Home to Hart's Crossing by Robin Lee Hatcher

you.”
    Unlike Bill with Angie, Chuck didn’t waste any time. He asked Stephanie out that same night. When she said no because of Jimmy, he didn’t give up. He pursued her relentlessly. Little gifts. Flowers. Phone calls. He wore her down with his persistence. And one day, she just couldn’t say no again. After their first date, falling in love with Chuck was inevitable. They were engaged by the New Year, and their wedding was the day after her high school graduation.
    Chuck’s one year in Hart’s Crossing with his aunt, uncle, and cousins turned into a lifetime with Stephanie. Fifty years. How blessed she’d been to be his wife.
    “Did you know Mr. Scott, Frani, before he moved away?” Patti Bedford asked, catching Stephanie’s attention and drawing her thoughts back to the present.
    “Not really. I was only eleven when he left Hart’s Crossing to go off to war. Nothing mattered to me back then but playing with my favorite dolls and trying to escape practicing the piano when my mother told me to.”
    All the women laughed.
    “He must have been a real heartthrob when he was younger.” Patti took several careful stitches before adding, “He reminds me of Sean Connery. Don’t you think so? Very distinguished with that white hair and close-trimmed beard.”
    Stephanie frowned. She didn’t think James resembled the movie star at all. He looked like…James. Sure, his hair was silver and thinning instead of black and thick, but he was still just an older version of the boy she’d known so long ago. Handsome, yes. But Sean Connery? She didn’t see it.
    “Well…” Till set her reading glasses onto the bridge of her nose, “one thing’s for sure. His return has given folks something new to talk about.”
    * * *
    James slid into a booth at the Over the Rainbow Diner and took a menu—one sheet of gold-colored paper encased in a plastic sleeve—from the rack beneath the window. After several days of his own rather pathetic cooking, he was ready for a meal prepared by someone else.
    “Hello.”
    He looked up at the waitress as she set a tall glass of water on the table. An attractive woman in her early forties, she wore a white apron over a red and white striped dress that was straight out of the diner’s heyday. The uniform went well with the retro decor.
    “You must be Mr. Scott.”
    James raised an eyebrow.
    She laughed. “There aren’t that many strangers in town who fit your description.” She held out a hand in welcome. “I’m Nancy Raney. My husband, Harry, and I own the diner.”
    “It looks great in here.” He shook her hand. “Reminds me of when I was a boy.”
    “Thanks. It was pretty run down when we bought the place fifteen years ago. It took a lot of remodeling before we could reopen.” She motioned with her arm, as if inviting him to inspect the interior a second time. “We tried hard to recapture the way it looked in some of the photos that folks like Miss Hart had in their albums. Photos and the memory of some who lived here in the 1940s and ’50s.”
    “Old-timers, you mean?” He chuckled.
    She pretended to be horrified. “I’d never call Miss Hart an old-timer.” The twinkle in her eye gave her jest away.
    “Smart girl.” He glanced again at the menu. “I’ll take the Scarecrow burger with a chocolate shake. Well done on the burger.”
    “Coming right up, Mr. Scott.”
    After Nancy walked away, James dropped the menu in the rack and turned his gaze out the window. Across the street was the Apollo Movie Theater. He’d noticed on the day he arrived that, like this restaurant, it appeared to have been restored, at least on the exterior. The marquee announced that one of the summer’s top action films would be playing over the weekend. Maybe he’d go see it tomorrow.
    The door to the diner opened, and the sound of women’s voices drew his gaze away from the window.
    “Well, look who’s here,” Till Hart said as she and Stephanie neared his booth. “James, were your