Table for Three

by Zoey Thames

  “She is. But we didn’t know that at first. My problem is, it’s always been hard for me to trust.”

  Dan sighed. “I know. After some point, it starts to feel like everyone wants a piece of you. But I’ll say it again. She’s a better person than that.”

  “She proved it to me beyond a shadow of a doubt by calling us out on the carpet for it. Hard to think of her as a gold-digger when she just booted us out of her life.”

  Dan took a sip of his coffee. The mug hid most of his face. Except for his eyes. Which were the bluest blue and a thousand times more solemn than he’d seen in a long time.

  “Not like you to give up,” Dan finally said.

  “Give up? Like hell. She will be mine. I found you, and God knows that makes me one of the luckiest men on this planet. But I’m a greedy bastard. I want her too. She’s meant to be with us. Couldn’t you feel it?”

  Dan slowly nodded. “I felt it all the way through me. And there’s only one other person I’ve felt that way for. You.”

  After that, there wasn’t anything else to do but go about their business. He cursed the necessity, but they had work to do and obligations to meet. The limousine he’d hired to take them to the airport was waiting in their circular, cobblestone driveway, parked near the central fountain. The ride to the private airfield was long but quiet. They said their goodbyes. Their kiss lasted longer than usual. He appreciated how much it meant to have the man he loved hold him, wish him a safe flight, and miss him when he was gone.

  An hour later Lucas was in the air, on his private jet, a customized Dassault Falcon 900LX, and streaking toward Washington D.C. to meet with a bunch of pro-business lobbyists who promised they could do wonderful things for several of the corporations he owned. Promises. Everyone was always making him promises. Maybe things would be different between him and Josie if he had given her more promises right from the beginning. Of course, without her trust, they would only have been more words. He preferred to prove himself with actions, but this time his lack of action had bitten him in the ass.

  He stared out the window at the cloud cover below him like a white blanket stretching all the way to the horizon. He could feel himself brooding, the tension in his body the same as when he was fighting some kind of hostile corporate takeover or pushing through a new direction for a company despite the skittishness of the stockholders. Damn this trip and damn these meetings. He didn’t have the patience or the attention to dedicate to them. He clenched his fists helplessly, feeling his frustration mount. It was a distraction. Irrelevant. Last week it had seemed important. After Friday night with Josie…it meant absolutely nothing.

  Dan was counting on him to make this right. He was responsible for this. Josie was counting on him to make this right too. He smirked, thinking of her reaction if he ever got the chance to tell her that, but it was true. She just didn’t know it yet. He and Dan could bring her the love she deserved. The tenderness, the caring, the shelter, and protection and trust.

  And then he had an idea.

  He yanked out his cell phone and called Dan. Every ring made him clench his jaw tighter. Come on, Dan. Answer me. He only prayed Dan wasn’t sitting on a runway somewhere with his phone turned off for takeoff.

  A huge wave of relief swept through him when Dan finally answered. “Sorry it took so long. Nervous investors needed coddling. Took me forever to escape their call. So what’s up?”

  “As soon as your plane touches down in Dallas. Turn it around and haul ass back to Raleigh.”

  “Why, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong,” he replied quickly, unable to keep the excitement from his voice. “In fact, it’s perfect. A joint business venture for you and me. We’ll make millions. Or we’ll lose millions. The point is, it’s the perfect solution.”

  “Did your plane lose cabin pressure? Because you’re not making much sense.”

  He laughed. “We’re going to buy the Highland Grill.”

  There was a drawn out silence over the cell phone. Finally Dan replied, sounding dubious. “We don’t know a thing about running restaurants. So why would we do something crazy like that?”

  “Remember, last night Josie said the owner was looking to retire?”

  “I remember, yeah.” Another long pause. “This isn’t going to be throwing gasoline on an already burning fire, is it? I mean, we’d be buying the place where Josie works. No way that can go wrong.”

  “That’s why we’re going to buy it…and bring her in as a full partner. Hell, I can even see her running our new chain of restaurants. Maybe even cross-country in a year. This is perfect.”

  “As long as we agree on one thing. If we do this, and she wants out, we sell it again. I’m not going to make her quit. She needs that job.”

  “I promise you that won’t happen. Hell, we’ll sell it to her for whatever she believes is a fair price, that way it’s hers free and clear, no matter what.” He glanced at the clock and frowned. “It’ll take you longer to get back here, so I’ll be waiting for you with the limo. I’ll make all the other arrangements too. Get our lawyer out here, talk to the owner. Make him an offer.”

  “What if he refuses?”

  “I’ll throw money at him until he can’t help but say yes.”

  “I won’t lie. I think I’d do just about anything to set things right with Josie. So if you think this is the best way—”

  “It is. We prove to her that we aren’t toying with her, that we’re serious about how much she means to us, and we give her the break she deserves. Hell, for six months we’ve been watching her work her ass off. Now it’s about time she had some good luck.”

  “I’m in.”

  He ended the call with Dan and took a deep breath. He’d been steamrolling ahead, driving himself on with this new mission, this new chance to make things right. But it was a risk. Risks usually didn’t faze him…but that was because the stakes had never been so high.

  He informed his flight crew that they needed to file a new flight plan. The moment they touched down, he wanted the jet refueled, checked over, and on its way back to Raleigh. To their credit, they didn’t even flinch. He picked up his phone again and quickly scrolled through his contacts. He had a lot of business to conduct and not a lot of time to accomplish it. But he was back in his element. On the hunt for a deal. Chasing a goal that meant everything to him. He was glad Dan was in on it with him.

  Together they could accomplish anything.

  And what they wanted was a waitress named Josie.

  * * *

  If she didn’t get a move on, she was going to be late for work. She glanced at the clock on her car radio. Ten minutes left to make it in time. Good thing traffic on the highway was light, and she was moving fast. She was already dressed in her uniform, so as soon as she stepped through the door, she could punch the time clock, throw an apron on, and get to work.

  Josie wasn’t afraid to admit that it had been hard getting herself motivated today. Heck, Saturday had been just as bad, if not worse. Her energy was low, her spirits even lower. She hadn’t been able to think about heading to work without remembering the amazing time she’d had Friday night, there alone with Lucas and Dan. Since then, that wonderful night had taken on the unreality of a dream. A dream that ended in a nightmare.

  Luckily, Lucas and Dan wouldn’t be coming in tonight, so she’d have a chance to lick her wounds. No, she had to face facts. They wouldn’t be coming in tonight…and they might never be coming back.

  The Highland Grill came into view as she rounded a turn in the road. The parking lot was jam-packed.

  “Oh crap,” she grumbled, glaring at the restaurant as if hoping all those cars were a mirage. Business on Sundays could be brisk but was never as busy as Friday or Saturday nights. It seemed like their customers didn’t get the memo, because the parking lot was overflowing. She bit her lip and scanned for those two motorcycles she knew so well, but she didn’t spot them. She let out a half relieved, half disappointed breath. Looked
like they intended to do as she’d asked and leave her alone.

  That was what she wanted, right?

  Right?

  She parked on the side because the front lot was full and her usual spot taken. What in the world was going on? It was too early for the dinner rush. Poor Christie must be working her butt off, trying to serve the entire floor and the deck. She was surprised Jim hadn’t called her in earlier to help out.

  Voices and low chatter drifted from the back deck. No live music tonight, just the radio, and they kept it low. She hurried up the wooden stairs and stepped into the restaurant. The bell jangled overhead as she entered—

  —And stopped cold at the strange scene before her. It took a second for her eyes to adjust from the bright, late-afternoon light to the darker inside of the restaurant, but blinking them didn’t seem to help. Almost all the booths and tables were full. All locals and regulars from the look. But very few of them actually had any food in front of them. Well, none of them actually. They all had drinks and table settings. They were talking, a few of them waved to her, but everyone in the dining room seemed to be waiting for their meals…

  Josie glanced toward the kitchen and the register, where Christie was standing with both her elbows on the counter and her chin propped in her hands.

  “Welcome to the madhouse,” Christie announced with a wide grin.

  She frowned and headed over to her friend. “Should I be running for the door already? I just got here.”

  “Oh honey, you’re not gonna want to run for the door when you see who we have in back.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Brand-spanking-new owners. Virgins to the restauranting business too, by the look of things. I’m surprised they haven’t burned down the place yet.”

  Josie froze as Christie’s words sank in. She was cold all the way through. It couldn’t be… “New owners? You mean to tell me Jim got someone to buy the place?”

  Christie’s smile grew impish as she pointed to a place behind Josie, out in the dining area. Josie turned around and followed the direction she was pointing, and her eyes widened. Jim was sitting in a booth near the back windows, a beer in his hand, looking as though he hadn’t a care in the world. He saw her staring his way and raised his beer bottle in salute.

  “He’s finally retired,” Christie said. “Just like he wanted. And he has enough to buy that boat he’s always jabbering on about.”

  “Who…who are the new owners…?”

  But she thought she knew. God help her. She thought she knew.

  “Come see for yourself.”

  Josie walked to the pass-through counter where Jim, when he was cooking, would put the ready-to-serve entrees out for her and Christie to deliver to the tables. She looked into the kitchen. A groan slipped past her lips. It was not a nice groan.

  Lucas was wearing an apron over a three-piece suit as he stood at the grill turning hamburgers. That suit looked as if it cost more than her car, and the crazy fool was cooking in it. He was turning the meat, flipping patties, grilling steaks, but next to him on the counter was a plate piled high with a bunch of…hockey pucks? No, those were charred hamburger patties and scorched steaks that only looked like hockey pucks because he’d overcooked them to the point where it was hard to tell the difference. No doubt she could use one to break a window and escape this loony bin if she had half a mind.

  Dan, also wearing an apron over his expensive suit, was preparing the side dishes. He seemed to be making better progress than Lucas, sort of, and was more organized, kind of, but the entire area around him looked as if a bomb had gone off. His apron was covered in stains. Red sauces, white sauces, gravies, barbecue sauce. He was a walking portrait of abstract food art. Some of that spillage had got onto his suit too, and no dry cleaner under heaven or above hell was going to be able to get those stains out. He even had barbecue sauce on one cheek—a swipe of it under one eye, as if it were some crazy, edible war paint. Dan was currently leaning over the Big Book of Recipes that Jim kept with all the recipes and formulas for every Highland Grill dish. His face was intensely focused, as if he were studying for the bar exam, and he was spilling ranch dressing everywhere by not paying attention to where he was pouring. Over the salad bowl edge, onto the counter, then onto his shiny, Italian-leather shoe.

  They were so focused on what they were doing, they didn’t see her. She realized her mouth was hanging open and shut it with a snap. Her heart felt like a lead weight in her chest. Slowly, she stepped away from the counter and made her way back to Christie on legs she couldn’t feel.

  “Slap me,” she pleaded. “Right now. Because I believe I’ve lost my mind.”

  “I’m not going to slap you. No matter how much you beg. Turns out those two good customers of yours are filthy rich gazillionaires or something.” She leaned closer to Josie, her grin spreading. “I told you your life was going to change. Maybe next time you’ll believe me.”

  “This isn’t the change I wanted. This…this is crazy change. I’m stuck in a loony bin somewhere, aren’t I? Talking to myself and drooling and waiting for my next dose of the good pills.”

  Christie laughed. “Now, now. I’ll admit they don’t have the first idea what they’re doing when it comes to being fry cooks. In fact, they seem like damn fools at it. But when I came in, they took me in the back, told me they’d bought the place from Jim this afternoon and that they were giving me a four dollar an hour raise. Four dollars! Hon, you don’t even know how that’s going to change things for me. There’s this fancy paint set Tara’s been wanting for her art, but it’s been too expensive. And I can start saving for a trip to Florida so she can see that Harry Potter theme park—” Christie seemed to catch herself and shook her head. “Listen to me going on. But you should head back there. If they gave me a raise, they’ve got one for you too. We’re a dynamic duo, after all.”

  Josie didn’t want to go back into that kitchen disaster though. Her brain might explode. “Have you actually served anyone yet?”

  “I served the Hamiltons. They were good about it though. Their grilled cheese supreme was burned beyond recognition. And the coleslaw was on top of the mashed potatoes. The boys comped it, promised to remake it, and gave them a gift certificate. The Hamiltons seem happy enough. I mean the boys are trying hard.”

  Josie felt her eyes bugging out of her head. “Why on God’s earth are you calling them ‘the boys’? They…they just took this place over. They should have to work here at least a year before getting any kind of nickname.”

  “Well listen to you, Miss Fussybritches.” But Christie was smiling. “I call anyone who gives me a four dollar an hour raise ‘my boys’ if I want. Now, will you get your hiney into the back and talk to them. They were real interested about when you were coming on shift.”

  That sent an icy chill straight down to her stomach. They were waiting for her while they destroyed her restaurant. Well, Jim’s restaurant—until today—but she’d put so much work into the menu and the place that it felt like she had a stake in it. Clearly rich people were crazy. Maybe smelling all that money made them go insane. Or maybe when they slept in their beds full of hundred dollar bills, the ink got into their skin and poisoned their minds. Something. Because she’d told them off Friday night…and they had responded by buying the entire place where she worked.

  And yet, there they were. In the kitchen. Working as line cooks while Jim sat in the dining area for the first time in forever and enjoyed a cold beer. They were making a terrible hash of things back there, but they darn well looked as if they were trying. There was that. It didn’t make her believe they were any less crazy, but it did make her think that they were, in some way, still the same Dan and Lucas she’d always known. Down-to-earth guys. Gentleman, but not the fancy type. Still, she wasn’t ready to face them yet. Maybe never.

  “But why on earth are all these people here?” Josie asked as she looked around the crowded dining area again. “Especially since we have the two worst cooks in the state right now?”
>
  “Word got around. You know, small towns. They wanted to see what kind of dickens a couple of outsiders could get up to. They all wanted to congratulate Jim, too, for being able to hang up his guns. Or his spatula, if you want to be technical. ’Course, everyone’s worried the food here will go to hell. But right now, I think they’re mostly amused. For now anyway. But if those boys don’t start getting some edible meals out soon, we might witness the first food riot Junction Falls has ever seen. And wouldn’t that be something?”

  “Yeah. We might even make the evening news for once.” And of course, the day when she might end up on TV, she’d rushed so fast to get to work on time that she’d skimped on makeup. But that was simply the first silly thing that came to her mind. Inside, she was torn, staggered, uncertain. Her thoughts were a whirlwind inside her—

  “Dan! Toss me that fire extinguisher! The grilled onions are on fire!”

  If she hadn’t been so numb, she might have started laughing. Or crying. Or both at once. Because they were going to either burn this place down or run it into the ground in one spectacularly disastrous dinner shift. And at the end of the day, that meant she’d be out of a job.

  Christie touched her arm, her expression concerned. “Hey there. You don’t fret, okay? I read both of our horoscopes for today. They said big changes were coming, but they were good changes.”

  She only nodded, not trusting herself to reply. Because she’d frankly had enough of horoscopes and the like to last her for the rest of her life. Suddenly she needed air. Her heart started pounding hard, her mouth was dry, and she realized she might be having a panic attack. She turned on her heel and started toward the front door, desperate to get a hold of herself.

  But as she moved toward the door, someone called her name. She turned toward the sound and spotted Jim motioning her over. He looked cool as a cucumber with his trucker hat pulled low, nursing that beer, and leaning back in his seat. She hesitated, not sure if she wanted to talk to him or not. Even though she was glad he could finally retire, this whole unexpected change might end up ruining her life.