Page 44 of The Talk of Coyote Canyon

Hendrix took the plate and accepted a fork from Leo, as well. “Thanks, bud. Great job.”

Leo’s smile stretched from ear to ear. “Let me know when you want another piece.”

“I won’t want another piece,” Hendrix assured him. “One will be enough.”

Leo hovered over and around his cousin until Hendrix let him scrape the excess frosting off the plate and eat it. Fortunately, no one else was in the restaurant to see that, so it didn’t matter.

“I’m just going to hang out in town for an hour or two so I can take him home with me,” he said when he handed Leo the plate and Ellen told Leo to take it to the sink in back.

Ellen lowered her voice so Leo wouldn’t be able to hear. “It’s fine if you want to leave him here with me. I can give him a ride after we close.” If it would save her from having to be around Hendrix again, why not? She could pull down his drive, let Leo out and take off.

“To my place?” he clarified.

“I can promise you I’m not going to my father’s house,” she responded.

“Right,” he said. “That works. Just...call me if something comes up or you change your mind.”

A trio of older women Ellen recognized from when she’d worked at the diner before came in, saving her from having to say anything else to Hendrix. As she greeted them, she heard him admonish Leo to behave and to listen to her as his boss or he’d have to come back for him. Then he left.

While the women chatted about what was especially good at the diner and who was going to order what, and Leo was busy telling them he was there to help and he’d get them any cake they wanted but really thought they should get the chocolate because it was his favorite—Ellen allowed her eyes to follow Hendrix out the door. She even watched through the window as he climbed into his truck. She didn’t trust him, but she couldn’t deny that he had more than his fair share of sex appeal.

He could have any friend he wanted. With that face and that body he could have any woman, too. So why was he suddenly being so sweet toher?

Eleven

Leo wasn’t home yet. Hendrix frowned as he checked his watch. Five thirty. He was fairly certain the diner was closed. So where was his cousin?

Surely, Ellen hadn’t gotten frustrated or mad at Leo and left him to his own devices. She’d been so kind to him whenever they’d come into contact with her recently that he hated to think she might do something like that. Or it could be that Leo got upset over something he did wrong—or felt he did wrong—and took off on his own. He couldn’t tolerate conflict. If someone so much as raised his or her voice at him, he’d try to escape. Maybe he’d dropped a cake or a piece of pie on a customer who got angry and ran out the door, and she was looking for him. It could even be that she was having to keep an eye on him while handling an entirely different problem.

Hey, everything okay? Need me to come get Leo?

He sent Ellen that text, then flipped through a few more channels on TV while waiting for a response. But fifteen minutes later, he hadn’t heard back.

He figured he should drive by the restaurant just in case there was a problem. Stuart and Lynn were expecting them for Sunday dinner at six thirty, and he didn’t want to have to explain that he’d left it up to Ellen to get Leo home. Lynn was going to be mad enough when Leo announced that he’d been helping Ellen at the diner again, because even if Hendrix told him not to say anything, Leo would probably talk about it all through dinner. Then Lynn would stare daggers at him for going against her wishes, and Stuart would keep his gaze fastened to his plate and shovel down his food to get the meal over with as quickly as possible so he could escape. When it came to conflict, Ellen’s father wasn’t unlike Leo.

Hendrix knew Lynn would find out, so he expected that much to happen. He just hadn’t expected to run into any additional complications...

He was halfway to town when his phone signaled a text. He’d finally heard from Ellen.

Sorry. Leo wanted to see my house, so we swung by after leaving the diner, and Talulah and Brant happened to walk over with a bottle of wine. We’re just sitting out front for a bit. Is it okay if I bring him back after they go home?

She probably couldn’t imagine that Leo would have anywhere else to go tonight. She didn’t know Sunday dinners were a regular event in the Fetterman household because she’d never been invited.

Hendrix was beginning to feel guilty about everything she’d missed. Through the years, it’d been easiest to keep his mouth shut and just do his thing—go along with the status quo his aunt had established almost from the beginning of her second marriage. That was the pattern Stuart had followed, too.

But the more he considered the situation from Ellen’s perspective, the worse he felt. Which was why he’d apologized today.

There wasn’t anything else he could do about the past, he told himself. He could only try to get Leo home so that Lynn wouldn’t freak out any more than he’d anticipated from the start. If he drove over to Ellen’s to get Leo right now, they could still make dinner on time.

The drive didn’t take long. Ellen lived on the other side of town, but he was there in twelve minutes and could see her, Talulah and Brant sitting around a small table on the porch when he pulled into the drive. Leo was drawing with chalk on the concrete nearby but came galloping toward him soon as he heard Hendrix pull in and recognized his truck.

“Look,” he cried, holding up a thick piece of blue chalk as Hendrix climbed out. “I’m drawing pictures.”

“Where’d you get that?” Hendrix asked.

“I bought it! Ellen took me to the store to spend the money I earned today.”

“You earned money?”

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