Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
They’d cleared quite a few tables, making room for customers who had been waiting in line. She was grateful these would be the last ones before closing. She wanted to take the dogs and go running, get away from everyone. Not think about who in her café might have betrayed her.
She’d gone over the inventory in the kitchen when she’d first arrived to get the baking done before opening. It should have been impossible to tell if someone had just taken a pinch or two of her spices and a few dates, but they’d been in a hurry and had used the same cup to dip into each marked bin, transferring spices from one bin to the next. Two of her special dates had been dropped on the floor. The thief had been in a hurry and was afraid of getting caught. In their haste, they hadn’t been very stealthy.
She’d taken photographs and sent them to Raine before cleaning up the mess. Vaughn came in before the rest of her staff, the way he always did, cheerful and excited to start the day. She couldn’t imagine that he would be the thief, not after all he’d done to help her make a success out of the café.
Raine had texted back one word. Fingerprints. Shabina didn’t want to think about pressing charges against one of her staff.
“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong, Shabina?” Vaughn asked. He took the two plates of food right out of her hand. “I’ll take these to the table for you. I’ve never seen you like this before. Are you sick?”
That would be such a perfect excuse, but if she was sick, she had no business being in the café where she could expose her customers. She shook her head. “I promise to tell you about it later. I don’t want anyone else to overhear us.”
Vaughn had been a big part of her café since the very beginning. He’d sacrificed right along with her. She was certain he wasn’t involved in a conspiracy against her. She couldn’t allow herself to become so paranoid she became suspicious of all her friends.
Sean came in with Edward, and Chelsey sat them at one of the tables with the best views. Patsy was sure to have a word with her. It wasn’t Chelsey’s job to hostess. She worked the outside patio with Nellie. Patsy or Tyrone seated the customers. Shabina found herself watching Chelsey’s interaction with Sean and Edward. She was very flirtatious, touching Sean on the shoulder, giggling like a schoolgirl and leaning in to whisper to him.
When the young waitress moved away, light spilled through the window onto Sean’s face. Shabina’s breath caught in her throat. Sean had a black eye. There was no getting around it: the eye was swollen and bruised. His lower lip was split. Sean didn’t seem to care if anyone saw it either.
Shabina immediately came to the conclusion that Sean had been the one to get into a physical fight with Bale. Her gaze followed Chelsey speculatively. Was he dating her waitress? Or at least acting interested in her, so interested that she might do a favor for him, such as get a few pinches of spice out of Shabina’s kitchen? Would Chelsey do that? When she’d applied for the job as waitress, during the interview she’d confessed she was desperate and living in her car. She’d had no money left and didn’t want to return home. She had implied it was a very bad situation there.
It didn’t exactly follow that Chelsey would show Shabina loyalty over a man she hoped to date just because Shabina had given her a job and found her a safe place to live. Shabina knew people were flawed. She was flawed. She couldn’t expect everyone else to be perfect when she was well aware it was impossible, but she valued loyalty. She didn’t like to think her judgment had been so skewed.
Tyrone, Shabina’s head waiter, seated three women who had been on the bird-watching tour, Val Johnson, Janine Hale and Theresa Nelson, two rows over from Sean and Edward. The women waved at her in excitement. There was no getting around the fact that she was going to have to speak with them. Ordinarily, she would have enjoyed a follow-up visit, but just moving seemed to be difficult, let alone forcing conversation.
Truthfully, she didn’t want to move around the café and call attention to herself, not with Sean and Edward in the building. She didn’t have the energy to put up with any harassment from either of them. She might fall on the floor in a pitiful heap and cry in front of everyone. If she did that, she’d never be able to face her customers again.
She waved back to the women, plastering a smile on her face, and when they indicated for her to come over, she took water glasses and set them on their table. “What a lovely surprise,” she greeted.