Lark walked into the kitchen, where there was a secured closet for employees to stash their coats and purses while they worked. It didn’t take her long to rebound, because when she returned, she was all smiles again.
“You’re back!” Lark said cheerfully to the three women doing a wine tasting at the counter.
“Yes,” one of the women said. “You told us last weekend you’d be here today. We were debating what to do this afternoon, and we all decided we needed more Lark time.”
Jessica, another of their servers, asked Lark if she’d like to take over the tasting, since it was obvious the women had returned specifically to see her. Lark nodded and went to work, seamlessly weaving facts about the wine in with anecdotes about small-town life. Within ten minutes, she had the women laughing so hard, they were wiping tears from their eyes.
Maverick gave Grayson a smug grin after they finished eating, making it obvious he’d been eavesdropping on Lark too. “That’s why she’s doing the festival with you. She’s a natural.”
Nora, who’d been restocking merchandise behind another counter, overheard. She came over, dropping down into one of the empty chairs at their table. “She really is. Which is why it’s so difficult to play hardball with her.”
Grayson rolled his eyes. This was exactly why the woman continued to come in late. “Nora?—”
She waved her hand, cutting him off. “I know what you’re going to say, Gray, but you don’t have to bother. I sort of lost my shit on Lark the other day. I feel horrible about it.”
“What happened?” Grayson asked.
“Lark always works her hours,” Nora said. “But not necessarily on the days I assign her. There have been more than a few times when she’s traded shifts with other servers. Which, honestly, is no big deal as long as shifts are covered. I just ask that they let me know when they switch.”
Grayson shrugged. “Sounds reasonable.”
“A few days ago, she and Tonya swapped, but they both forgot to tell me. So when no one showed up for the shift, I thought it was Lark who was missing in action. I tried to call her, but she’d traded so that she could go to see her little sister, Piper, in some summer theater play. Her phone was off. I ended up working the shift myself, so I was pretty annoyed when she showed the next day. Tonya had completely forgotten she’d agreed to trade at all, so it was an honest mistake.”
“One that could have been avoided if Lark had done as you asked and told you.”
Nora raised her hand. “I know, I know. I yelled at Lark, told her there would be no more swapping of shifts at all or coming in late. I didn’t say it, but I alluded to the fact she’d be fired if she did.” Nora snorted. “As if Remi or Aunt Claire would let me fire her.”
Grayson raised his eyebrows. “And yet here she is…coming in late again.”
Nora was as tough as a newborn kitten when it came to her employees. She rubbed her neck. “She was only a few minutes late, and I know she wasn’t just blowing smoke up my ass. She’ll more than make up the time by staying late to mop.”
“Change her work hours,” Maverick suggested. “But don’t tell her.”
Grayson scoffed. “You know there’s a word for that. It’s called enabling.”
However, Nora looked like she was actually considering his brother’s suggestion. “How would that work?”
Maverick leaned back in his chair, placing his arm over the back of the empty one next to him. “Put an earlier time on the schedule. If she’s consistently fifteen minutes late, add that to the schedule she sees, while writing the real time you want her here on your own. Then she’s still working the hours you want.”
“That could work,” Nora mused.
“Is she always late to work, or just when she’s working shifts here in the tasting room?” Grayson asked, aware that Lark started most of her days on the farm cleaning the rental cabins with Remi in the morning before reporting to the winery to serve. The only time she started her day at the winery was when the cabins were empty, or on the weekends when she was performing.
Nora snorted. “I’m only aware of the times she’s late here, because Remi would never snitch on Lark. Remi trying to be anyone’s supervisor is like letting one of the inmates run the asylum.”
Which the entire family, including Remi, knew. That was why Nora was Lark’s direct supervisor.
“The only person to ‘squirrel!’ more than Lark is Remi,” Grayson joked, adding finger quotes around the word squirrel.
“Maybe so, but the two of them get the job done.”
Maverick made a good point. Somehow, Lark and Remi managed to have fun and finish their work.
“Probably a lot easier for them now, since we’re down three rental cabins,” Grayson pointed out.
Theo, Mila, and Maverick had each claimed one of the farm’s cabins, with plans to build their future homes on their own little parcels of the land that had been in their family for four generations.
Grayson would never say it out loud, but he was jealous of his older brothers, of the way their lives were moving forward, even as they were settling down. He was all about stability, routine, and knowing what each day held, but he wouldn’t mind doing that with someone by his side.
