“Morning, Farrah,” Guy said from behind her and she turned from the shadowy lanes, leaving her thoughts there for the shiny wood to absorb. They really were very good listeners, and Farrah didn’t have to worry about them spreading her gossip around town.
She joined Guy in the snack bar kitchen, where he turned on the ovens while she switched on the fryers. She put pretzels in the oven and opened a giant can of nacho cheese and put it in the hot water bath to warm.
The night crew sanitized the shoes and bowling balls, and a cleaning team came through the alley in the middle of the night. So Farrah and Guy took care of all the food prep in the morning, and a teenage employee would arrive just before noon to rent out the shoes and assign lanes.
“Camry was asking about you,” Guy said.
“Oh yeah?”
“She says you’re the best babysitter she’s ever had.” He flashed her a smile before sliding half a dozen mini pizzas into the oven.
“I had fun with her too.” Farrah had enjoyed watching the little girl, but she didn’t want to make a habit of babysitting for her boss. She’d helped out in a pinch, because it was his anniversary, and Farrah happened to really like his wife Brianna. They’d driven to the city for a Broadway show, and while her jealousy had topped the charts, she’d fed the five-year-old and played board games and watched movies until they both fell asleep.
Broadway wasn’t the same as the television career Farrah had been aiming for, but it felt too close to the heart. Maybe that was why she’d been prompted to go to the cemetery this morning though she had no desire to conjure up memories of the man who had abandoned her as a child.
A man she didn’t even know existed until a few short years ago. A man whose existence had turned her entire life upside down—literally—and sent her down a path she wasn’t proud of. A path she was still trying to come back from.
Just another reason to let Darren find someone else, she told herself as she took the pretzels out of the oven, brushed them with butter, and sprinkled huge chunks of salt on them. But he hadn’t gone looking for anyone else. Farrah was connected well enough to the gossip lines in town to know.
Guy’s phone rang, and Farrah’s pulse pumped out an extra beat. She hated phone calls before the bowling alley opened. It wouldn’t be a customer calling; they’d call the alley and the recorded message would tell them when the fun center opened.
No, this was an employee about to call in sick. And Farrah knew what that meant.
“Can you work the front desk while I find someone who can come in?” Guy didn’t look weary of his young employees. His fingers flew over the screen as he started texting other people who might be able to cover for the missing teen.
“Sure thing.” Farrah flashed him a smile and stepped out of the concessions stand. If she had to choose, she’d rather be in the back, stirring marinara and frying frozen cheese sticks.
But whatever. This was a job she needed, and one she enjoyed almost all the time. She cast a daggered glance to the only horses in the place—a mural painted on the far wall of the landscape south of town. If she looked carefully enough, she could see Steeple Ridge Farm.
And of course, she’d looked carefully enough while dating Darren, so now her eye flew to the spot with the big brown stable every time she looked at the painting. The stable was only about three inches big in the depiction of the town, but it felt huge to her.
She turned her back on it and used her key to turn on the cash register. She went into the office and opened the safe to retrieve the cash box. With that in place, she checked the shoes, the switches to turn on the lanes, all of it.
The pre-open checklist took several minutes, with the last item on the clipboard to make the rounds of the alley to check for trash, make sure all the racks had the correct number of balls, and pop into the bathrooms to make sure they had been cleaned.
Everything at Pinned was in order, but fifteen minutes remained until they opened. Farrah sighed, realizing that she was ready to go home and her day hadn’t even really started yet.
Seeing Darren had really thrown her off her game, and she took a deep breath to try to center herself. But oxygen alone hadn’t been enough to help her since she’d broken up with Darren.
Three hours later,with the moms-and-children crowd gone, the bowling alley only had one group of older gentlemen still slinging the ball down the lane. The door opened, and a pair of women entered.
Farrah recognized one of them from high school, and her heart shot to the top of her skull. She hated running into old acquaintances, but it was inevitable when she’d returned to her hometown after so many years away.
“Farrah Irvine,” the woman said. She wore a bright smile just like she always had in high school.
“Meagan Bybee.” Farrah smiled back, though hers didn’t feel as natural as Meagan’s looked. “What are you doing here in the middle of the day?” She glanced at the other woman, glad she didn’t have to be confronted with a pair of old classmates.
Meagan had fared well the past thirteen years. Her skin was still smooth though deeply tanned and she carried a flush in her cheeks. Her copper-colored hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, and her eyes glinted with the color of pine trees.
“This is Audra,” she said, indicating the other woman. “We came to meet with Guy about the farm.” Meagan scanned Farrah in her jeans and the ugliest bowling shirt on the planet. “I can’t believe you work here.”
Farrah had heard that at least fifty times in the past year. “It pays the bills,” she said, turning to get Guy.
“Whatever happened to your show career?”
Farrah flinched, wondering if it would be too rude to simply walk away as if she hadn’t heard. But Meagan was only four feet from her. She’d have to be legally deaf to have not heard. She twisted back, not giving Meagan her full attention.
“Which one?”
