Page 7 of Before the Storm
“Have you decided? Because if you haven’t, I can make a few recommendations.”
“Um, I noticed a sign in the window for a waitress-hostess. Has that position been filled yet?”
“Nope. We just started looking today.”
“Would it be possible to get an application?”
“Sure thing,” he said. “And would you like anything to eat? We make a mean breakfast sandwich and our French toast is to die for.”
“I’ll just have some oatmeal.”
“Coming right up and I’ll bring over that application too.” He headed toward the kitchen and put in the order before snagging the paperwork at the hostess station where Veronica stood, giving him the side-eye. “What?” He glared.
“Getting pen and paper to get her contact information?”
“Aren’t you funny,” he said. “If you must know, she’s applying for the open position.” Butterflies danced in his stomach like an incessant schoolgirl. Not that he knew what that was like. But it drove him batshit crazy. Whoever this woman was, she was just a girl. No one special.
“It certainly would be nice not to interview many people.”
“Yup.” He leaned against the podium, sucking in a deep breath. “Are you sure one will be enough to help you?”
“Andrea will be back in two weeks. You’re hiring someone to take over for me when I go on maternity leave. When I come back, you’re going to be overstaffed.”
“You’re not going to want to work sixty hours a week when this little one comes and I’m sure your husband isn’t going to want you to either.”
“That’s true.” She patted his shoulder. “I really do appreciate all that you and your brothers have done for me. This has been the best job I’ve ever had.”
“You’re invaluable to us.” He smiled. “I better go drop this off and make my rounds. If this weather holds up, we’ll be opening the patio in a week or two.”
“I’ll have Jack ensure the heaters are ready.”
“You’re the best, Veronica.”
“Pretty soon, you’ll be saying it to that woman over there.” Veronica laughed.
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“And you’re acting like a fifteen-year-old boy about to get his first kiss.”
Janelle (Aura) Kodi left enough cash on the table to pay the bill and leave an acceptable tip. She stood and stared out the window. This place was perfect. Better than perfect. It was a dream. It was everything she could have hoped for in both location and atmosphere.
She had weathered the storm and found a safe port.
It was far enough away from her previous life and to her knowledge, Lake George had no affiliations to her father’s church or anyone like it. There might be other polygamists, but not all people who practiced plural families married off their young daughters to old men.
This was the spot. This was what she’d been searching for all along. She’d felt it the second she pulled in.
She mustered up all her strength and made her way to the front of the restaurant. She handed the job application to the handsome man, Phoenix, at the hostess station. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen anyone so beautiful before. He had kind, soulful eyes. They reminded her of Jason, the man who saved her three years ago.
She owed Jason her life. Her freedom.
Yet there were parts of her that still felt trapped in the past. She still constantly looked over her shoulder, especially now with her father’s church making headlines.
Another possible relocation for her siblings.
Her sister wives.
No. They weren’t that anymore. She had left all that behind.
