Leigh took a deep breath and exhaled loudly when she located the Garden Grill restaurant Shan had told her about. She'd said a few of her friends would be here. How many friends did Shan consider "a few?" What kind of people were they? Leigh probably wouldn't like these friends of hers, whoever they were. Leigh didn't like most people so assuming she wouldn't like someone before she met them wasn't unfair; it was just simple reasoning.

She almost turned around and went back to Uncle Frank's farm. What did she care if Shan got angry? She barely knew her and she didn't know any of her friends at all. Leigh hated social engagements and she hated meeting new people and she'd much rather be grooming horses back at the farm than trying to pretend she was a pleasant human being just to appease a bunch of strangers.

... But Leigh loved coffee and she could smell the freshly ground beans brewing from inside those Western-style swinging doors. This was the only place in town Leigh could get a cup of coffee, according to Uncle Frank. She'd interrogated him for every known location of a coffee-serving establishment within a fifty kilometre radius of his house. If she didn't get her caffeine fix here, she never would and the withdrawals were getting worse by the minute. Besides, she was usually slightly more tolerable company with a cup of coffee in her hand. She might be able to survive this with some coffee to help her out. Maybe.

With a small groan, Leigh stepped forward and swung open the doors, stepping inside. It was almost laughable how outdated the decor of this place was, but she guessed it fit right into an ol' Western town like this one. There was a stage for a band in one corner of the dining area but there were no musicians using it at the moment. Wooden tables were strewn haphazardly all around the room with the bar at the back. Well she wouldn't be using that unless they were serving coffee back there, too.

"Leigh! Over here!" Shan sat at one of the tables next to the wall along with a blonde guy wearing a cowboy hat that Leigh had never seen before. To Leigh's relief, there was no one else at the table. Socializing with one or two people at a time was much more manageable than trying to be civilised with a large group of strangers.

Leigh walked over and sat down with a nod to both of them. The man started laughing when Leigh came closer and he was able to get a good look at her. "This is the pitchfork-wieldin' warrior woman that nearly gutted ya this mornin'? Ya sure? She's four foot nothin'!" he chuckled.

"4'11", actually..." Leigh grumbled, giving the guy a death glare. "Glad to see my reputation precedes me already and I haven't even been in town for twenty-four hours, yet."

Shan elbowed the man in the side. "Hey, c'mon, Wayne, be nice. She's grumpy. She needs her coffee," she winked at Leigh. Leigh didn't know why but she found herself returning Shan's teasing with a small smirk. Okay, maybe she didn't hate Shan as much as Leigh hated most human beings. Maybe, just maybe, Leigh actually thought Shan might be kind of okay.

"Okay, I have three coffees, black, with sugar and creamers on the side and a large pepperoni pizza, just like you ordered. Enjoy!" a cheerful blonde woman sauntered over to their table, setting down a large tray. The smell of the coffee mingled with the smell of the freshly baked pizza made Leigh's mouth water, but she was confused. She'd just walked in. How did the waitress know she wanted a coffee?

"Oh, but I haven't ordered anyth-" Leigh started to say, but Shan waved a hand dismissively before she slid one of the coffee mugs over to her and plopped a big slice of pizza onto a plate to offer it to her. Leigh took the plate with slow, cautious movements, as if she half-expected this to all be some elaborate prank where Shan and Wayne suddenly yank the food away from her and yell GOTCHA, PUNK! When no such thing happened, she furrowed her thinly-plucked jet black brows, making Shan laugh.

"We ordered for you, Leigh," she explained. "That's why we got the sugar and creamers on the side. We didn't know how you like your coffee and I figured since your uncle's a pizza connoisseur, it might run in the family,"she grinned. "But if I was wrong on that guess, we can order something else."

"No, you were bang on with that assumption, actually," Leigh laughed. Oh sweet Mother Goddess, she had coffee now! Leigh hastily dumped two sugar packets and five creamers into the bitter brown liquid and stirred before taking that first blissful sip. She closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair with a happy sigh. She could already feel that throbbing headache easing away.

"Thanks fer the grub, Carrie. Here's a tip fer ya. Go buy somethin' pretty fer yerself with it, ya deserve it fer deliverin' such great service all the time," the man named Wayne flashed a smile at the waitress and handed her some gold coins. Carrie rolled her eyes but accepted the tip, tucking it into a pocket on her apron.

"You, Mr. Wayne, are a terrible flirt. You're lucky my husband likes you or you'd have found yourself in a spot of trouble with him by now," Carrie teased him. Wayne leaned back in his chair and tipped his hat to the woman.

"Ah, you an' Brad both know I have more manners than that. You can call it flirtin' if ya like, but I call it bein' nice to a lady... an' just bein' nice is all it'll ever be with a respectable married woman like yerself," he assured her. Carrie laughed and shook her head.

"Enjoy your meal, you three," she smiled and walked back to the counter.

"Have a nice day, ma'am," Wayne called after her, then turned his attention back to the two women he was sitting with. Now that Leigh had enough caffeine in her to start really taking in her surroundings, she noticed that Wayne's chair was very close to Shan's, closer than what was generally considered normal even for very close friends. Shan also glanced over at Wayne every now and then out of the corner of her eye with a faint smile of... either affection or just plain attraction, Leigh couldn't really tell. Whenever Shan looked away, Wayne would do the same with her, so the two of them kept exchanging these longing glances at each other without either of them knowing the other was looking at them the same way. Yeah, there was definitely some kind of story there.

Great, so I'm a third wheel, Leigh realised just as she took her first bite of pizza. Well, this was her life now, she supposed. She didn't like to rehash her own long tragic history with men but suffice it to say, Leigh's vision of the future for herself involved a house full of cats and not much else. Over the past couple years, she'd slowly watched all her friends get married and start families, leaving her behind in the process. She was going to have to get used to watching everyone around her be all couply and cutesy with each other if she still wanted to see her friends. I'm supposed to be making friends here. That's what Uncle Frank says, Leigh reminded herself. I'm just going to have to get used to being the only one by myself. It was depressing, she wasn't about to lie to herself, but it was probably for the best. Like her parents always told her, the only way anyone would ever go on a second date with her was if they were getting paid to put up with her.

"Leigh? Ya alright there?" Wayne's voice made Leigh jump slightly. She hadn't realised she was lost in thought. Well, she was doing a fine job of making friends so far, wasn't she?

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," Leigh shook her morose thoughts from her mind and forced a smile on her face. "Sorry, I spaced out. Probably still recovering from being on the road all day yesterday. Travelling always wipes me out," she made up an excuse. It was true. Travelling did leave her tired, so she wasn't being entirely dishonest. "I guess I need more of this coffee," she gave a forced laugh and took another sip.

"Thinking up your next bestseller?" Shan asked through a mouthful of pizza.

"How did you-?"

"Sorry. Your Uncle Frank's chatty," Shan shrugged. When Shan caught the frown on Leigh's face, she swallowed and gave an apologetic smile. "I can see how strangers knowing all your business might suck, though. I'll stop. Promise," she assured her. Leigh's expression softened and her shoulders sagged.

"Nah, don't worry about it. I'll yell at my Uncle Frank later," she told Shan, glancing down into her mug. It was half empty already. Damn. Did this place do free refills?

"Ye're a writer?" Wayne asked with interest, leaning forward in his seat. "I love readin', what kinda stuff do ya write?"

"Yeah. No. I mean..." Leigh stammered. She wasn't used to anyone taking an interest in her writing. It caught her off-guard. "I have one published book. I'm working on another one, but it's not a big deal... I don't know if having one book for sale really makes me a writer, but... I write," she finished awkwardly, fidgeting slightly in her chair.

"That totally makes you a writer! Right, Wayne?" Shan immediately jumped to Leigh's defence. Wayne was nodding his head emphatically before Shan even finished speaking.

"Sure does! Ya gotta learn ta toot yer own horn every once in a while there, Leigh. Where can I buy yer book? I wanna read it as long as ya sign it fer me," he grinned, folding his arms over his denim-clad chest.

"You have to order it... online. That might be kind of hard around here," Leigh admitted. "But if you can get your hands on a copy, I'll totally sign it for you. Both of you. As a thank you for buying it," she looked between Wayne and Shan, smiling. She didn't feel so uncomfortable anymore. She was talking about her passion and even though writing and farming were completely unrelated things, having these new friends of hers take such a keen interest in something she put so much of herself into made her feel like maybe she could do this farming thing, after all. Maybe she wasn't as much of a useless waste as her parents said she was. She decided to keep the whole thing about the farm on the down low, though. Just in case she made herself look like an idiot as soon as she started bonding with them and they laughed at her for getting such a dumb notion into her head. Things were going so well in the conversation right now that Leigh was sure she was about to screw it all up soon.

The screwup Leigh had been expecting from herself never happened, however. The three of them sat there long after they finished their food, chatting away. Leigh learned that Wayne was the local postman... and resident heartbreaker, which made her a little wary of the way Shan kept stealing glances at him. As a fellow woman, she felt some sense of moral obligation to watch out for her, but since Leigh had no idea just how serious these two were or whether those gooey-eyed side glances were anything at all, she decided not to step into any drama over that just yet. She'd get to know them better, first, then decide if getting involved with whatever was happening with Shan and Wayne was necessary at all.

Leigh also learned that Shan was in a somewhat similar position as her. She was staying with her older brother, Henry, on his farm to get away from her folks for a while. They also both had younger sisters named Lynn which was more than a little creepy. What were the odds? Thankfully, that seemed to be where the similarities ended, though. Shan didn't seem interested in taking over her brother's farm or starting her own farm, although she liked helping out well enough. She was working at the General Store for a woman named Miranda and took odd jobs from the Part-Time Job Agency in town. She was trying a little bit of everything to figure herself out.

"That's pretty cool," Leigh told her. "Most people don't get the opportunity to just dabble in whatever they want. They get pressured into locking themselves into one thing as soon as they turn eighteen, but who the hell knows what they want to do with the rest of their lives at eighteen? I knew I wanted to write novels, but that was about it and I still would have liked to try some other things, too... like art, equestrian sports, stuff like that," she confided in Shan, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "You're taking control of your own life and doing things your own way at your own pace. That's an admirable quality to have. Hang onto it. Don't let anybody rip it away from you."

Shan looked somewhat touched for a moment but Wayne spoke first. "Ya know, somethin' about the way ya talk makes me think ya'd get on with a friend o' mine, Leigh," he said, rubbing his chin. Leigh raised an eyebrow.

"Are you trying to set me up on a blind date? Because I'm really not interested," she stated right away. Wayne started laughing so hard, his hat slipped down over his eyes and he had to correct it.

"Believe me, Ford likely ain't interested, either," Wayne cackled while Shan had a hand over her mouth, trying to suppress her giggle fit. Ford must be quite the character. Leigh normally didn't like meeting new people, but weird people? Well. That was much more interesting. "He's the doctor 'round these here parts but he's away at some medical conference right now," Wayne explained. "I'll introduce ya when he gets back."

"Okay. Sure," Leigh agreed, her interest peaked. A weird doctor, huh? She might get some good material for a new book soon enough. That sounded like a story waiting to be written if she ever heard one. She glanced at her watch and nearly knocked over the mugs on the table from jumping to her feet so quickly. "Ah, shit! I told Uncle Frank I'd be back in time to bring the cows in from pasture and do the evening watering," she groaned. "I've gotta go, but thanks for lunch and... oh, here's some money to pay Carrie with," Leigh threw down what she hoped was enough to cover the coffee and at least some of the pizza onto the table. "See you guys around!" she called, already heading for the door.

"Hey, Leigh!" Shan called after her. Leigh stopped with her hand on the doors and turned just enough to look back at her.

"Yeah?"

"Your uncle was right about you. You are pretty nice... y'know, when you're not all stabby-like," she grinned. Leigh burst into a peel of laughter and nodded her head.

"Thanks. Same to you... when you're not 'stealing' turnips," she teased, then pushed the doors open and headed on home.

"I'm sorry, Uncle Frank! I completely lost track of time. I know, I know, I'm irresponsible and inconsiderate and ungrateful and useless and have no hope of making anything of myself, let alone running a farm and I'm gonna get the watering can out right now, I swear, I-" Leigh rambled on in one long continuous breath as she skidded into the barn where her uncle was mucking out one of the stalls.

"Leigh, breathe afore ya keel over an' die on me, would ya?" Frank chuckled, setting his pitchfork against the wall and walking out of the stall, wiping his hands on his overalls. He walked over to his niece and put a hand on her shoulder. "All that nonsense that jus' came outta yer mouth? That's yer ma n' pa talkin', not me," he reminded her gently.

"... 'Kay," Leigh whispered in a small voice.

"Ya ain't even all that late. Things are always runnin' a bit behind schedule on a farm so I'm jus' startin' the evenin' routine now. Now... about the most important thing. Did ya have fun?" he smiled. Leigh smiled back.

"Yeah. Yeah, I did," Leigh told him. "I didn't expect to, but... I did." Frank beamed and affectionately rustled Leigh's ponytail, messing it up.

"'Atta girl," he grinned. "I want ya to be successful on yer farm. I really do an' I think ya will be, but even more than that... I want ya ta feel like ya belong somewhere fer once," he told her. "That starts with buildin' friendships."

"Dammit Uncle Frank, you're going to make me cry again and I'm wearing eyeliner this time," Leigh half-laughed, half-cried, dabbing carefully at her eyes with the corner of her sleeve. Uncle Frank chuckled and pulled a small bell out of his pocket, handing it to her.

"Alright, alright. No more from me," he promised her. "Animals first, then crops. Let's go rustle us up some bovines."