Page 14 of Waitress at the Shadow Ridge Inn
“The scoop is, she hooked up with some country-singing wannabe and followed him to Nashville.”
Shit.I reminded myself that it wasn’t my problem. The inn had done just fine before I showed up, and it would continue to do so long after I left.
“Reset or laundry?” I asked, giving Michelle the choice, knowing which she’d choose.
She shivered and took the bus tray from my hands. “Reset.”
I chuckled to myself. Michelle refused to go into the basement. She said the place was haunted by the mischievous spirit of a previous owner. I didn’t know if that was true. If it was, he hadn’t yet made his presence known to me. Although I would admit to experiencing the occasional cold spot and maybe—maybe—the sense that I wasn’t completely alone. As my guardian angel seemed content, I didn’t worry about it.
I grabbed an armful of dirty table linens and took them down to the lower level, where the pair of commercial-grade Speed Queens were.
I liked it down here. It was cool and quiet and peaceful, and no one bothered me. I removed finished linens, napkins, and bar towels from the dryers and put them into baskets. Moved items from the washers into the dryers and then reloaded the washers with the stuff I’d just brought down. I carried the baskets to the long rectangular tables that were probably older than I was and began folding.
It was mindless work and exactly what I needed after a restless night and the craziness of the brunch shift.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been down there, but when I returned to the bar with a stack of clean, folded towels, I found my coworkers huddled together around the bar and speaking in low tones. Their conversation ceased abruptly when they saw me. Any doubts that I was the subject of their discussion evaporated when I caught Lou’s smirk and Rose’s knowing grin.
“Am I missing something?” I asked dryly.
CJ handed me a glass of iced tea with not one, but two slices of lemon, and I knew I was not going to like whatever I was going to hear next. The sense of doom intensified when I saw Michelle practically bouncing on her toes.
“The Zieglers just left.”
Suddenly, I knew why the older couple had looked vaguely familiar. I might not have seen them before, but I had seen their sons often enough. One in particular had been on my mind a lot lately.
What I didn’t know, however, was what their being here had to do with me.
“Okay. So?”
“They wanted to meet you.”
“Me?” I asked, genuinely perplexed. “Why?”
Max, Michelle’s elder twin by minutes, shook his head in sympathy. While he and his sister shared the same dark hair and eyes, their personalities were as different as night and day. Max was as quiet and shy as Michelle was bubbly and outgoing.
“You walked into an ambush,” Max said soberly. He shot the others a disapproving look before disappearing into the kitchen.
“Something you’re not telling us, darlin’?” Lou teased, his eyes dancing with amusement.
“Like?” I prompted.
“Like something going on between you and Steve Ziegler,” Michelle provided unhelpfully.
“Who?” I asked sweetly.
“Don’t even try to pretend you don’t know,” Michelle said. “Shannon already filled us in on how you two were making googly eyes at each other last night. What was it she said, Rose?”
Rose grinned like the Cheshire cat. “That the sparks between you two were so intense that even she felt the heat.”
Speaking of heat, my cheeks felt as if they were on fire. “Sounds like Shannon picked up a fever from one of her kids.”
CJ snorted.
“He’s hot, Casey, and he’s clearly interested,” said Michelle.
“His mother thinks so too,” Rose agreed, swirling her ever-present glass of bourbon. “She said Steve’s been preoccupied lately, and his brothers told her it’s because he’s got a crush on you.”
“A crush? What are we, in high school?” I asked irritably, then added, “No offense, Michelle.”
