambers.”

Linc shook the hand. He had a firm grip for an old guy. “Lincoln North.”

Mr. Chambers jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I have a dude ranch up the road, and I’m lookin’ to hire a few new hands. You in the market for a job?”

All traces of laughter faded away. He wanted a job, and this guy was just giving one away. It seemed too coincidental.

“I am.”

Mr. Chambers looked him up and down. “Where are you stayin’?”

Linc looked around. He’d slept outside a package store the night before till the owner ran him off. He’d been walking since before sunup.

Mr. Chambers didn’t wait long for an answer before holding up a finger, telling Linc to wait. He ordered a coffee and asked for a lid. The waitress filled Mr. Chambers’s cup and secured the lid before picking up the empty cup she’d left for Linc and filling it too.

With coffee in hand, Mr. Chambers nodded toward the door. “Take a ride with me, son.”

The memory of laughing at Mr. Chambers that day was still fresh. “I thought he was some backwoods pawpaw who wanted me to shovel horse manure for him when he said he had a job for me.”

---