“You’re looking for work?” Hal asked.
“I need a job, yes.”
“Do you have any experience serving?”
She hesitated, and that told Gus she was either going to lie or exaggerate.
“In a bar when I was in college.” She fingered the edge of her sweater. “It’s been a few years but I’m a hard worker and a quick learner and I really need a job so I’m willing to do pretty much anything you need.”
Hal seemed to be considering her words. He rested his palms on the edge of the bar and offered a smile. “This place is busy in the summer.” He nodded to the crowd behind her. “And that’s what we call slow. Our numbers more than double over the next few weeks and they don’t let up until after Labor Day.”
“I’m not afraid of hard work.”
Gus watched her closely. She was leaning a bit and held her left shoulder higher than the other, which suggested she was favoring that side.
“Good to know.” Hal scratched at his chin. “If Tully sent you then that’s good enough for me. What’s your name?”
“Faith.”
Gus hadn’t asked the night before. The name suited her.
She didn’t offer her last name, and Hal disappeared inside without asking. He was back a few moments later with some paperwork. “Come back tomorrow at noon with your particulars filled out and we’ll get you training with Cassidy.”
“Thank you. You won’t be sorry.”
Faith glanced at Gus but then dropped her gaze and stepped back. Rolex man wasn’t so easily swayed and reached for her, a sloppy grin on his face. “We need to celebrate. Let me buy you a drink.”
“No thank you.” She took another step back, but Rolex man mimicked her.
“Come on. One drink.”
“I don’t know you.”
“Let’s get to know each other.” The guy winked. “Then you can let me buy you a drink.”
“The lady said she didn’t want one.” Gus pushed aside his half-empty mug and got to his feet. At six-foot five, he had at least six inches on Rolex man and a whole lot of muscle to boot. The guy was soft. One punch, and he’d be on the ground.
Rolex man opened his mouth to say something, but Hal intervened. “I’d think twice about offending an ex-Navy SEAL.”
Bikini girl showed up just then and locked her arms around the man. She giggled into his neck, and with a baleful look at Gus, the two of them turned around and claimed a table up by the stage. Gus didn’t take his eyes off them until they weresettled. When he did, he realized Faith had used the distraction to melt into shadows. She was gone.
She was smart. Gus didn’t believe for one second she’d ever served a drink in her life, but she just might make it work. Didn’t matter, though, because she wasn’t his problem.
It had been a long-ass day, and he finished his beer, paid his bill, and decided it was time to head back to Lawson House. Gus wasn’t exactly tired, but he wasn’t in the mood for company either. Dusk was starting to creep up over the horizon, and lights began to pop around the lake as he made his way back to his truck. The crickets sang, and the frogs croaked. He started his vehicle. With the window down, he drove out of the parking lot, the radio on low, playing some country song about a man who drank too much whiskey and a woman he couldn’t have.
He’d just taken the first bend in the road when he spied a figure walking on the side of it with a dog on a leash. His headlights skittered across her, and she moved closer to the shoulder. It was Faith. The woman with no last name.
Gus drove past slowly and gave a wide berth, then continued on his way for a couple hundred feet before he swore and pulled over. His brake lights lit her up from behind, and her limp was much more noticeable. It was more than a hike back to the town proper, and with it getting dark, she shouldn’t be out here on her own.
With a sigh, he put his truck into park and waited until she was nearly even with him, then poked his head out.
“I’ll give you a ride to town.” He glanced back. Her sunglasses were off, and those eyes of hers were huge. Something about them made him wary because they were full of shadows. He looked away and focused on the animal at her side.
The dog’s ears were up, a soft rumble in his throat as he looked at Gus. He got the impression it would attack him if she asked.
“I don’t mind the walk.” Her words were stilted.
“We’re headed to the same place,” he continued. “And out here the dark is so big it can swallow you whole. It’s dangerous with cars coming up on you with no notice.”
