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Mrs Tucker is on me the moment she catches a whiff of hih theseparating the restaurant from the kitchen “Seems sweet to me! Comp the sweet boy’s meal A newcomer to Spruce needs to feel the welcomin’ Spruce spirit, don’t he? Hey” She leans in close tooes red as I politely retort in a low voice, “No, Mrs Tucker, he is just a friend, new to town, and … we sort of clicked right away” To that, she just givessmirk, says, “Yeah, yeah, Mr Has No Options Here In Spruce,” before swattingout the door, likely to introduce herself to Vann and do that invasive,she’s so known for

The night flies right on by, and all of the things I norht, not with Vann sitting at that booth in the corner re me of what I have to look forward to once eleven o’clock rolls around I catch Mick staring at Vann through the hile doing the dishes, his big blank face wrinkled up with confusion,on your mind?” I prod hirunts, shrugs, then asks, “Is he gonna order a dessert or somethin’? Been sittin’ there for an hour or two just drawin’ stuff,” before resu daze

When the rush dies down after ten, I join Vann at his booth briefly to see what he’s drawing He flips his sketch around to show me It appears to be another iant head of a viper instead of a huly sexy fellow you’ve made there,” I tease “Kinda wish I could see him in color”

“Nah, I don’t do color,” says Vann, flipping his sketch back to face himself as he adds more scales to the demon’s neck

“Color is all I do,” I throw back Then it hitsYou could draw it, and I’ll paint over it, giving it color”

“Hmph,” is all Vann says to that

At last, the time comes to leave, and I clock out officially with Mrs Tucker Before heading out the door, however, Vann goes up to her when she’s standing at the cash register “Thanks,” he tells her “For dinner” She appears genuinely surprised by the thanks, and touched, as the sht “You co your whole fam if you like Try one of our specials, on the house A friend of Toby’s is a friend of the Tuckers”

Outside in the darkness of near-ht as we make our sloay to my house, Vann asks, “Who are the Tuckers?”

“The lady you talked to, Mrs Tucker, she’s Billy’s ’s husband”

Vann takes a second to process that “And she likes you? Even though her son-in-law runs a team full of meathead morons?”

“It’s more complicated than that,” I try to explain to hi’s little brother Jimmy, who keeps in touch with me from his place in Arizona He’s bi and married to—well, do you really want the whole story? There’s a lot of luggage to unpack there, if you get me”

Vann chuckles dryly to hi his head “None of it makes sense to me Everyone knows everyone Everyone is some other person’s in-law or cousin or s”

“Welcome to Spruce, Texas”

The atet to my house When we make it there and slip into the shed, I feel all ofup with anticipation—while Vann i his backpack by the foot ofon the TV Clearly not as relaxed as he is, I hang up my apron stiffly, aardly kick off oing back and forth in o over the script, or if we’re too exhausted to Isn’t that why I invited hiet ood script? Just say so Be bold Take the advice of literally every person in your life—Jimmy, Mrs Tucker, even Vann himself

“Do you want to—?” My throat closes up I fight it and get o over scene four in the script?”