Maybe she was making too much of it. If she’d even made an effort, if she’d actually opened herself up to other people, perhaps she’d have friends already. It was just hard to do because once you opened the door, you never knew who might walk in. That was the scary part. Once bitten, twice shy.
She had a good feeling about Joe, though, and she definitely could use a friend, even if it was just for the summer. And if he tried to step over the friend line, she was prepared to push him right back.
Walking through the door at the restaurant, she spotted Joe sitting in one of the booths alongside the front window, his cap on the table in front of him. He waved, his face lighting up at the sight of her. She slid into the seat opposite him. “Am I late?”
He glanced at his watch. “You are right on time, but even if you were late, it would have been fine, because I’ve been reading about the history of the Pine Cone.” He tapped the back of the shiny menu as his eyes met hers. “Fascinating.”
“You enjoy reading, then?”
“I’ve become quite the reader lately. You see, I have no choice. My grandmother’s house does not have a television.”
“Wow, such a hardship,” she said, her tone mocking. “How can you stand it?”
He inclined his head as if thinking. “Sometimes I act out the shows I can remember. Yesterday I was both Laverne and Shirley. If you want to stop by sometime, I would let you be Squiggy.”
“This friendship with you just gives and gives and gives, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, believe me, we’re just getting started.”
The waitress came with her pad at the ready. Luckily, Kathleen was familiar with the menu and could order on the spot. Joe too was able to rattle off his order. She was struck by how easy it was to spend time with him. They quickly filled each other in on the basics of their lives—hometown, siblings, school years—almost as if to get that out of the way so they could begin really talking. There were no awkward pauses, no intrusive questions; she didn’t get the sense that he was pushing for anything beyond her comfort zone. He teased her as if they’d been friends their whole lives. The two of them together were a fit. Right as rain, Aunt Edna would have said.
Joe made her laugh, which was no small thing. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed that way, continuous mirth, making it hard to breathe. He was especially fascinated by the waitress, a serious battleship of a woman named Doris. He said his new personal goal was to make her smile. “There’s gotta be a way.”
“Believe me, it’s not going to happen,” Kathleen said. She’d eaten at the Pine Cone several times and knew Doris was not to be trifled with. She didn’t own the place but thought she did, barking out orders to the cooks and keeping unruly teenage customers in line. Running a restaurant was no joke, and smiling was fine for other people, but not for Doris. “It may not actually be possible for her lips to move upward. I’m just saying you might be setting your sights too high.”
“We’ll see about that,” Joe said. “I’ve got the rest of the summer to wear her down.”
The conversation shifted to Pearl’s house and the lakefront part of the property.
“The lake is big business here in the summer,” Kathleen said. “It used to be that most of the people on the lake lived here year-round, but now a lot of it is summer rentals. And those vacationers shop at my store, eat at the restaurants, and buy live bait at the hardware store. It gives Pullman a big financial boost.”
“You can buy live bait at the hardware store?” He raised his eyebrows.
“As much as you want, city boy,” she said, her tone teasing. “When you buy the earthworms, they come in mud in a Styrofoam cup. If you keep the cup in your fridge, they live longer.”
“Worms in a Styrofoam cup that you can refrigerate. How barbaric.”
“I know it seems like it, but when my mom was here, we rented a boat and fed worms to some turtles out by the island. It made the turtles very happy.”
“There’s an island?”
She nodded. “If you can call it that. It’s not much of an island. You can’t build a house on it or anything. Nowadays, it’s mostly used by teenagers for partying.”
“I’d like to see the island,” Joe said, his voice suddenly serious. “Would you take me there someday?”
Kathleen nodded. “Sure. I’d be happy to.” Because, she reflected, that’s what friends were for.