Down Home and Deadly

your mama always says.”
    I poured tea into her glass. “What’s that?” Unlike me, our mama is a fount of wisdom. Hard to know which thing Alice was referring to.
    “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” She took a big chug of her tea.
    I was pretty sure m y mama had never said the word ain’t in her life, but I had heard her echo that general sentiment before. “Oh. Yeah.”
    Harvey pushed open the doors. “You know why she’s got that table out on the porch?”
    Alice shook her head , and I didn’t breathe. The table on the porch was just a tiny piece of the bigger picture my sister had in mind. But telling Alice and Harvey had been the fly in the ointment from the beginning. And I wasn’t about to take on the task.
    Harvey grunted. “She’s got some fool idea about people playing dominoes and checkers out there.”
    Alice gasped. “Did you tell her that this is a diner? The whole idea is to get people to eat and then leave so more people can eat.”
    Harvey grabbed a hammer from the closet and headed back out. “I told her,” he called over his shoulder. “But beneath that soft drawl, she’s got a mind of her own.”
    Did I detect a bit of admiration in his voice? Harvey and Alice had been our parents’ friends for so long, that I could definitely understand why it was hard for them to see Carl and Elizabeth ’s little girls trying to make over the diner they’d poured their hearts and souls into all these years.
    “Checkers and dominoes,” Alice scoffed under her breath as she finished off her tea. “Might as well put rocking chairs out there, too.”
    I don’t play poker. And it’s a good thing. Because my poker face wouldn’t fool anyone.
    Alice looked at me , and her eyes widened in disbelief. “You don’t mean it?”
    I nodded. Why hadn’t Carly just come clean with them about her big plans? She’d convinced herself—and me—that they’d take it easier in small bites. I wasn’t so sure.
    Alice huffed out. I savored the peacefulness of the quiet kitchen and considered calling Alex to invite him to come help us paint tonight. We needed all the hands we could get. And it’d definitely be more fun with him here. That was a no-brainer. I pulled my phone from my pocket and hit the button that redials the last number dialed.
    “Hey, babe.”
    I frowned. That didn’t sound like my fiancé, but I thought sure he was the last one I called. “Alex?”
    “I’m sorry. I believe you have the wrong number.”
    I held the phone out and looked at the screen. It read— “ Connected to Me. ” What did that even mean? I groaned inwardly. “Sorry. My bad.”
    I pushed the end button just as the double doors opened again and Debbie walked in with a roll of wallpaper in her hand. The waitress had been so thrilled to stay on at the diner that she’d offered to help out with the remodeling. Carly had accepted and gladly agreed to pay her. Even though I had two strikes against me with her—one, that she’d always liked Alex, and two, that she was Lisa’s best friend—she’d been nothing but friendly to me.
    When she saw me, her eyes widened and she stopped. “Is that my phone?”
    I smiled. “No, this is my new—” My smile faded as I remembered the wrong number. I held up the phone. “Does your phone look like this?”
    “Yes.”
    I ducked my head. “I’m sorry. So does mine. Exactly. I haven’t had mine long enough to tell it from someone else’s, I guess.” I held it out to her.
    She snatched the phone out of my hand. “Did you use it?”
    I stared at her. Talk about overreacting. Even if her cell phone minutes were limited, I’d only had the phone for a minute. “I hit the last call dialed, thinking I’d call Alex, but obviously it wasn’t him.”
    She didn’t answer, just mashed a couple of buttons on the phone and stared at the screen. “Did you talk to someone?”
    I’d been interrogated by police that weren’t this stern. “Just a guy who said I had the wrong number. I’m sorry I got confused.”
    Her smile looked a little forced, but at least it was a smile. She pushed a strand of her bleached - blond hair behind her ear. “No worries. That happens. I just got mine too, yesterday.”
    “And wouldn’t you know I’d steal it today? We need to get one of those label makers. Remember those? When I was about ten, Mama got one to label things at the cabins, and I labeled the whole house. Even the furniture.”
    Her smile relaxed. “I do remember those.