Here Comes Trouble by Erin Kern Read Free Book Online

she’d never had a problem speaking her mind, something told Lacy to keep her mouth shut about this. Chase probably wouldn’t appreciate her sticking her nose in his job. With an apology about the spinach, and an “enjoy your appetizer,” Lacy placed the dish in the middle of the table. Relatively sure her diners were satisfied for the time being, she decided to take a quick break to eat.
    Grabbing her brown bag dinner from her shoebox-size locker, she headed outside to the back of the building. The cool, quiet night of the outdoors beat out the stuffy, small break room. Whenever possible, Lacy ate her meal outside to get a reprieve from all the noise and heat. The time to herself gave her a moment to think about her next drawing and how to go about showing her work in a gallery. Art had always been in the back of her mind from the time she’d been about ten. As a child, she’d take her mind off her father’s whereabouts by day dreaming about working in a fancy studio and selling her own paintings. Why did she have to go and loose her scholarship? She could have used the degree to get a job in Los Angeles or someplace more promising than this. By her second semester of her sophomore year, all the studying and work hours had been more than she could handle. Her grade-point-average had slipped below a 3.5, and the university had taken her scholarship away. Ray certainly hadn’t had any money to support her college education and her father had slipped into whatever hole he frequented. When she’d called Ray to tell him, he’d said something along the lines of getting herself a full-time job so she could afford to stay in her little apartment. That’s what she’d done. She’d applied at several art studios, hoping to get her foot in the door. Unfortunately for her, none had been interested in a kid with no art experience and no college degree. So she’d taken a job as a receptionist at a local law firm. That job had only lasted about a year before she moved on to a customer service representative for a credit card company. Needless to say, Lacy had a track record of hopping from one job to the next. Two years at McDermott’s was, so far, her longest stay with an employer.
    It’s not like she had an inability to commit. Really, she didn’t. After a while, she just started to feel restless with her current occupation. Like there was something better waiting for her somewhere else. She supposed that was her old man’s “ The Grass Is Always Greener ,” motto coming out in her. Thanks a lot Dennis.
    Lacy stuffed the last bit of her sandwich back in the bag as a white station wagon pulled into the parking lot. The headlights almost blinded her when the car stopped at the opposite corner of the building. The lack of light made it hard to see, and she was too far away to identify the driver. Not that she thought that much about it anyway. People pulled in and out of the parking lot all the time. She had just reached into her lunch bag for the apple she’d packed when one of the waitresses came out of the back door and walked to the station wagon. A white plastic grocery bag, filled with something dark, swung heavily from one of the girl’s hands. Lacy recognized the short dark hair and realized it was Jessie. The high-school student almost never worked on a weeknight, so Lacy had no idea what she was doing there. The driver of the car rolled down the window as Jessie approached. She said something to the other person, then handed the plastic bag through the window. It was virtually impossible for Lacy to tell the contents of the bag, but whatever Jessie had in there was big. Lacy tried not to stare. She bit into her apple and fixated her gaze on the ground in front of her. Why was she so suspicious? Just because a few items had gone missing didn’t mean the waitress was sneaking food to her cohort in a white station wagon. Could be a dinner. Could be clothes. She could be returning something she’d borrowed. Not