Page 23 of The Main Event

“I am not.”

“You are so.”

“I am not.”

“Um … if not you, who is his righthand woman?”

That answer was easy. “Tammy.”

“Oh, please.” Levi made a face that I’d become accustomed to throughout our many years of friendship. “In case you haven’t noticed, our esteemed boss has taken to hiding in the coat closet whenever he hears Tammy’s voice.”

I had noticed that. “He did figure out that Tammy was afraid of other people’s coats pretty quickly, didn’t he?”

“What’s the rationale for that again? I forgot.”

“She thinks that evil witches come to Salem because they believe they’ll be accepted by the dark forces littering the town and that there are evil hex bags in the coat pockets.”

“Ah, right.” Levi bobbed his head. “I knew it was something stupid.”

“Everything she does is stupid.”

“Are we talking about Tammy?” Brittany Spencer asked as she breezed past us with a tray of food. She didn’t wait for an answer, instead deftly delivering it to the lone table in the corner—we were at an odd time, after lunch but well before dinner—before returning to us. She was all smiles. “You have to be talking about Tammy.”

“Do you know anybody else who we could be talking about?” Levi asked.

“Lenny on the loading dock is a bit slow,” she replied.

“Lenny drinks his weight in whiskey every night. He’s not slow, just perpetually hungover.”

“So why do we keep him on again?” Brittany queried.

“Because that’s what George would’ve wanted,” I replied. “He and Lenny were tight. He said Lenny wasn’t always like this, and he wanted to make sure that Lenny didn’t drink himself to death. If Lenny didn’t have a job, he would have no reason to stop every night.”

“I still think it’s a waste of time,” Brittany replied. She glanced around, her eyes conspiratorial, then she lowered her voice. “Has anybody seen the new boss today?”

My heart skipped a beat at mention of Jax. I tried to ignore the ping. “No. Why? He’s not measuring people’s heads, is he?”

“He is not,” Brittany replied. “You need to get on that hat thing, though. I’m not wearing a hat during a busy shift. It will end up in people’s food.”

That was a good point. “What is Jax doing?”

“Oh, it’s Jax now, is it?” Levi challenged on a half laugh. “I thought you were calling him Satan.”

“Only when Tammy is around … and never to his face,” I replied. “What else am I supposed to call him?”

“You could call him Mr. Hunter,” Brittany suggested. “Then you could bend over and let him spank you.”

My mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”

“I’m just saying, I would let him spank me.” She took on a far-off expression. “I would let him spank me so hard.”

“Ugh.” I elbowed her in the side, which only served to make her laugh harder. “He’s our boss. How about we don’t do anything inappropriate with the new boss, huh? I think that would be best for all concerned.”

Levi gave me an odd look. “I don’t know,” he said. “I think he and Brittany would make a cute couple.”

“Oh, I’m not looking for anything permanent,” Brittany said quickly. “I’m just saying that I would let him spank me. I bet he’s good at it. Guys that good looking are great at the spanking but gloss over the other finer details that make things good because they don’t have to worry about pleasing a woman. No matter what they do, there will always be another woman waiting in the wings to let them take a shot because they’re hot.”

It was an interesting theory, but one I didn’t want to dwell on too long. “Let’s stop the spanking talk.” I inclined my head toward the table Brittany had just served. “We have guests.”

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