Natural Born Lawman

Patsy stared at her. “What?”

“You can work right here. I can use the help. The lunch counter’s busier than ever and so’s the pharmacy. The pharmacist can’t keep up with prescriptions and all the gift sales we’re making now that I’ve expanded that section.”

She smiled persuasively. “So, what do you think? Want to give it a try? I can pay you a halfway decent salary and you’ll get tips when you work the counter. I know Dani’s not going to charge an arm and a leg for the house. No one was using it anyway. And you’ll be able to eat here, so you won’t have grocery expenses.”

It was more than Patsy had ever dreamed of when she’d walked through the door a few minutes earlier. Though she’d trained as a secretary, she’d known she wouldn’t be able to find work in that field, not without being able to give references, and she surely couldn’t list Will’s firm on her résumé. This job was ideal. She didn’t have to think twice about it. “I’ll take it,” she said at once.

“You’re sure?” Sharon Lynn asked. “I have to warn you, it gets crazy in here sometimes and I’m going off on a one-week honeymoon at the end of the month. You’ll be on your own. Can you cook?”

“If you’ll go over the menu with me, I can do it,” Patsy assured her. She’d worked in a place just like this back home one summer while she was taking her secretarial training. This job would be a breeze. “And I’ve run a cash register before. I’m sure I’ll pick up the rest in no time.”

“You don’t have to sell me. I made the offer, remember?”

“I wouldn’t want you to regret it.”

“I won’t,” Sharon Lynn said with confidence. “When can you start?”

“What about now?” She glanced over at Billy, who was happily mashing cereal on the counter. “Unless you’d rather I make arrangements for him so he’s not in the way.”

“He’s not in the way. If he gets fussy, you can leave and take him home for a nap. Someone over at Dani’s will keep an eye on him for you.”

Patsy grinned at her enthusiasm and quick solutions to every possible problem Patsy suggested. “You must be really desperate for help.”

“Not today, but given the daze I’m in just thinking about everything that’s left to do for the wedding, desperation is not far off.” Sharon Lynn grinned ruefully and admitted, “And there are any number of people in town who’ll be relieved that someone else is going to help with the cooking in here. I’ve been a bit absentminded lately. It’s given the menu some interesting and not entirely successful twists.”

Patsy grinned back at her as she climbed off the stool and started to join Sharon Lynn behind the counter. “What do you want me to do first?”

“Sit back down and eat some breakfast.” Before Patsy could protest, Sharon Lynn added, “That’s not charity. It’s just common sense. You’ll be dead on your feet in no time unless you’ve eaten something. I think scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast ought to do it,” she decided, going to work before Patsy could argue.

Everyone she’d met so far had been so kind Patsy couldn’t quite believe her luck. Suddenly she regarded Sharon Lynn suspiciously. “Justin didn’t put you up to this, did he?”

“Justin didn’t put her up to what?” the very man in question inquired as he came through the door along with a gust of hot, dry air.

“Hiring me,” Patsy explained, meeting his gaze for an instant.

For once, with his sunglasses tucked in his pocket, Justin’s eyes were visible. She could read the shock registered there. Even though she knew it was justified, it hurt nonetheless.

“Really?” he asked, regarding his cousin warily. “Sharon Lynn, could we talk for a minute?” With a glance in Patsy’s direction, he added pointedly, “In the back.”

“No, we cannot,” Sharon Lynn told him. “I’m busy.” She flipped Patsy’s eggs on the grill, reached for the toast and buttered it, then placed it all on a plate and slid it in front of Patsy. “Enjoy. The crowd will start coming in in about ten minutes.”

Patsy nodded. “I’ll be finished.”

Justin slid onto the stool next to her. She wondered if he meant to intimidate her, but he merely advised, “If you gulp that down, you’ll have indigestion. Sharon Lynn doesn’t go light on the grease.”

She glanced at him. “Worried about my health all of a sudden?”

“Obviously she’s expecting to get a full day’s work out of you. I don’t want to see her cheated.” He regarded her meaningfully.

So, there it was, Patsy thought wearily. The trust he’d promised the day before had barely lasted overnight. She leveled a look straight at him and kept it steady. “I thought you were going to give me an honest chance to start over.”

He sighed. “You’re right,” he conceded grudgingly. “I was.”

“Has something changed since last night?”

“He probably had to answer a lot of questions out at White Pines last night at the family poker game,” Sharon Lynn chimed in cheerfully. “It’s made him edgy.”

“I am not edgy,” he retorted. “I’m just trying to look out for you. Obviously I’m wasting my time. You think you know it all.”

Sharon Lynn grinned at him. “When it comes to Patsy, yes, I do think my judgment’s better than yours. After all, I am the one who predicted…”

Justin scowled. “Never mind.”

Patsy stared at the two of them, trying to guess what the unspoken hints were all about. “Predicted what?”

“Nothing,” Sharon Lynn soothed. “Justin’s just the family worrywart. Why don’t you get back here and fix him some scrambled eggs and a couple of pancakes? I’ll pour him some nice strong black coffee. That ought to improve his mood.”

To Patsy’s surprise, he didn’t argue. Instead he turned his attention to Billy.

“So, young man, what are you up to over there? Has any of that cereal actually made it into your mouth?”

Billy promptly abandoned the mess he was making and reached for Justin. “Up?” he pleaded

Patsy envisioned all the goo on Billy’s hands being transferred to Justin’s starched uniform shirt and winced. “No, baby. I don’t think so.”

To her amazement, Justin ignored her and accommodated Billy. He scooped him up, apparently oblivious to the mess the baby was bound to make of his clothes. Apparently a whole lot more bonding than she’d been aware of had gone on the day before.

“He’s fine where he is. You don’t have to do that,” she told Justin, eyeing him nervously as Billy patted his cheeks with sticky hands.

“It’s not a problem.”

“But—”

“I said it’s not a problem.”

And that, she concluded, was that.

After that, she didn’t have time to worry about it. As Sharon Lynn had predicted, the counter began to fill up with regulars eager for a little breakfast and a lot of chitchat over the latest local gossip. Several speculative looks were cast her way. Ignoring them and the gentle banter that ensued, she concentrated on filling orders as quickly as Sharon Lynn passed them to her.

Even though she never once looked back, she was aware of the precise instant that Justin Adams slid off his stool and left. The prickling sensation at the back of her neck vanished and the tension in her shoulders eased.

When the crowd began to thin out, Sharon Lynn introduced her to the handful of remaining customers. At the sight of a burly man in uniform, her nerves jumped.

“This is the sheriff, Tate Owens, Justin’s boss. Don’t mind the scowl. He looks less fierce once he’s had a couple of doughnuts.”

“I wish,” the man said, casting a longing gaze toward the already depleted display on the counter. “Juice and dry toast for me today. The doc put me on a diet yesterday. He’s grumbling about my cholesterol again.”

“How about some oatmeal?” Sharon Lynn suggested.