“Oh. Liam’s brother…”
She nods, resting on hand on the back of the baby’s head and rubbing it gently as he sleeps in her hold. “I met your dog the other day. He is so cute. Is he here?”
“No.” I shake my head. “Health code and all that. Can’t really have the dog running around in here all day while I work.” I release a heavy sigh. “I’m having enough trouble not tripping on my own feet without having him under them.”
A little laugh bubbles from her lips. “I’m sure you’re not that bad.”
I blow my hair from my face with a huff. “Oh, I am.”
Her dark brows rise with interest. “You don’t like waitressing?”
Shit.
There I went and opened my damn mouth again inadvertently. I don’t want Elaine thinking I’m not happy here or thankful for the opportunity she gave me with this job.
I shrug. “It’s not bad; it’s that I suck at it.”
Willow exchanges a look with Raven, then surveys the diner. “Can you sit with us for a bit?”
“Umm…”
Raven scans the diner, checking out the three currently occupied tables, which are deep into their meals and don’t look like they need anything right now. “Come on. Just for a minute.”
“I don’t think I should…”
Willow twists in her seat until she faces the kitchen. “Hey, Elaine!”
Elaine pops her head out the door. “What do you need, hon?”
“For Lucky to sit with us for a little while. Can she take a break?”
My boss waves her off. “Of course. Take all the time you need.”
Willow grins at me. “There. It’s settled. Now…sit.”
Do I have a choice?
That all happened so fast that I barely followed it, but somehow, these two women wandered in and finagled getting me an unlimited break from my boss.
Raven slides over and pats the bench for me to sit next to her, and Willow points to the papers spread out between us on the table.
“So”—she waggles her eyebrows excitedly—“I’m opening a candle shop.”
“Oh, that sounds cool.”
I don’t know the first thing about candles other than they provide light and sometimes smell pretty good.
Willow continues, shifting one of the pages over for me to see a sketch of a shop someone drew a design for. “I raise bees, and I make the candles from their wax and use only organic ingredients. I’ve been doing it for a long time. Killian finally got me a space, and I’m hoping to open in the next month or so.”
“That’s really awesome.” She sounds so excited about the project, and her enthusiasm is contagious, drawing a grin from me, too. “Congratulations.”
Raven clears her throat. “Why don’t you get to the point, Willow? She doesn’t have a lot of time.”
Willow glowers at the woman. “Fine. As I was about to say…” She tosses Raven another dirty look before focusing on me and smiling again. “I haven’t hired anyone to help me yet in the store. Because of this little one, I can’t be there all the time. I’m setting up an area for him to sleep in the back office, but there are definitely days when I’m not going to be able to stay and he’s going to want to be at home.”
Where is she going with this?
I must be staring at her blankly because she sits and waits for me to respond.
