Page 16 of Waitress at the Shadow Ridge Inn
My words disappointed her—I could tell, even before she said, “You’re too young to be so jaded, building walls around yourself and not letting anyone in. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you and people who care. Let them in, Casey.”
Jessie meant well, but she didn’t understand that those walls had been built to protect others as much as myself. Coming home one night to find my apartment vandalized and my best friend unconscious had been enough to convince me I had to do something. As long as I stuck around, Angie and anyone else I potentially cared about would be in danger. The whole point of my transient, solitary lifestyle was to ensure that no one else got hurt because of me.
As a psychic, Jessie should have picked up on that, I thought meanly.
“No offense, but I didn’t ask for your advice—or anyone else’s for that matter. You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know you are a good soul,” Jessie said quietly. “A good soul that is crying out in pain.”
Jessie removed her gloves, took the bowls from my hands, and placed them on the counter. Before I realized what she was doing, Jessie placed her hands over mine. I tried to pull away, but she was surprisingly strong. Her grip tightened, closing like iron cuffs around me. Her skin grew pale, and her features contorted, as if in pain.
“Jessie! Jessie! What’s happening? Let go!”
I once again tried to extricate myself, but to no avail. Jessie was visibly shaking now, her eyes filled with horror. With effort, she dropped my hands and stepped backward, tears streaking unchecked down her face.
“Are you okay?” I whispered.
Clearly, she wasn’t, but I didn’t know what else to say. I’d never seen anything like that outside of the movies.
“Oh, Casey. I am so, so sorry. No wonder you don’t let anyone close.”
Without another word, Jessie turned, grabbed her sweater, and left through the back door as if she couldn’t move fast enough.
I stood there, frozen in place. I had no idea what had just happened. Admittedly a skeptic when it came to Jessie’s psychic abilities, I couldn’t deny that something incredibly freaky had happened when she touched me.
“Hey, Case, did you find those bowls yet?” Max called, breaking me from my reverie.
Because of the wall that separated the cooking and dishwashing areas, he hadn’t seen any of what had just occurred. Thank God.
“Yeah, be right there,” I answered, grabbing them from the counter and returning to the kitchen, but my mind was on Jessie.
6
I was puttingplastic wrap over the third and final bowl of homemade coleslaw when Michelle came through the swinging doors with an order in hand. I glanced up at the clock, surprised to see that it was the beginning of the early dinner rush. Lou had taken a couple of well-deserved hours off, and Max had been handling the occasional orders of deep-fried bar food while I’d taken over prep.
I hoped Shannon showed soon. I was running on fumes.
“Is Shannon here yet?” I asked.
“Not yet. But someone else is.”
Given the way her eyes were glittering, I could guess who she was talking about. I was in no mood to play that game though and went about doing my thing.
“Can you handle it?” I asked without looking up. “I’m just about done here.”
“No. He wants you.”
She grinned at her own double entendre. I stifled a groan. Steve Ziegler might check a lot of my boxes, but he was a complication I neither needed nor wanted. Well, needed anyway. What I wanted was irrelevant.
Max shot me a sympathetic look over his shoulder. “Sorry, I’ve got to finish prep.”
“Rose said if you don’t get your butt out there right now, I’m supposed to tell Big Lou to pick you up and carry you out.”
I smirked. “Lou’s not here.”
“Yes, he is, darlin’,” drawled Lou, entering from the back. He gave me a wink that said he’d do it in a heartbeat.
My smirk faded, and ire rose up within me, knowing this wasn’t a bluff.
