Page 27 of The Night Ride
Dark clouds entered her eyes.I wished I could erase them.Because I saw with perfect clarity, the strain this had placed upon her slim shoulders.
“Good enough.I’ll start here so you can finish what you were doing.And then you can show me the office.Deal?”
She cast a tight smile.“Deal.”
I took measurements of the kitchen, including her dry storage and cold storage, because I was going to be thorough if nothing else.
“Okay, that should do it for the kitchen.Why don’t you show me the office.”
Beth stripped off her oven mitts and laid them on top of the counter with a nod.“Very well.Follow me.”
We headed down a short hall past the dry and cold storage.I’d take measurements of the hall that had the employee lockers and coat racks too.There was an employee bathroom.We couldn’t put one inside the restroom.But I sure as hell planned to place some outside the bathroom to see if there’s any funny business taking place.
“This is the office where I store the tills.”She flipped the lights on.It was a small office.No more than six by six-foot space with a safe in the corner and a small desk with a ten key calculator.
“Does anyone else have access to the safe?
“Yes, my two assistant managers.But none of the other staff do.At the end of the night, they have to count the till, then deposit it there.”She pointed to a secondary safe with what looked like a postal mailbox slot.“Only myself and the two assistants have access to that safe too.In the morning, I double check the deposit and count out the till for the day or one of the assistant managers does.”
“Have you started going through your records of who was working when money went missing?”
“Yes.It was always on mornings I wasn’t opening.And I know what you’re going to say, it was likely the person who opened.But not necessarily.It could have happened the night before and the assistant manager was simply logging the difference.”
What’s more, she didn’t want it to be any of the people working for her.I understood her sentiments.This level of betrayal had to sting.
“Regardless of whether you want to believe that someone you trusted is stealing from you, someone is.And we’re going to find out who.I’m going to measure this room, then I will head out and get the supplies needed.I can come back tonight after hours to install it all.”
She inhaled and nodded.“Okay.Did you have breakfast before you came?”
“No.I was going to pick something up after I was done here.”
“You don’t need to do that.I’ll have something ready by the time you’re done.”Before I could argue that she didn’t have to, she left the room.
She didn’t appear to want to take my head off.
And I wondered if five years ago the timing between us had simply been off.Not because Evan was gone but because we weren’t ready for each other back then.
Could this be our second chance?
Chapter nine
MyfingerstrembledwhenI snatched an egg from the carton.
Get ahold of yourself.
Aiden was simply being nice.He didn’t like me that way.And I wouldn’t want him, anyway.But even that thought was a lie.It felt as if I’d wanted Aiden my whole life.He’s the man I used to measure all the other men I’d dated.
Each one had fallen short—because they weren’t him.How could they when Aiden was the epitome of a hero?He was the blond, all-American hero.He had served his country with selfless determination.
And for a single evening we connected.He’d been there with me every step of the way until my brother interrupted us.It wasn’t until Evan came between us that Aiden realized who I was when I thought he knew.
It hurt more than I’d let on because I thought he’d known it was me.As a former fat girl turned thin, or at least thinner, it had told me that when I was heftier, he hadn’t really looked at me.No one had, but I thought he was different.Instead, I learned that night he was like everyone else.
Not that I was a skinny minnie, I would always have tits and an ass, and I liked it that way.I loved my body.It had taken me a long time to reach this point.To be comfortable in my own skin and not uber self-conscious if I took up more space.
But I’d not realized until Evan’s untimely interruption that Aiden hadn’t recognized me.Because I’d lost all that weight.It meant he was superficial and only attracted to what was on the outside.When to me, the outside was only ten percent of what made up a person.I found being a good person with depth and varied interests the other ninety percent.Because looks faded or were surgically enhanced.But even that couldn’t outrun the passage of time.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, I cracked two eggs into a mixing bowl.Added a pinch of salt, pepper, and heavy cream, then whisked it all together while bacon finished cooking in the oven.
