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grabbed an order pad and said, “Thanks, Maddy. I know I don’t tell you enough, but I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
    “I’m not sure either, but I’m absolutely positive that it would include great amounts of suffering on your part.”
    I laughed at her as I checked my appearance in a small mirror before I started waiting on tables.
    Maddy smiled. “Don’t worry, you’re pretty enough.”
    “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t have any flour on my forehead.”
    My sister laughed at that. “It only happened once. I know I should have said something, but it was hilarious watching you waiting on tables with a white streak on your forehead. You looked like some kind of deranged unicorn.”
    “Funny for you, humiliating for me,” I said.
    I walked out front, thinking that I was prepared for the barrage of well-wishers.
    I was wrong.
    They nearly mugged me before I could refill the first soda.
    And for just a second, I found myself wishing that I didn’t live in such a small town after all.
     
    “Is school out already?” I asked Josh Hurley as he walked into the Slice a few minutes later. Tall like his father, he’d inherited his brooding good looks as well.
    “I ducked out early,” he said. He must have seen my face clouding up, so he added quickly, “We were having an assembly, so I didn’t miss anything.”
    “I’m not sure your father would agree with that.”
    Josh flashed me a quick grin. “Then maybe we shouldn’t tell him.” He looked around at the tables I’d been meaning to clean, and quickly grabbed a rag. “It looks like I got here just in time. Where’s Maddy, by the way?”
    “She’s working in the kitchen this afternoon,” I said.
    Since there were still a few late lunch diners at the restaurant, Josh came close and whispered, “Are you sure that’s such a good idea? Nothing against your sister or anything, but she doesn’t have your touch in the kitchen.”
    “We only have another ten minutes,” I said.
    “Why’s that? You’re not closing early today, are you?”
    I didn’t get it at first, but then I realized that he hadn’t worked since we’d instituted our two o’clock breaks. “We close every day now from two to three.”
    He looked so disappointed, I added, “Sometimes Greg stays here and cleans or organizes the inventory. I suppose I could leave you here today by yourself.”
    “That would be great,” he said. “I really need the hours.”
    “Saving up to buy a new car?” I asked, just joking with him.
    “As a matter of fact, I am.”
    “What happened to your MINI Cooper?” Josh had loved the car his folks had bought for him on his sixteenth birthday, and I couldn’t imagine him driving anything else.
    “Mom took it back,” Josh said with his trademark scowl.
    “Why would she do that? Not that it’s any of my business,” I added quickly.
    “I don’t care who knows it. When I ran away, she decided that I wasn’t mature enough for the responsibility, so she parked it in the garage and hid the keys.” With a scoff, he added, “Not that I’d ever drive it again now—not after what happened. I’m saving up to buy my own car, and if all I can afford is a beat-up old Ford pickup, then I’ll take it.”
    It was an awkward situation that I had somehow compounded with my joke. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry,” I said.
    “You didn’t.” He looked over at our two remaining customers and asked, “So, how do we get them to leave?”
    “It’s usually not a problem,” I said. The few times it had happened before, Maddy and I had simply waited them out.
    Josh said, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”
    Before I could stop him, he walked over to the table, said a few words, then the couple who’d been eating threw a twenty on the table and hurried out.
    “What did you say to them?” I asked.
    “I told them the health inspector was coming by, and we had a ton of code violations we had to take care of before he got