Sleeping Alone by Barbara Bretton Read Free Book Online

of orange juice. “Do we hire her to wait tables or call Vogue ?”
    “You were a little rough on her out there,” he said, grabbing a glass of juice for himself. “Her hands were shaking.”
    “Did you see those hands?” Dee countered, glancing at her own hands with obvious dismay. “I don’t think they’ve done much more than arrange flowers.”
    He’d noticed. Hell, he’d noticed just about everything about Alex Curry, from her thick mane of dark blond hair to the perfectly polished loafers on her narrow feet. She belonged at the Starlight about as much as he belonged at Buckingham Palace.
    He leaned against the sink and polished off his juice. “So she probably doesn’t know from manual labor. Do you want to hire her or not?”
    “You’re the boss,” she said. “You tell me.”
    “Keep it down, will you?” He gestured toward Will on the back porch. “Nobody else needs to know.” Nick, the former owner, had skipped town two months ago, leaving a paper trail of unpaid bills that shocked even his accountant. His customers thought he was visiting relatives in Greece, but the truth was he’d vanished into the ether and wasn’t coming back. The bank had wanted to foreclose on the diner, but John stepped in and took over the payments, with the proviso that his intercession be kept between him and the bank. Too many people depended on the Starlight Diner to let it go down without a fight.
    Dee hopped up on the counter opposite John. “I don’t think she knows the first thing about waiting tables.”
    “Yeah,” he said slowly, “you’re probably right.”
    She inclined her head toward the front of the diner. “Did you see the way the old guys looked at her? I’ll be mopping up drool marks if she comes on board.”
    “Could get messy,” he agreed.
    “It’ll probably take me weeks to get her up to speed. I’ll be working twice as hard.”
    “Which is the last thing you need.”
    Her brown eyes flashed. “Damn right it’s the last thing I need.”
    “So you don’t want to hire her.”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “So what are you saying?”
    “Hire her.” She tossed a plastic tub of maple syrup at him. “You’ve always been a sucker for a hard-luck story.”
    “Who says she’s a hard-luck story?”
    Dee’s familiar glower melted into a grin. “She wants to work here, doesn’t she?”
    * * *
    “That’s it.” The telephone installer crawled out from behind the sofa and slapped dust off his knees. He handed Alex a sheet of paper. “Your phone number is on there.”
    Alex started to laugh as she read off the ten digits. “This is wonderful!” she said, unable to contain her excitement. “Thank you, thank you!”
    “Hey, it’s only a phone number, lady. No big deal.”
    Maybe it wasn’t a big deal to him, she thought as she locked the door, but it was a huge deal to her. A house, a car, and a telephone. Now all she needed was a job and she might be able to hang on to them. So what are you waiting for? Call the diner and give them your number.
    She flipped through the crisp new phone book until she found a listing for the Starlight Diner, then quickly dialed before she lost her nerve.
    “Starlight, Dee speaking.”
    “Hello, th—this is Alex Curry. I came in this morning and spoke to you about—”
    “The job,” Dee interrupted. “I remember.”
    Alex’s knees were knocking, and she sat down on the arm of the sofa. “I—um, I said I’d call you with my new phone number and—”
    “You’ve got the job.”
    Alex slipped off the arm and landed on the end sofa cushion. She must be dreaming.
    “Are you still there?” Dee asked.
    “Did you say I’ve got the job?”
    “That’s what I said.”
    “Oh, my God.”
    “You’ve changed your mind?”
    “No!” She sat up straight, as if phone posture counted. “Absolutely not! I’m thrilled.” Not to mention shocked.
    “So when do you want to start?”
    “I can be there in ten minutes.”
    Dee started to laugh.