Page 63 of Waitress at the Shadow Ridge Inn
Like I said, desperate times.
I didn’t get the chance. Jessie didn’t show, and according to Max, she hadn’t even bothered to call in.
Steve surprised me by showing up partway through my shift. He said he missed me, and he didn’t want to wait until the next day to see me. From the concern in his eyes, I knew it was more than that. He knew how hard Halloween was for me. If I hadn’t already figured out that he was my person, that would have done it. That made what I had to do so much harder. I had so much more to lose if things didn’t go as planned.
I took a five-minute break and coaxed him out back. I needed fresh air and a few moments in his arms if I was going to get through this night.
We spent most of those five minutes kissing.
“You okay?” he asked softly.
“I will be,” I told him. “This helps.”
He grinned that crooked grin, and my heart skipped a beat.
“Good.”
I could hear Lou ringing the bell in the kitchen. “I have to go. Michelle’s doing double duty tonight.”
“Jessie didn’t show up again?” he asked, his brow creasing in concern.
“No, and I’m a little worried. Max said she didn’t call in.”
“Did anyone call her?”
“I doubt it. Rose is still pissed at her for going home early yesterday.”
“I’ll swing by her place on my way back.”
“You are a good man, Steve Ziegler,” I said, rising up on my toes to press my lips to his.
He growled and pulled me against him, deepening the kiss until I felt dizzy from it. “Tomorrow, be ready for extra sausage with those waffles.”
23
It was wellafter midnight when I hung up my apron and prepared to leave. A nearly overpowering sense of déjà vu came over me. Last night, I’d left the inn, expecting I wouldn’t be back, and here I was, twenty-four hours later, thinking the same thing.
I’d said my final goodbyes as I’d tipped out CJ and Max, doing my best to sound like I did every other night, but it wasn’t easy. Regardless of what happened, I wouldn’t be coming back to work here.
I paused at the door, taking one last look around. This place had become so comfortable, so familiar. I knew the people who worked here. Maybe not the details of their pasts, but I had a good grasp on the essence of who they were, beneath the smiles and jibes and surface grousing.
The same went for the inn itself. I knew which tables required a coaster or two to keep them from wobbling, the best way to remove stains from linens, and the secret to killer wings. I’d been determined to remain detached, but somehow, this place and these people had made that impossible.
My knuckles were white as I turned off the narrow mountain road onto the private drive. Up ahead, I could see that the porch lights were on, burning brightly and forming pools before being swallowed up by the darkness. The inside lights, the ones on timers, glowed from within behindclosedcurtains. I knew it was part of the plan Angie and I had worked out, but it still sent a shiver of fear down my spine. I couldn’t see inside as I drew closer. I didn’t know what, if anything, was waiting for me.
I lowered my windows and sucked in crisp, cool air, heavy with scents of autumn. Fallen leaves. A hint of peat and wood smoke. My heart was pounding as I looked and listened for an indication of what was about to go down.
I saw nothing. Heard nothing.
Maybe Angie had been wrong. Maybe Aaron wasn’t coming. Maybe the night would pass without incident.
Even as I thought that, the knot that had taken up residence in my stomach tightened. I could feel darkness hovering nearby, like the charge in the air right before a storm. My guardian angel sensed it too. The urge to turn the Jeep around and flee was powerful.
Tempting, but I couldn’t do that to Angie.
I parked in the driveway, like I usually did, and hesitated. This was it. I knew to the bottom of my soul that tonight, everything would change.
I put my windows up, opened the door, slid out of my Jeep, and listened. Other than the ticking of the engine cooling off, I heard nothing. The usual nocturnal sounds—crickets, frogs, owls, chattering squirrels—were absent.
