Page 7 of Recklessly Yours

After running multiple orders out and then bussing a few tables, I headed toward Bella, who was waving at me from where she stood talking with a group of young guys.

“Need help?”

She shook her head, a calculating smile turning up her lips. “No. These guys were just telling me how they’re visiting from Asheville.”

“Oh?” Tourists from the city were pretty common around here. What was the issue? Were they hitting on Bella? Did she need a rescue?

Before I could come up with an excuse to pull her away, she waggled her brows at me. “Yeah, and they’re allsingle.”

Annoyance flared hot in my veins. I expected this from my siblings, but not from my sister-in-law. But I turned to the guys and smiled.

“Half Moon Lake’s pretty dull. What brings you out this way?”

I listened to their explanation about the team building exercise they were doing and how they were staying at the B&B on the water.

Finance guys from Asheville. It was hard to imagine Bella thought they were my type. But maybe I gave the vibe of loving aged-out frat boys.

For the next five minutes, I tempered my frustration and made friendly small talk, laughing about bad Wi-Fi and encouraging them to check out the local late-night bar.

“Hattie, got a minute?”

I turned, recognizing the voice instantly. Oh, thank God. Saved by the beer rep. I might not need anything special from Julie this week, but I would let her give me the rundown on every single one of her brews just for an excuse to step away.

After a twenty-minute conversation with her, I finally made it back to my office. Smiling, listening to Rhett entertaining Hudson next door in his office, I let out a long breath and dropped into my desk chair. If I’d known that I’d be helping in the dining room for over an hour, I would have put on my flats. Heels kicked off, I leaned back, picked up my phone, and clicked on a text notification from an unknown number.

Don’t throw those away.

Confusion whirled in my mind. Throw what away? I checked the time stamp. It had come through an hour ago. What had I been doing? Running food? I threw a lot of crap away. Wait…

The flowers. A chill ran down my spine, and all the breath left my lungs. What the hell?

Forgetting about my shoes, I hustled to the dining room on bare feet and scanned the patrons. No one paid me any mind. Things had slowed down considerably, but I recognized pretty much everyone here. All that was left was the regular Tuesday lunch crowd.

But an hour ago, I hadn’t been paying attention.

I shifted on my feet and forced myself to take a deep breath. Maybe I was reading too much into the text.

With a sigh, I pushed the uneasiness away. I was too busy to deal with this right now, anyway. I had calls to make and an appointment with a new hire later, and then I needed to take care of his paperwork before I could leave tonight.

Finally, after crossing off every task on my to-do list, I walked back through the dining room and toward the entrance.

“Hey, didn’t realize you were still here.” Rhett came out from behind the bar, his keys in hand.

“Yeah. I got stuck on the phone with the liquor store, then Waylon was late for his orientation. I just finished his paperwork.” I crossed my arms. “He’ll be great,” I added with an eye roll. I was under no illusion that he’d be a valued employee. Not after he showed up late and barely paid attention to a word I said.

For months, it seemed like we couldn’t find anyone who was both reliable and hardworking. Heck, we were lucky if we found a person who possessed either of those qualities.

Rhett chuckled. “Savannah said he was too busy looking at you to learn much of anything.”

I shrugged. I hadn’t paid the young guy much attention other than to help him fill out his paperwork. If he hadn’t listed a handful of past employers, I would have sworn he’d never had a job before. Weird.

“I have two more coming in next week. Hopefully they’ll work out better.”

“Yeah, hopefully.” It wasn’t his fault. He was at least trying to find more reliable, hardworking staff.

He headed for the front doors, and I fell into step beside him.

“Hey, it’s the Williams kids,” Michael hollered from the other end of the bar.

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