Page 15 of Colorado Christmas Carol
“You can’t be in here!” she said quickly, darting a glance at the rest of the kitchen help.
“I’ll leave when you answer me!”
“Oh, gosh . . . !”
She rushed him out of the kitchen. Time was of the essence. She could get fired, even though the manager liked her.
“What do you mean, what did I tell her?” she asked under her breath.
“You said I was planning to take her someplace this afternoon! I am not, the hell, taking her anywhere. I’m working!”
She gave him a speaking glance. “If you don’t take her someplace, Dean will!” she said harshly. “He asked her to go with him to the dig, just the two of them. So I told her you might be planning to take her somewhere, so she wouldn’t try to sneak off with him!”
He looked shocked. He blinked. “She didn’t say that.”
“She doesn’t tell you a lot of things, does she?” she asked shortly. “She’s a lovely, sweet child, and you’re too busy to notice! One day you’ll wake up and she’ll be grown and getting married or working somewhere in a profession!”
He hesitated.
“I don’t have time for this. I have to finish the lunch menu!” Essa said, and started to leave.
He pulled her back around gently by one arm. “All right, I’ll take her somewhere,” he muttered. “But you have to come, too.”
Her eyes widened like saucers. “Why?”
He gave her a glowering look. “Because if you’re still here, he’ll probably substitute you for her,” he said shortly.
“He hasn’t talked to me today.”
“That doesn’t mean he won’t,” he said doggedly. “You can’t go anywhere with him alone. Not you or Mellie.”
“But he’s such a nice man! Why?” “I wish I could. It
“I can’t tell you,” he said shortly. “I wish I could. It would make matters a lot clearer.”
She drew in a quick breath. “All right. Where are we going, then?” she asked curtly.
“Someplace . . .” He stopped dead. He didn’t know. “It’s a surprise!” he said. “It’s a birthday surprise,” he added.
Her eyebrows arched. “Whose birthday is it?”
“Somebody’s,” he said. He thought. “My great-uncle’s.”
“Oh. Does he live here?”
“He died two years ago.”
“But we’re celebrating his birthday . . . ?”
“Nobody knows he’s dead but me. So we’re going to see him and eat cake,” he said stubbornly.
“In the cemetery?!”
“Get out of here,” he muttered.
She tugged at her arm, which he was still holding.
“If you don’t come, Mellie will refuse to go,” he added.
