Total pages in book: 767
Estimated words: 732023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 3660(@200wpm)___ 2928(@250wpm)___ 2440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 732023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 3660(@200wpm)___ 2928(@250wpm)___ 2440(@300wpm)
Now I was eating humble pie and hoping she’d take me back. I’d always complained about the rich snobs in Cutthroat, but I realized, in this, I wasn’t any better.
She looked over her shoulder at me, her dark eyebrow raised.
Seeing the mess she was making of the sugar packets, I sighed. “Here, let me do that.” I stood beside her, grabbed the holders and rearranged the packets so they were tidy.
“You never liked things out of place,” she commented.
“I can’t imagine how the customers survived without me the past year,” I replied sarcastically.
She chuckled. “We’ve muddled through as best we can. Especially since Melinda’s out on maternity leave and one of the new night waitresses—Sally Jennings, I think you babysat for her younger sister back in the day—isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.”
The bell that indicated an order was ready rang and Dolly went over to the pass-through window to grab the plates. She walked past me, the scent of greasy fries and burgers followed.
I bit back a smile. Things around here didn’t change.
The bell rang again and Dolly called to me. “Get that, will you?”
I abandoned the sugar packets and went to the window. A cook I didn’t know looked surprised to see me picking up a ticket. “What table?” I asked him.
“Twelve.”
I nodded and stacked the plates up my left arm in a way that was second nature. “Got it.”
Going to table twelve, I handed out the meals, ensured no one needed anything else and went back to the sugar packets. I needed something to keep my hands occupied, and Dolly would make a mess of them if she didn’t let me finish them.
“I’m a disaster,” I admitted when she returned. “My friend was murdered. I no longer have a job. A place to live. I need money to cover my bills and my mom’s. Dolly, I’m a suspect in Erin’s murder.”
She set her hand over mine, stilling it. “What?”
I shrugged. “She was killed while I was sleeping just down the hall. I don’t have an alibi.”
“The truth will come out. It’s awful about Erin. She was a handful, but she didn’t deserve to have an end like that.” She shuddered, then looked to me. “We could use someone who knows her way around the menu and can do more than basic math with her fingers,” she said as she came to stand beside me again.
My hands stilled and I looked to her. “You’d take me back, after what I did?”
“All you did was leave town with a broken heart.”
She waved her hand as I stared at her, my mouth open.
“You knew?”
“I know heartbreak when I see it.” Her keen eyes looked me over. “And I know when that’s over.”
I blushed and made sure my shirt was in place—as if Donovan or Nix had been around to tug it up to cop a feel. I couldn’t help it because, well, this was Dolly. She didn’t have ESP or anything, but she could read people better than they wanted. Like right now.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Mmmhmm,” she murmured.
“What? Do I have a sign on me or something?” God, I hoped not because it would say Double Fucked. I had a hickey on my right boob, but I refused to lift my hand to my neck, worried there was on there I hadn’t seen. Total giveaway.
“Worked out your issues with those men of yours? By the dark circles under your eyes, I’d say all night.”
My mouth fell open. “Dolly!”
“Well?”
I leaned in and whispered, “You knew about… both of them?”
“They used to watch you all the time.”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
She sputtered, shook her head. “They didn’t come in for my coffee. They came here for you. All the time,” she repeated. “Whose section did they always request?”
I thought back. They used to come in frequently. And sit in my section. I’d thought, well, I hadn’t thought. I’d assumed it was one-sided.
“But… it’s Nix and Donovan.” I blushed, thinking about them. Smart, handsome, ridiculously virile. I’d been… so unlike myself with both of them. Together. I wasn’t a prude or anything and wasn’t ashamed about wanting sex, but two men was definitely pushing my sexual boundaries. “I mean, two men. One’s the detective on Erin’s murder and the other will prosecute the case.”
She pursed her lips. “That’s definitely a hot mess, but you’re innocent, so why not be with them?”
“They could have anyone. I mean, you’ve seen them.”
She fanned herself. “They aren’t hard on the eyes, that’s for sure. If I were thirty years younger. Why wouldn’t two men be interested in you?”
I glanced down at the box of sugar packets, then reached in and grabbed a handful, set them on the counter. Without looking up, I stuffed them—neatly—into the containers. “I’m nothing special.”
“Kittredge Lancaster, what happens when you talk about yourself like that?” she scolded in the mothering tone I’d known for a decade, and used frequently enough.