Page 111 of Good Directions

29

SAWYER

“That is not a pancake!”

I bite back a laugh—or at least I try—because right now, laughing would be the worst thing I could do. If only it were that easy.

Because Anton’s right. That’s not a pancake. Or at least not any pancake. That is Captain America’s shield in pancake form.

“Sure it is,” Dolly says sweetly. “Syrup?”

She holds up the small syrup carafe, showing off her sparkly engagement ring, an impish grin tugging at the corner of her lips. I think she might be having as much fun with this as Hux is.

“You gotta be shitting me,” Anton mutters. “I’m gonna be here all night.”

“That’s the idea,” Hux says. “And don’t worry, you’ll get the utilities bill for the day too.”

Anton mumbles something else under his breath—something I’m sure includes a few choice words—and I kick him gently under the table, giving him a stop it look. Sighing, he does as I silently ask, picking up his fork and digging in.

“Eat up!” Dolly cheers, before disappearing back into the diner’s kitchen.

“I can’t believe I agreed to this.”

“To be fair, you didn’t really have much choice,” I say, sipping my coffee. My tummy grumbles and I consider sneaking a piece of the ginormous pancake, but opt to wait until Anton has made a bigger dent in it. Don’t want Hux to accuse him of cheating. “But, I do think this was pretty clever on Hux’s part.”

Of all the brothers, we knew that Hux would take collecting his winnings the most serious. After all, he’d kept a running list of ideas all summer just in case. When we walked into the wedding, there was no hiding the conflicted look on his face.

“It’s not that I’m not happy to see you,” Hux had said while giving me a hug that night. “I am. I like having you as part of this family. I just also…”

“Really wanted to win this and rub it in Anton’s face?” I finished for him.

“You have no idea.”

For a split second I felt bad about bursting his bubble. At least until the rest of the Hayes family showed up and the brotherly dynamic took another turn when they all took Hux’s side, saying that I hadn’t arrived by the agreed-upon point of no return. A point I was unaware had existed.

It required a judge’s ruling to settle the debate that had lasted all through Sunday dinner and well into Munch the next day.

Ever the dad, Auggie ruled in favor of the many, I think in no small part as penance for how Anton reacted to the trees being moved. Anton took it in stride, accepting defeat, ready for whatever they threw at him. Well, almost ready.

“If every pancake is this size…” Anton says, taking another bite.

“Is Dolly really going to keep this place open for twenty-four hours, just so you can sit here?” I ask.

I’m just as skeptical now as I was when Hux laid out the requirement—spend twenty-four hours in an all-night diner, but he could shave off an hour for every pancake he eats. The additional condition was added that he could do this at Dolly’s, instead of a random all-night establishment, if he was willing to pay for any extra hours she had to be open, on top of whatever he was eating. Anton jumped at the chance to do it at Dolly’s, rather than drive to one of the places in Tifton. But something told me then that these two had a trick up their sleeves.

Looking at the size of that pancake, I’m starting to think Waffle House might have been the better option.

“I think she’s going to take great pleasure in it.”

“Well, then this is where we’ll spend our Saturday.”

Anton looks at me, his ice-blue eyes making me melt as they hold on to mine, that damn smirk of his taking root at the same time. It’s been a month since the wedding, and he’s still too damn good-looking for his own good. That probably won’t ever change, but if there is one thing I’ve figured out, it’s that somehow, Anton Hayes makes everything right with my world. Even when he’s turning it upside down.

And turn it upside down is exactly what he’s done.

To be fair, not all on his own. The selection committee throwing us all a curve ball and opting to hire someone from outside the organization certainly contributed. No one in my department—or any of the others—saw that one coming. That decision did leave me feeling slightly better that at least I didn’t lose out to Will Nedens.

It also made it a lot easier to walk away when Auggie and Gus approached me with a contract to come work for Hayes. For reasons other than just Anton.