The minutes ticked by toward closing time, and Rina and I worked on the afternoon checklist. I was checking our inventory of oat milk when she said, “Hey, Piper? I’ve been meaning to mention something.”
“Oh?”
“I feel conflicted though. Like, I’m not the type to badmouth another employee, and that’s not what I’m trying to do. But I’m just concerned, you know?”
I turned away from the supply shelf and faced her. “I can’t read your mind, Rina. You’ll have to be more specific. What’s going on? Who are you concerned about?”
“It’s Dillon,” she said quietly. As if someone might overhear, though our customers had left and it was just us in the shop. “The past few days, while you were out dealing with your family stuff, he hasn’t been acting like himself. Burned half the batches of croissants. And yesterday, he switched salt for sugar in a batch of scones. Thankfully we noticed before serving any.”
“Okay, yeah. That’s definitely bad.” Today was Dillon’s day off, so another of my employees had handled the baking. I hoped he was alright. “Thanks for letting me know, Rina.”
I had to tread carefully about personal questions with my employees. Maybe the baking mishaps meant nothing. Everybody screwed up sometimes. But if Dillon had an issue and needed time off, I hoped he would talk to me instead of suffering in silence.
I made a mental note to give Dillon a call later in my office.
About ten minutes before closing time, the bell on the door jingled. “Welcome,” I said automatically, then did a double-take when I noticed who it was.
Zach Kirby.
“Hey, Zach. Haven’t seen you in here in a long while.”
“Piper.” He rubbed his face, eyes darting around. “Yeah, I’mnot much of a coffee drinker. But I could use a bottle of water. And maybe one of those blueberry muffins.”
Sometimes I forgot that Zach was Dillon’s older brother. The two of them shared the same dark hair as their mom. Zach had graduated from Silver Ridge High the same year as Grace and me.
Dillon was much younger, and as far as I knew, he wasn’t that close to Zach. Or so the local gossip went. I’d mentioned Zach to Dillon a time or two, but Dillon never said much. And I almost never saw the two of them together.
But maybe that had more to do with their family’s past tragedy than anything else. While hardship could bring a family together, it could just as easily tear it apart.
Given my discussion with Rina just a few minutes ago, though, it was hard to imagine Zach’s appearance was a coincidence.
I grabbed the tongs and opened the bakery case. “Were you hoping to see Dillon here? He’s not working today.”
“Actually, I’m here to seeyou.”
“Me?”
His gaze moved around the shop again. “It’s a little sensitive.”
If this wasn’t about Dillon, there was only one other subject I could think of. The incident last week, when Zach and his coworker Earl had found the fake drugs at Grayden’s place.
Couldn’t imagine why Zach would want to talk about that.
I passed him the muffin in a paper bag, along with a bottle of water. “On the house. How about you come back to my office? We can chat there.”
“Great. Thanks, Piper.”
We passed Rina, who was tidying the kitchen. I opened the office door, going in first, and Zach closed it behind him.
“Have a seat.” I grabbed some stray papers from the chair across from my desk, then squeezed over to my desk chair. “It’s tight in here.”
“Nah, no worries.” He set the water and muffin on my desk. Then rubbed his palms against his oil-stainedjeans.
Now that we were alone, Zach seemed even more anxious. I noticed sweat stains under the arms of his work shirt.
“So? Is this about Dillon?”
“Uh, this is going to sound strange. But it’s actually about Danny.”
