Here Comes Trouble (28 page)

He kept his eyes on the road. “Didn’t you enjoy yourself?”

“Very much. The food was great.”

“Then why wouldn’t we do this again?”

She didn’t say anything for about a minute so Chase thought she’d fallen asleep. “It feels too much like dating.”

“And you don’t want to date?” Why did the woman always keep everyone at arm’s length? “Why can’t we just be two friends who have a casual dinner every once in a while?”

She lifted her head off the seat and pinned him with her emerald eyes. “Because you know it’ll be more than that.”

They passed a sign announcing the Trouble Town limits. Chase took a turn off the highway and headed back to town. “What’re you so afraid of, Lace?”

Her finger skimmed along the leather stitching of the armrest. “I’m not afraid, just cautious.”

“Not everybody has plans to abandon you,” he said quietly.

His statement only earned him silence, which was how they spent the rest of the ride back to her house. Lacy was a talker but only about things she was comfortable with. Bring up family dynamics or fears of being alone and she threw the old familiar wall right back up. That was okay. The complexities of Lacy Taylor were something well worth the amount of patience it took to know her.

The porch light by her front door gave off a weak yellow illumination. The fixture looked like it was a hundred years old and sat crookedly on the wood shingles.

Lacy was out her door before Chase had a chance to open his. Did she plan to beat him to the front door let herself inside before he could even say goodbye?

To his surprise she didn’t. After unlocking her front door, she turned to face him.

“Dinner was really nice. Thank you,” she said with a tight smile.

Yep, those walls were firmly back in place. “You’re welcome.” The porch light made her blond hair look like a halo around her head. Her skin had a creamy glow to it and Chase wanted to run the back of his hand down her cheek. Then he remembered his promise not to touch her and jammed his hands in his pants pockets.

“Will I see you tomorrow at work?” he asked when she didn’t move or say anything.

“I don’t have to work again until Thursday.” Her tongue darted out and touched her lower lip. His dick swelled to twice its normal size when her attention focused on his mouth.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said in a near-growl.

She tilted her head to one side. “How would you like me to look at you?”

He took a step closer to her. “Like you don’t want to get into my pants.”

“You’re extraordinarily sure of yourself,” she murmured but didn’t back up when he got close enough for her breasts to brush his chest.

He broke his promise not to touch her and placed his index finger under her chin. “No, you’re just very easy to read.” Then he dropped his hand and turned to walk away.

The front door opened then closed behind him. Little Miss Twiggy was flustered. The knowledge that he could at least crack that unbreakable wall of hers had him smiling the whole way home.

****

She’d been caught red-handed. The evidence was as damning as it was surprising. At first Chase thought he must have been seeing things. Then Anita had rewound the tape so the both of them could stare gape-mouthed at the footage.

Becky-Lynn had been one of McDermott’s most dependable and reliable waitresses. True, the girl was always a little quiet and on the shy side. Since he’d known her, she’d never displayed any suspicious activity or given him reason to look twice at her. With the exception of her calling in sick recently, there’d been nothing strange about her behavior.

“I’ll go get her,” Anita said in a solemn voice before walking out of his office.

He felt exactly as she sounded. This was the ugly side of the job and one Chase hated. No pleasure could be taken from firing someone. And unless Becky Lynn had a really good, reasonable explanation for what he and Anita just watched, her ass was grass.

Upon first viewing, the footage looked almost exactly the same as the one with the other waiter taking potatoes and stuffing them in a bag. However when Chase questioned the boy about it, he’d had an excuse for what he’d done. Apparently it had been a busy night and Phil asked the waiter to grab some potatoes from the low-boy. Not something Chase would have considered, as under normal circumstances the sous chefs didn’t use the wait staff to run errands. The story hadn’t been so outrageous that Chase wasn’t inclined to believe the kid. When Phil corroborated the story, Chase and Anita dismissed the incident as nothing.

The door to his office opened and Anita stepped inside followed by Becky Lynn. The college graduate was a cute girl. Her short, dirty-blond hair always hung down and brushed her shoulders. Her makeup was usually understated, which enhanced her youthful look. But the girl who stood before him now looked like Becky Lynn’s worn-out sister. Her hair, pulled back in a messy ponytail, closely resembled the color of dishwater. Pale skin, accented by a smattering of freckles across her nose, stretched tightly across her face and puffed beneath her eyes. It was a wonder her appearance hadn’t scared off half her customers.

“Anita said you wanted to see me,” Becky Lynn said when she came to a stop in front of his desk.
“Yeah,” he said and pulled one of the chairs away from his desk. “Have a seat.” When she lowered herself at a snail’s pace to the chair, Chase picked up the remote to the television. “There’s something I need you to watch.”

The screen flickered to life and once again showed Becky Lynn entering the kitchen. Chase and Anita stood back while Becky Lynn watched herself take a dinner roll off a tray that had just come out of the oven, and stuff the whole thing in her mouth. Next, she removed two more and shoved them in the pocket of her pants; all while no one around her noticed. In a matter of ten seconds, she’d managed to basically steal three rolls, then stroll out of the kitchen without anyone being the wiser.

When Chase stopped the tape, what was left of the color on Becky Lynn’s face had completely drained. Her tired-looking eyes were round and unblinking.

“I…”

“Didn’t expect us to catch you?” Chase supplied when her thin, soft voice trailed off.

Her throat muscles worked in rapid succession and she lifted her light brown eyes to his. “I was going to tell you. I’ve just been trying to work up the courage because I feel really guilty. But I swear it won’t happen anymore.”

Yeah a likely story and one guilty people always told when they didn’t want to get in trouble.

“Do you have a reasonable explanation for this, Becky Lynn?” Anita asked.

Becky Lynn turned in the chair to focus her attention on the assistant manager. “I have an explanation but I don’t know if you’ll think it’s reasonable.”

Chase crossed him arms over his chest. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”

Fifteen

Thursdays were usually pretty busy at McDermott’s but tonight at least half the tables sat empty. At ten minutes after seven, Lacy figured it was pretty safe to say they wouldn’t be getting a whole lot of other diners. Not that she minded. Normally Lacy thrived on the hustle and bustle that dominated the dining room. But the lack of customers made her pounding head and unusual fatigue easier to bear.

After tossing back two painkillers about an hour ago, her headache lessened to minimal pressure in her skull. As for being tired…she didn’t have an explanation for that. She’d slept a good ten hours the night before and now felt dead on her feet.

“Are you okay?” Diane asked as the two of them waited at the pass for their dishes. “You don’t look so hot.”

Lacy ran a hand across her perspiration-coated brow. “Yeah, I just have a mild headache.”

“I have some Tylenol in my bag,” Diane offered as she drummed her fingers on the stainless steel counter.

“I took something already. Maybe it hasn’t been long enough to take effect.”

A flushed-face Henry hustled to the pass and set down two dishes. “You two gabbing like a couple of mother hens and hovering over me isn’t going to make the dishes go faster. Why don’t you go make yourselves useful by checking on your diners?”

Diane’s heart shaped mouth dropped open at Henry’s orneriness. The head chef was in a bad mood tonight. Lacy had been informed by Becky Lynn that the inventory count of zucchini hadn’t added up. Henry had stormed from one end of the restaurant to the other with a thunderous look on his normally calm face.

“I bought five pounds of it at the market this morning,” he’d said as if trying to work out the logic for everyone to hear. “Now there are only four and a quarter pounds. How does a whole three-quarters of a pound of zucchini just disappear?”

Becky Lynn said Henry’s face had been red as a fire truck, then he’d disappeared up to Chase’s office and hadn’t come down for an hour. Phil had tried to reason with Henry and suggested the guy at the market had made a mistake. Henry only shook his head and produced a receipt, proving he had indeed purchased five pounds of zucchini.

The organization of the low-boys and walk-in refrigerator could make a general proud. Simply misplacing or losing sight of the zucchini amongst all the other stuff wasn’t possible. Ever since the zucchini caper, Henry had been snappy, impatient and all-around unpleasant to work with. The sous chefs had barely said anything other than the necessary words to their head chef.

Diane took her dishes without a word from Henry and did an about face to the dining room.

Suzanne placed a steak dish in front of Henry which he inspected by sticking his finger in the middle. A heavy sigh exploded from him when he jabbed the pan back at Suzanne. “The order was for medium-rare. That’s rare. Do it again.”

The assistant chef knew better than to argue. Muttering a “yes, chef” she marched back to her station and replaced the steak in the oven.

Beads of sweat popped up along Henry’s rust-colored hairline, which he wiped away with a towel he kept slung on his apron. Outbursts from Henry were usually few and far between. The staff had learned to deal with them when they came and stay out of the chef’s way. Lacy was pretty thick-skinned and knew Henry’s verbal attacks were more out of frustration and weren’t personal.

Without so much as a glance at her, Henry practically tossed the plates on Lacy’s tray.

After delivering her dishes, Lacy retreated to the break room to eat her dinner. She’d just tossed her instant meal in the microwave and settled down with a magazine one of the other employees had left at the table when Becky Lynn walked in the room.

Several chunks of lackluster hair had slipped free of her sloppy ponytail. Deep, crisp wrinkles patterned her white work shirt, which wasn’t tucked into her black slacks. Becky Lynn’s eyes, a light caramel color, were bloodshot and were anything but their normal vibrancy.

Lacy set the magazine down when Becky Lynn sniffed and stopped in front of her locker.

“Are you okay? Lacy asked when all the other girl had done was sniff few times.

“I have to leave,” Becky Lynn said in a thick, low voice. “Chase just fired me.”

The metal chair scraped across the floor when Lacy stood. “He what?”

With a shaky hand, Becky Lynn pulled her purse out of her locker. “I don’t blame him. What I did was wrong. But I thought maybe he’d just reprimand me and send me home for the night. Now I don’t know how I’ll pay for prenatal care.”

“What’re you talking about?” Lacy asked after she placed two hands on Becky Lynn’s defeated shoulders. “You’re pregnant?”

The younger girl turned her tear-filled eyes to Lacy. “I have to go.”

“Wait a minute.” Lacy tried to stop Becky Lynn before walked out of the room. “What did you do?”

The muscles in her throat moved up and down. “I’m not supposed to say. It was nice working with you, Lacy.” She pulled out of Lacy’s grasp and left the break room.

“What the hell?” Lacy asked the empty room. Surely Becky Lynn wasn’t the thief Chase sought out? Becky Lynn wouldn’t do anything like that. And she was pregnant? Was Chase aware that he just put a young, pregnant girl out on her ass?

Her microwaved chicken enchiladas sat forgotten as Lacy left the room and headed upstairs to Chase’s office.
 
This was
so
not proper waitress protocol, questioning one’s boss. But Becky Lynn was a solid waitress and surely deserved another chance. She ignored her common sense and opened the door to Chase’s office without knocking.

Inside, the man in question sat behind his desk with Anita standing on the other side. Neither one of them spoke or moved, just turned their heads at their uninvited guest. Fully aware of the fact that Anita stood right there, Lacy said,” You fired Becky Lynn?”

Chase held his hand up. “Not now, Lacy.”

Once again she ignored common sense and stopped in front of his desk. “No way do you think Becky Lynn is the one who’s been stealing?”

“You know about that?” Anita asked, then tossed an accusatory glance in Chase’s direction.

Lacy kept her eyes on Chase. “You’re making a mistake by firing her.”

Thick, dark brows pulled low over thunderous blue eyes when Chase stood from his chair. “I said not now. Anita and I have this handled.”