Something Like Home
The next week was full of small things that didn’t feel small at all.
Dustin taught Jordyn how to drive the old tractor, badly, with lots of laughing. She patched a hole in the chicken coop while he held the board steady. He let her pick the music on the truck radio, even when she settled on quiet indie folk songs that made him want to pull her close.
One afternoon, a summer storm rolled in fast. They scrambled to get the tools in from the barn, completely soaked by the time they reached the porch.
Jordyn stood there dripping, cheeks flushed, breathing hard. Dustin handed her a towel and chuckled.
“You look like a drowned kitten.”
She glared, but there was a spark behind it. “Careful, Walker. I bite.”
“I’m not afraid of a little bite.”
The words hung there between them. Charged. Electric.
Her expression softened. “You should be.”
Then, for the first time, she smiled, a real one. Brief, unsure, but there. And Dustin knew, without a doubt, he’d wait a lifetime for that smile again.
The storm passed quickly, leaving the scent of wet earth and a calm, stretching silence. Dustin handed Jordyn a faded hoodie that swallowed her frame, and they sat in the open barn doorway, watching the last drops fall from the eaves.
A little girl ran across the muddy road, rubber boots splashing as she skidded to a stop at the fence.
“Dusty!” she called. “Granny said I could bring the muffins if I stayed outta the pasture!”
Jordyn blinked as Dustin stood and waved. “That’s Ellie. Neighbor’s granddaughter. Thinks she runs the place.”
Ellie climbed the gate like a pro, holding a Tupperware container in one hand. Her curly hair was a frizzy halo, and she had a missing front tooth that made her smile extra wide.
“Hi,” she said to Jordyn, unfazed. “You’re the pretty girl from the diner. I saw you spill a milkshake on that grumpy man last week.”
Jordyn flushed. Dustin choked back a laugh.
Ellie handed over the muffins, still warm, with bits of chocolate melting at the edges. “I helped bake ’em. You can have the biggest one.”
Jordyn glanced at Dustin. “She always this charming?”
“She’s holding back. Wait till she starts asking if we’re married.”
Sure enough, Ellie tilted her head. “Are you?”
Before Jordyn could stammer a reply, Dustin gave the girl a gentle nudge. “Why don’t you go check on Hazel? She misses you.”
Ellie scampered off. Jordyn watched her go, heart doing something strange in her chest.
“She’s… fearless.”
“Most kids are. Until the world teaches them not to be.”
Jordyn didn’t respond right away. Then: “My little sister used to be like that. Sadie. She’d wear a princess dress with cowboy boots and try to fight our brother with a plastic sword.”
“You close with her?”
“I was. Before I left. We don’t talk much anymore. Not safe with dad around.”
There was something so steady about the way Dustin looked at her, like he wasn’t trying to fix it, just hold it with her.
“You ever think about going back?” he asked gently.
She pulled the hoodie tighter around her. “Every damn day.”
-----
Later That Week
Maisie Carter leaned on the counter, wiping out a chipped mug with slow, practiced motions.
“You’re burning toast again, sweetheart,” she called.
“I wasn’t…” Jordyn looked down. The toaster puffed smoke. “Right.”
Maisie nodded toward the corner booth. “Your army boy’s back.”
Jordyn didn’t need to look. She felt it in her spine, warm and unsettling.
Maisie slid her a glass of lemonade. “Don’t let a good man slip by just ’cause someone else broke you first.”
Jordyn glanced up, startled. “I didn’t… how did you know?”
Maisie smiled faintly. “Takes one to know one."
Before she could say more, the door jingled and Travis Delgado, Dustin's childhood friend, strutted in, grease-stained coveralls and sunglasses indoors.
“Well, if it isn’t Dusty’s mysterious flame,” he said with a grin. “He talk your ear off yet about fence posts and tractor parts?”
“Ignore him,” Dustin said as he stood, clearly mortified. “He was dropped on his head as a child.”
“Twice,” Travis added cheerfully. “But I still know a spark when I see one.”
Jordyn smirked, despite herself. “And I know a mechanic who needs a shower.”
The banter was easy. Almost fun. It unsettled her more than any threat could.
As they all went their separate ways Dustin walked Jordyn to the back steps that led to her room above the diner.
He lingered for a moment then said “You’ve got a good laugh, Jordyn.”
She looked at him sideways. “Don’t get used to it.”
But she didn’t deny it.
He leaned in and kissed her forehead, then turned and walked towards his truck. As he climbed into his truck her gave her a wink and said “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She watched him back out and drive away, her heart hammering in her chest. With a sigh she turned and head up the stairs and inside for the night.
