Page 64 of The Bluffing Game

“Lucia seems to be on that dating app so much that she and the other girls are unlikely to notice anything you have to say.” He grunts as he pours me another shot.

Then he makes his way back down the bar to greet two new diners who want to sit at the bar. I turn around in my seat and observe the dining room. We’ve got ten tables seated, which is good for this time of year, but we’re still not turning the profits we need to stay in business for years to come.

I get up and make my way to the kitchen to see if Gracie needs any assistance, and I can’t help but notice that there’s smoke coming from the stovetop and someone is at the back of the kitchen, cursing up a storm.

“Everything okay in here?” I call out, and I see Izzy’s head popping up from the back. “Where’s Gracie?”

“She went to the store to grab some fresh tomatoes,” Izzy mutters as she flips something in a pan. “She told me to watch this fish, but I think I messed up.” She wrinkles her nose. “I thought the pan needed more butter, but it just started smoking, and I think I might have burned the fish.”

“Why didn’t she ask you or me to get the tomatoes?”

Izzy shrugs, and before I can say anything else, Gracie is back in the kitchen, sniffing like a bloodhound.

“Oh Lordy, what burned?” She waves her hand back and forth in front of her face and grimaces as she heads toward the stovetop. She mumbles something under her breath as she removes the pan from the fire. “You go on back to the front, Izzy.” She places a plastic bag down on the countertop. “I’ll fix this.”

“So sorry, Gracie,” Izzy apologizes as she leaves the kitchen quickly, and I wait until she’s gone to say something.

“You sure you don’t need some real help in here, Gracie? I can find a sous chef or⁠—”

“I know we’re not making enough money for a sous chef, Dalton.” She frowns as she grabs another pan. “I shoulda just sent Jimmy to go to the market for me, but he sure has a bad time picking fresh and ripe produce.”

“I coulda gone.”

“You’re busy.” She looks up at me. “Plus, you have other things to concentrate on.”

“What do you mean?” I say a little too sharply.

Has she seen me scrolling on my phone or checking out Sage? I thought I’d been careful, but maybe I hadn’t been.

“With Toby’s mom and the new businesses,” she says matter-of-factly.

Of course, she meant those things.

“How’s that going, by the way?”

“Brett has a lead, and we’re going to meet up this evening for fifteen minutes or so. He thinks there’s a possibility that⁠—”

The door swings open, and Sage is standing there with an anxious expression on her face.

“Hey, Dalton. I was wondering if I could have a quick word with you. There’s a customer who is being a little difficult.” Sage makes a face. “She’d like to speak to the manager, and Lucia said that she’s not really comfortable.”

“What’s going on?” I frown as I step toward her.

She’s got an impish smile on her face, and I can’t help but look at what she’s wearing. She looks gorgeous today, and this is the first time I’ve been able to have a one-on-one conversation with her without making it seem awkward.

“She ordered the beef stew, and … well, she’s upset that it’s beef.” She shrugs. “And we don’t really know what to do. She said she thought it was going to be tofu.”

“The name of the dish on the menu is beef stew, correct?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why she thought it was going to be tofu, but she says she wants to speak to the manager or the owner because it’s not acceptable. And Lucia really doesn’t know what she should do because she thinks it’s ridiculous. I also think it’s ridiculous, but obviously, I’m just a server, so I spoke to Jimmy the Fish, and he said that maybe you would want to talk to the diner.”

“Okay, let me go out.”

I smile at Gracie, and she laughs.

“Good luck with that one, Dalton.”

“Thanks, Gracie. And think about the sous chef,” I say to her. “Don’t let money be the reason why we don’t hire one. I can figure it out.”