Six

Jack

I was surprised that not one person seemed to recognize Hudson while we were at the diner, but in the years that I'd worked at Nuts and Bolts I'd never seen him. Jonas and Addie both talked about him all the time, so I knew they kept in touch, but I also knew he rarely came back to town, and when he did it was for a holiday dinner or something that didn't involve the hardware store.

He glanced at his phone before leaning closer to me. "I'm going to send Mom and Dad a text and let them know we're here in case they want to stop by on the way home."

"Sure, they usually eat out of town, but you never know." It was also strange that I knew way more about his family than he seemed to.

He was tapping out a message on his phone when Andrew returned with our food and set it down. "Anything else I can get you?" he asked.

"Not for me, thanks, Andrew." He glanced at Hudson who was busy examining the hot roast beef sandwich he'd ordered.

"Everything alright?" Andrew asked Hudson. He cared about his diner and worked hard to make sure everyone was happy with what they served, and I knew he didn't like the way Hudson looked at his food.

"Yes. It all looks great, thank you," Hudson finally said after a thorough examination. Andrew nodded and walked away to another customer. I watched as he picked up half of the sandwich and dipped it in the au jus before taking a tentative bite, and groaning. "Oh my god this is so good."

I took a deep breath and smiled at him. He was a tough one to figure out. "The Star family has always run a tight ship," I said before taking a bite of my patty melt.

"What did you order?" he asked.

"Patty melt," I said and tried to chew fast.

"I think I remember my mom ordering that when I was a kid," Hudson said and waited for my reaction.

"Well, they do have an old-fashioned menu. I'm sure they haven't changed it that much in the fifty years since you were a kid," I said, and took another bite of my sandwich.

He didn't react at first but then he leaned in close to my side. "I'm not that old, kid," he whispered before going back to his own sandwich.

I forced myself to ignore how good he smelled and how blue his eyes were, but in the few hours we'd been spending time together I'd gone from pretty much hating him to thinking maybe he wasn't as bad as I originally thought he was.

"Hudson, if we'd known you were coming this afternoon we'd have skipped the movie," Jonas said as he and Addie walked into over to the counter and sat down next to us.

"Can I get you two something?" Andrew immediately asked.

"No, thanks, Andrew, we won't be long," Addie said.

"Sorry, I wasn't sure I'd make it today, but I didn't want to put it off. Imagine my surprise to find out you two actually take time off for a movie and dinner," Hudson said, making the two of them laugh.

"When did you get here?" Jonas asked.

"I stopped by the store and Jack said it was your day off, so I went to by the house, but after an hour I went back to the store. Jack suggested we get something to eat, and when we got here, I messaged you."

"Sounds like Jack took care of you," Addie said.

"Yes, and he put me to work," he said, as I stopped midbite to look at him wide-eyed.

"Good on you, Jack," Jonas said and patted him on the back with a grin. "How long are you here for?"

"I was planning on a week," Hudson said. Jonas gave him a critical look and I knew he was trying to figure out if there was more meaning behind those words.

"Why so long?" Jonas asked. "I mean not that we don't love having you here. It's just that you haven't stayed longer than a few days since you moved away."

"Well, I have something I want to talk to you about, and I didn't want to do it by phone," Hudson said, and dabbed at his mouth with a paper napkin.

"Oh really. What's that?" Jonas asked with a knowing grin.

Hudson glanced around and after noticing some of the busybodies were paying a little too much attention, he took another bite of his sandwich before answering. "It can wait until we get to the house."

Now I wanted to know exactly what was going on. I thought maybe he had another idea for the store, but I wasn't sure. He didn't seem to really be that interested, but I hoped I was wrong.

"Okay, son, we're going to go home. We'll see you when you get there," Addie said.

"We're really happy to see you," Jonas said with another pat on the back. I watched as the two of them left and I went back to eating.

"Don't worry, it's nothing bad," Hudson said, but I was too worried to ask for more detail. I nodded and forced myself to focus on my food. I wanted to trust him, but I didn't know him, and nothing about him arriving here sat right with me.