Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“This is bad,” I said under my breath so that Harland didn’t hear me. “I just thought you should be warned before taking a sip.”
Her lips quirked up in amusement. “I’ll proceed with caution,” she replied.
“I can get you real cream from the back if you like instead of the powder stuff they have for you to use on the table,” I told her, nodding toward the condiment basket.
She glanced at it, then swung her eyes back to mine. “That would be more preferable,” she replied. “Thank you.”
Relieved to be able to do something to make the coffee taste possibly drinkable, I started to turn and go back to the kitchen.
“Before you go,” she said, stopping me.
I looked back at her, hoping she wasn’t going to order food.
We had not one thing on our menu that she would want.
“Do you like working here?” she asked.
That caused me to pause. My hackles rose, and I took a step back. She didn’t belong here. She was asking questions about me. Had my father sent her? Or worse … had Arthur? I swallowed nervously. I was an adult. I hadn’t thought they would find me here, but if so, they couldn’t force me to come back. Besides, my stepmother had to be thrilled I’d left. She wouldn’t want me to return. I would quit and find another job.
“Why are you asking me that?” The defensive edge in my tone was sharp, but she didn’t wince.
“Because you seem out of place here.”
I seemed out of place? Had she looked in a mirror?
A short laugh escaped me. “I was thinking the same about you.”
She smiled then, a full one, as amusement danced in her eyes. “It’s a first for me. But it seems I might have found more than bad coffee. You see, I’m in need of a sitter for my elderly aunt. She needs help around the house and someone to drive her places.” Her gaze flickered across the restaurant with disdain before coming back to me. “I don’t need to know why you’re here, but I like your honesty and willingness to help. Your concern over my coffee and desire to make it better when you didn’t have to try. It says a lot about your character. The job would pay better, and, well”—she paused—“Aunt Glenda is delightful company. You’d have to live there though. In one of the guest rooms. We don’t want her to be alone at night.”
I blinked. Processed what I had heard and tried not to stand there, gaping at her. She didn’t know me, and she was offering me a job and to live for free with her elderly aunt?
I was sleeping on a blanket on the floor in a studio apartment in a very bad part of town. It didn’t have hot water, and I’d been able to get it for two hundred fifty dollars a month versus three hundred seventy-five because of the no hot water thing. However, once the new water heater was installed, my rent was going up to three hundred seventy-five dollars. I also only had two more days before I was to show them my proof of renters insurance, which I did not have yet.
“If you’d like to take a day to think it over or perhaps meet my aunt first …” the woman continued when I stayed silent.
“No—yes—I mean, yes, I’d like the job,” I blurted out without even hearing what the pay was.
I’d just heard about the bedroom and agreed blindly. She had said it would pay better though. But honestly, even if it didn’t, without the cost of rent and insurance to worry about, it didn’t have to pay better. I would also be safe at night and could possibly sleep. Right now, I was too on edge to rest completely.
The woman smiled then, appearing to relax somewhat. Almost as if she’d been sent to find me, but that was silly. My father wouldn’t do this. He wouldn’t care enough. And Arthur, well, he’d manipulate things until I had to return.
“Seems my flat tire has turned out not to be bad luck after all,” the woman said, then held out her hand to me. “I haven’t even introduced myself. I’m Grissele Cash.”
Cash? That name sent a surge of emotions through me. Even when used as a surname. Kash Savelle immediately rushed to the front of my thoughts triggering so many suppressed things. Memories of a time when life had been safe, when I’d felt alive, when all it had taken was one look from him and all was right in the world.
Wait … I knew that surname. Was she one of those Cashes? No, she wouldn’t be related. I knew from my past that one of their women would never be left to wait on someone to change her tire if she had a flat. She’d have a driver slash bodyguard. And she would never have hired me to live with her aunt without a background check.