Jasmine got up, poured a cup of coffee and sat back down. “Did Raylen spend the night?”

Liz blushed. “Not quite all of it.”

“I watched you telling fortunes last night, girl. You miss that life. Your eyes were all glittery and you loved what you were doing. I can get a new waitress when you get bored in Montague County. Raylen’s heart is a different matter,” Jasmine said.

“I told you it was a stupid, stupid thing,” Liz said, “but it was so worth it. My Aunt Tressa says that I have to own my victories, failures, and sex life, so this is me owning up to what happened, but I’m not sharing details.”

“It could be stupid, or it could be a brilliant thing,” Jasmine said. “Like Ellen says, it’s all in how you look at it and what comes out of it in the end. It’s time to unlock the door and let the customers come on in for coffee and breakfast. You ready?”

Liz nodded. “I reckon I’d better be.”

There was a steady stream of regular morning coffee drinkers before Gemma showed up at eight o’clock. She snagged the last table in the corner and ordered biscuits and sausage gravy with a side order of hash browns.

“It ought to be a sin to look like you do after last night,” Gemma told Liz when she brought her food.

“Oh?” Liz felt a blush creeping up her neck and filling her cheeks.

“I danced and flirted. You told fortunes. Both of which would tire a woman out, and what did we get for our efforts? Not a blessed thing. We both slept alone, and I don’t know about you, but that made me cranky. And then of all things, you tell me I got to wait a whole year before my knight-in-shining-new-Chevrolet-truck is going to come carry me off. You could have shuffled the cards different, and he could be on his way right now to drop down on one knee and propose to me,” Gemma said.

“Can’t manipulate the cards,” Liz said with a smile.

Gemma picked up her fork and started eating. “Can’t manipulate my brother either. You could have told him that if he didn’t cook my breakfast every day between now and next Christmas you were going to put an evil spell on him, but oh, no, you didn’t even lay the cards out for him. That sorry sucker was still snoring when I left a while ago. He put a note on the kitchen table that said he was sleeping in and then going to start cleaning up the barn when he woke up.”

“I’ll be over after work to help you with cleanup.” Liz pointed toward a group of deer hunters dressed in camouflage and made her escape toward them.

“I’ve got appointments until six. It’ll be you and Raylen and maybe Dewar if you can rope him into helping until I get there,” Gemma hollered across the room.