Where the Heart is (Interracial with Baby) (BWWM) Read Free Page B

Kathryn whispered as she took up Jamie's soda tray and helped her bring it out.
    Jamie snorted and started setting coffee in front of people, smiling and demurring when they offered heartfelt thanks. Coffee made the world go round, was what she had learned in her time working here, and there was a lot to be said for keeping a coffee cup full. She took the tray from Kathryn and started handing out drinks, rolling her eyes again. "You don't know that."
    Kathryn laughed. "I know everything about this place, Jamie. He wants you bad."
    "What does that have to do with anything?"
    "It just does. Trust me. I've seen more cooks try to bang waitresses than you even want to know, and I know how it starts." Kathryn winked. "I'd look out if I were you."
    She wanted to argue, but Kathryn was the only waitress who'd been here longer than she had. She was in her thirties, tall and gorgeous, and no one knew why she worked here when she was clearly talented in other fields, but whenever someone asked, she just smiled mysteriously and kept filling salt shakers or whatever it was she had been doing before.
    It was clear that they weren't going to get an answer out of her, and Jamie was fine with that. She liked Kat's company, and they had developed an awesome working relationship that she didn't want to give up.
    Ever since Simon had left without looking back, Jamie hadn't exactly had a lot of friends. She'd made some acquaintances at school and she knew all of the waitresses and cooks at the diner, but none of them had the same connection with her that she'd had with Simon.
    "But he's clearly not coming back, so get over it," she muttered to herself as she set her tray down in the kitchen with a bit more force than was strictly necessary. Seven years, and she still wasn't over it.
    Her mother had told her that it took almost twice as long as the relationship had lasted to really get over someone, and when Jamie had reminded her that she and Simon had never really been dating, her mother had just smiled and nodded as if she didn't believe her.
    "That's what I said about me and your father," she'd pointed out.
    Jamie had scowled. "And look at how right you were."
    Her father had skipped out on them before Jamie was even old enough to make memories of him, and that was the last thing she wanted to think about when it came to Simon, but she had to admit that he'd done kind of the same thing.
    But no. Thinking about that while she had tables of hungry people to deal with wasn't going to make this shift go by any faster, so she shook her head and went back out, letting the soothing rhythm of taking orders and handing tickets to the cooks keep her occupied.
    She got a ten minute break at six, and she wrapped her coat around herself and stepped gratefully out back, leaning against the worn brick of the building and lighting a cigarette.
    Jamie only smoked when she was stressed out, and there was something about the holiday season that always made her blood pressure skyrocket.
    Maybe it was the fact that she knew her mother wasn't going to have many Christmases left. Or maybe it had something to do with how small the celebrations were now. Back when they were kids, Simon's family had always invited her and her mother over to celebrate with them, and it had been cozy and nice, like they were an extended family.
    But ever since Simon had gone away, those invitations had stopped.
    Adelaide had been just as hurt as Jamie because she'd truly thought that there was more to it than just it being for the sake of the kids, but apparently that wasn't the case.
    With how tired her mother was these days, Jamie wasn't hoping for more than a quick dinner and listening to carols on the radio, and she made a mental note to stop at the liquor store on her way home so she could at least drown her sorrows once her mother inevitably passed out before nine pm.
    She took a long drag off her cigarette and exhaled, watching smoke curl up towards the dark sky.
    Sometimes she was