Chapter Fifty-Four

Bishop’s Diner was just a block or two off of the main drag downtown, and even though it was crowded with other people who had the same idea to stop by after the parade, Melody and Reid were able to get a booth. The waitress, a woman Melody had gone to school with named Valerie, was nice, though her usual chattiness was curtailed by the crowd, and she’d hustled off to get their drinks while Melody pretended to look at the menu though she was really paying much more attention to Reid than what was printed on the laminated paper in front of her.

“So what’s good here?” he asked, flipping it over a few times before setting it down and locking eyes with her.

Melody felt her cheeks warm and glanced down at the menu. “The chicken fried chicken is good. That’s what I usually get. Most everything is pretty good.”

“Chicken fried chicken,” Reid mused, steepling his finge