Page 254 of Back in the Saddle

But it was beginning to get hectic, and it was never fun to do any kind of dishes (even if Tito had one of those industrial sprayers on his faucet in the dishwashing area, and that had its times when it could be fun, though that fun didn’t involve rinsing dishes).

“That’s it,” Tex said. “Any questions?” Before anyone could even begin to open their mouths to ask a question, Tex clapped his hands and boomed, “Great! Get back to work!”

He then lumbered off.

Tito shuffled after him.

We all milled about for approximately two point five seconds before Tex bellowed from the restaurant, “Do I have to explain getting back to work?”

Lucia was already gone, Otis and Hunter wandered out, me and my chicks came up the rear.

“Did he become a boss without that being added to our two-minute staff meeting agenda?” Luna asked as we all headed through the kitchen toward the main area.

“I don’t care if he’s boss, I don’t have to do any more dishes,” Harlow spoke aloud my thoughts.

Tex was at the doorway to the restaurant, and as we girls came through, he stopped us.

“You, you, you, and you,” he said.

With each “you” he tossed army knives at us so we had to hop to in order to catch them before they fell to the floor.

Everyone caught theirs except Harlow. Her pink version clattered on the tiles, but she swiped it right up and shot Tex a sunshiny smile.

I noticed Tex had scored an orange one for Luna.

Rad part two.

“This is also for you,” Tex said, pulling an envelope out of the back pocket of his jeans and handing it to me.

It was thick, but wasn’t sealed, so I opened the flap and felt my eyes bug out at what I saw inside.

“Reimbursement for supplies for the camp from Tito and me,” Tex explained what had to be at least two thousand dollars in cash in the envelope.

I looked up at him. “You didn’t?—”

“Shut it,” he ordered. “I didn’t request a convo. I handed you reimbursement.”

I didn’t really want to shut it. This was too much.

But the thing was, after all that spending, including adopting Henny and all that entailed, I was running low on Christmas funds.

Now, I was not.

I didn’t get the chance to get another word in, however.

“Uh, are you our boss now or something?” Luna asked.

“Yeah,” Tex stated without hesitation, and we all stared at him even before he went on to share, “Nance and me bought into The Surf Club. We now own a third of this joint.”

That had us all blinking at him.

“You think maybe that was worthwhile to share during our staff meeting?” Raye asked.

“Why?” Tex asked in return.

“Because it’s news worthy of the first-ever SC staff meeting?” Raye suggested.

“Why?” Tex repeated.

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