Page 25 of Summer Ever After
“Huh?”
“Your turn…” I nudged her hand with the rope. “You weren’t paying attention, were you?”
She shrugged. “You got me. Do you think that he’s into me?”
I quickly tied the line and grabbed my plastic bag with my lunch, two peanut butter sandwiches on white bread. I’d been working so much in the past two weeks that I hadn’t had time to go to the grocery store. Christina and Chloe had been busy with their pilates classes and both of them needed to get their highlights touched up, so unlike my sandwich, their schedules had been jam-packed.
“Who. Trey?”
I knew it was Trey. She had been googly-eyed about him since the first day we worked together.
“Yeah. Some days I swear he’s flirting with me, and then the next day he’s colder than this damn lake.”
We walked the pathway to the housekeeper’s cabin, I still couldn’t bring myself to call it the cottage keeper’s cabin. “He probably doesn’t want to get involved with someone who works here on the island. If it got messy, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t get rid of their long-time butler – it would be the tart with the housekeeping cart.” I elbowed her as we entered the lunch room.
Mrs. Graham was sitting at the table, her glasses perched on the tip of her nose, her big brown eyes staring at us. We froze. Had she heard our conversation?
“Daisy. I need to have a word with you.”
Shit.
I hung my raincoat on the hook beside the door and slid my lunch bag into the fridge. “Of course.”
Tara shot me a wide-eyed glance. “Miss Tara, you can start with the powder rooms on the third floor. We’re scrubbing baseboards today.”
“I thought that the third floor was off-limits for the event.” Tara kicked her flip-flops onto the mat by the door and sat to put on her white tennis shoes. Open-toed shoes were against the Starling Estate employee dress code.
The wooden chair screeched as it scraped across the pine floor. Mrs. Graham put her hands on her hips. “Every inch of this property needs to be impeccable. It doesn’t matter if the only living thing that will see those baseboards are the mosquitoes.” Her voice was flat and low. “Got it?” she added.
“Got it.” Tara’s voice trembled. Perhaps we’d been too friendly with Mrs. Graham. She was putting us in our place, and after my comments about dating other staff, my hands started to sweat. Was I about to get fired?
Mrs. Graham took her seat and pointed to the one next to her. “Daisy, please have a seat.”
I slid onto the chair and folded my hands on the table, fully aware that I’d given notice at the factory. If I lost this job, we’d be in serious trouble. Christina’s job paid for their self-care routine, mine paid for the leaky roof and the food in the fridge.
My stomach grumbled as though I’d already been sacked.
“Tara. Before either of you get any ideas, it’s strictly against house policy for employees to date any of the Starling family, or their guests. We don’t have a policy about inter-staff relationships, because we haven’t had to have one.” She glared at Tara. “And I don’t want to have to write one now.”
Tara’s face was as white as her shoes.
“Got it?” Mrs. Graham growled what seemed to be her statement question of the day.
Tara nodded.
“What was that?” Mrs. Graham’s nostrils flared.
“G-g-g-got it.” Tara nodded ten times in a row. She clipped the radio onto her belt. “I’ll be on the third floor if you need me.”
The screen door slammed behind her like it did every time. Even though I knew that it slammed, it still made me jump in my seat. The seat that I was on the edge of, both literally and figuratively.
Mrs. Graham shook her hand and then to my surprise, smiled. “Was it too hard on her?” Her eyes sparkled and I couldn’t help but return her smile, although hers was a lot slyer.
“Just like the three bears. That was just the right amount of toughness.”
“Good.” Mrs. Graham put her hand to her chest. “I can’t have any of you quitting before this damn event, but I also can’t have a maid canoodling with Tr…” She stopped herself from saying his name. So other people had picked up on their flirty banter as well. “with staff when they should be dusting.”
I slid to the back of the chair and unclenched my stomach. She wasn’t going to fire me.
