Page 34 of Diesel’s Second Chance

"Remember you? Honey, you were here almost every day for two years straight. Always the corner booth, always buried in textbooks looking stressed." She pulls back, takes in Jackson and Tommy. "Look at you now! All grown up with a family."

I gesture to Jackson. "This is my husband, Jackson. And this is our son, Tommy."

"Beautiful family." Stella reaches out to chuck little Tommy under the chin. "Hello there, sweetheart. Aren't you handsome?"

Tommy buries his face in Jackson's neck, suddenly shy.

"What brings you back to the city?" Stella asks.

"Just visiting. Showing Jackson where I went to school." I glance around the shop. "I'm amazed you're still here. Half the block is completely different."

"Rent control and stubbornness." Stella grins. "The landlord keeps trying to buy me out but I'm not going anywhere. This place is my baby. What can I get you folks?"

"Three hot chocolates," Jackson says. "One with extra whipped cream for the little guy."

"Coming right up. Grab any seat. I'll bring them over."

We settle into the corner booth, the same one I claimed as mine twenty years ago. Jackson slides in across from me with our son on his lap. I run my fingers over the carved initials in the table, dozens of them overlapping each other. Students marking their territory, their relationships, their existence.

"You carve anything in here?" Jackson asks, nodding at the table.

I trace one set near the edge. "Yeah. Right here. Just my initials and the year. Nothing romantic. I was too busy being homesick to think about carving declarations of love."

Jackson's eyes soften. "College was hard for you."

"It was." I look around the shop, remembering late nights and loneliness and phone calls home that never felt long enough. "But it's where I figured out who I was outside of Millhaven. Outside of being the girl everyone expected me to be."

"And who were you?"

"Someone stronger than I thought. Someone who could survive being uncomfortable and come out better for it." I meet his gaze. "I hated being here at the time, but looking back? I needed it. Needed to learn I could stand on my own."

Stella appears with three mugs—two large, one small with a lid. "Here we go. Hot chocolate for the family. I added extra marshmallows to the little one's."

"Thank you." I wrap my hands around the mug, savoring the warmth.

"Choc-it!" Tommy reaches for his cup eagerly.

Jackson helps him take a sip, then wipes chocolate from his chin. "Good?"

"Good!" Tommy confirms, then immediately reaches for it again.

Stella lingers by the table. "You know, I always wondered what happened to my regulars. Most of them I never saw again after graduation. It's nice seeing one of you thriving."

"Thank you for making this place what it was," I tell her. "It saved me more times than you know."

"That's what we're here for." She pats my shoulder and heads back to the counter.

We drink our hot chocolate in silence. Little Tommy makes a mess, getting chocolate on his face, his hands, and Jackson's shirt. Jackson doesn't even flinch, just wipes him down with napkins and lets him destroy the whipped cream.

"So, this is where you'd call me from," Jackson says eventually, a slight smile on his face. "That one time you drunk-dialed me sophomore year."

I groan, covering my face with one hand. "Oh God. I forgot about that."

"I didn't. You called me at 2 AM, completely wasted, telling me you missed Millhaven and couldn't remember if the Krebs cycle involved six carbons or eight."

"It was six."

"I know. I looked it up before I called you back." He's grinning now. "You thanked me very seriously and then told me I was one of your favorite people in the whole world."