Page 11

Nine

You tell someone they were in your dreams and they automatically think raunchy. Lady, you morphed into a dinosaur and chased me through Kmart.

— Searcy’s secret thoughts

SEARCY

Life was simple.

At least, that was what everyone always wanted you to think.

For the next eight weeks, Anders, Kent, and I spent our summer like we typically would.

I didn’t know about Calliope, mainly because she didn’t acknowledge me at all.

At least Kent and Anders wanted to spend time with me.

Over those two months of summer, Kent went from fourteen to fifteen, and Anders went from seven to eight.

Oh, and my mom still hadn’t shown.

But she sure the fuck kept taking money out of our account when she needed it, so at least I knew that she was alive.

I rolled over onto my back, and my tank top went one way while my breasts went another.

I hated sleeping in tank tops. Sometimes when I woke up in the morning, my left titty was in the kitchen making breakfast while the right was tangled in the bed sheets.

Well, they weren’t that big, exactly, but since I slept in a threadbare tank top, sometimes they had a mind of their own.

Getting up, I fixed my tank and headed to the bathroom, more than aware that I should’ve put some clothes on first.

However, since my clothes were currently in the dryer, probably still slightly damp because our dryer was shit, I didn’t have much of a choice unless I wanted to take my comforter with me.

Luckily, Kent wasn’t up yet, allowing me to get in the bathroom and get ready to go in the laundry room before waking him up.

Anders, bless her sweet heart, was already up and eating cereal by the time I came back out of the laundry room.

“Good morning,” I said. “Are you excited about school?”

She sighed. “I’m not in the same class as all my friends.”

I grinned. “I know. I made sure you weren’t.”

She grumbled something under her breath and followed it up with, “Yeah, yeah. I know you think I talk a lot, but really I don’t. I talk probably about as much as everyone else.”

“True,” I said. “But everyone else doesn’t have Calliope for a sister.

She left a lasting impression with all of the teachers in middle school, and trust me when I say, you don’t want them taking anything out on you that Calliope did.

Just keep your nose clean, be respectful, and listen always.

Make them realize that Calliope is her own breed and make them love you. ”

“I’ll have them eating out of my hand by next week,” she declared. “Is Kent up? The bus just turned the corner.”

“I’m up,” Kent said as he came into the living room fully dressed.

He was in a hoodie, and it was already ninety degrees.

The kid was crazy.

In three months, he’d be wearing shorts and a t-shirt and it’d be freezing out.

“Good,” I said as I walked to the drawer. “I wrote y’all checks for school.”

“Don’t need ’em,” Kent said. “Tear them up. Everyone gets free lunch this year for some reason.”

I paused. “Really?”

“Really,” he said. “Some rich kid’s dad covered everyone for the year.”

That was amazing, and truly something that would help.

Speaking of help, I seriously needed to go.

With school back in, I now had to find a way to do the diner thing on my own.

It was obvious my mother had no immediate plans of coming back anytime soon.

Which was why I had a potential hire coming in for an interview in fifteen minutes.

That gave me just enough time to walk there.

Leaving the house with the kids, I started down the road and they took off in the opposite direction.

I’d just turned the corner of the road we lived on when a sight greeted me that I hadn’t expected to see.

I narrowed my eyes and a pang of unexplained anger hit me at the sight.

Posy.

On his bike.

But with him on his bike was a black-haired beauty that had incredible hair, great boobs, and a smoking hot body.

I dropped my head so that he wouldn’t see me staring and started walking faster toward the diner.

Anger was in each step I took, and I cut the walk down from ten minutes to seven just by sheer anger alone.

The bike stopped somewhere beyond the diner, and I refused to look up as I made my way to the diner’s front door.

Lenny had the place opened up already, and my potential new hire was already at the bar with a cup of coffee in her hands.

The jingle of the bell had both Lenny and the woman looking up.

Since I likely looked like a customer and not the boss, she smiled and turned back to Lenny.

“How would you say you learn the best?” I heard Lenny ask her.

I rolled my eyes at his obvious attempt to appear to care who I hired.

“The fucking hard way,” I muttered as I walked past, shoved my shit underneath the counter overly hard, and then walked to the coffee pot.

I started a new batch because I knew that Tony and his boys would be in shortly, then walked up to the counter and said, “Are you okay with working shitty hours, and making barely above minimum wage for an hour?”

She blinked at me, startled by my abrupt question.

She frowned, looked from me to Lenny, then said, “Um, yes?”

She probably wasn’t okay with it, but when she said she needed money under the table and wouldn’t bother interviewing if I wasn’t okay with that, I figure she just needed a job.

“You keep all your tips, we don’t tip share here,” I said. “You’ll also be responsible for opening. I’ll get here when I get here.”

She nodded, eyes wide.

“What’s your name again?” I asked.

“Fiona,” she answered. “Fiona Bradshaw.”

I nodded. “Fiona, you’re hired.”

She blinked. “Just like that?”

“You were early, you are dressed conservatively, and you’ll take barely above minimum wage. As long as you don’t steal from me, we’ll make a good pair,” I told her honestly as the door jingled.

I looked up to find Tony there and I smiled. “Hey, Tony.”

The door jingled again, and my smile died.

Posy, a guy I’d never seen before, and the girl walked into the diner.

They walked to a table that was in the back of the dining room, and I had to grit my teeth to keep from uttering a few choice curse words.

Tips.

Think about the tips, Searcy.

“When do you want me to start?” she asked.

“Now,” I answered. “You think you can get Tony all set up? His crew usually orders easy breakfasts and coffee. They tip well, though.”

I gave her Tony because I knew he’d be nice to her.

And, looking at how fragile Fiona looked, she might need gentle and nice today.

She looked like one of those owls that were motion activated. Her head was on a swivel, constantly looking around as if she was expecting someone to jump out at any second and say, ‘boo!’

She also had dark circles under her eyes that I couldn’t tell if they were the end of bruises or just lack of sleep.

Her porcelain white skin looked damn near breakable, too.

Her long sleeves and leggings hid everything but her neck, face and hands.

I had a distinct feeling that if I saw underneath the layers, she’d probably be bruised.

Why else cover so much skin?

That was another reason why I’d hired her so quickly.

I knew what down on your luck looked like, and Fiona definitely had the look.

Reluctantly, I walked up to the table housing two bikers—both with their club cuts on the backs of their chairs instead of on their backs for some reason—and the woman.

The woman was gorgeous.

Black hair, blue eyes.

She was tanned, but not overly so.

She was everything that I wasn’t.

Put together, she had nice clothes and not a single hair was out of place despite her just being on the back of Posy’s bike.

“What can I get y’all?” I asked abruptly, not bothering with a greeting.

I kept my eyes anywhere but on the man that fascinated me and simultaneously made me so angry I could spit.

The real question was, why did seeing him with another woman make me so angry?

The man sitting with Posy today looked fancy.

Well, not really “fancy’”as much as polished.

His jeans fit, and they weren’t worn in all the right places like Posy’s were.

He had on a t-shirt that said NO BULL across the front that showed off clearly defined muscles.

However, that shirt looked brand new, like he hadn’t worn it a single time yet.

Meanwhile, Posy had on a shirt that was smeared with something brown, that I was sincerely hoping was dirt and not shit.

But, since he owned a ranch, there really was no telling unless I was willing to get up close and smell it.

“What can I get y’all?” I repeated when no one said anything.

“Are you doing something other than the grilled cheese today?” Posy asked, voice filled with mirth.

I wasn’t in a bad mood just yet, at least I shouldn’t be anyway, but the day was still young.

“No, you can order from the regular menu if you’re interested,” I offered, still not looking him in the eyes. “It is eight in the morning, though. People tend to want to order off a breakfast menu.”

He wasn’t.

He ordered his usual with a grin, letting me know that he was aware that he’d just annoyed me by asking me that question and then doing the exact opposite of what the question alluded to.

I didn’t say anything as I kept my eyes on the notepad instead of looking up at him like my mind was screaming at me to do.

“I’ll have the sampler,” the other biker said, causing me to look up. “I’m starving. Is it a lot of food?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Four eggs, two bacon, two sausage, two biscuits, one thick slice of French toast and two pancakes.”

“Damn,” he said. “Can you add some toast to it?”

“It’ll be an extra dollar,” I answered.

“That’s fine.” He patted his belly. “I feel like I could hack it.”

“You’re an anesthesiologist,” the woman chirped. “Of course you can afford it.”

“Silver, you don’t know me,” the other biker said.

“I think since you’re married to my sister,” the woman, Silver, said, “I know you pretty well.”

I walked off, definitely not in the mood for their banter.

“Oh, you forgot me!” the woman called out.

“I’ll be right back,” I lied.

I wouldn’t.

Maybe I’d send Fiona back.

I didn’t think I could deal with the woman’s cheeriness.

And I didn’t go back.

Not for a full twenty minutes.

Fiona did get their full orders, though.

And another woman that hadn’t been there earlier was now there. Blonde. Curly hair.

Cute as hell like the other woman at the table.

They all definitely fit well together.

I gritted my teeth when their order came up in the window.

Fiona was with another customer, meaning that I had no other choice but to get it to them myself.

Fuck.