With a Grain of Salt (Lindell Book 3)

Chapter 37

Walker

It”s not that I expected anything from Claire after having her car fixed, but the glint in her eyes when she drove away this morning made me hopeful that she”d at least call me.

She did text... to tell me that she couldn”t make her shifts at the bar this week. I know it had more to do with her lack of childcare in the evening rather than anything else, but it still left me disappointed. With Maggie back home for the holidays, it leaves me here working rather than spending time with her. Megan can”t handle the bar all by herself, and I know this is something I need to prepare for. I only have one more semester with Maggie working here, and I depend on her too much as it is.

I”m running through the idea of offering to pay for her post-graduate education if she agrees to work here when a dropped bottle clinks on the bar.

I look down and see Mac grumbling to himself as beer suds spread out in front of him.

I grab a bar towel and make my way to him.

”Bad day?”

”Bad month,” he grumbles.

”On the house,” I tell him, placing a fresh beer in front of him after getting the spill cleaned up.

”Thanks,” he says, lifting the thing to his lips and taking a drink without incident this time.

”Want to talk about it?”

”Not really,” he grumbles, but I know he”s either going to talk about it now, or he”ll be jabbering about it after a few more beers.

”I”m here if you need me,” I say, tapping my knuckles on the bar top in front of him before turning to walk away.

”Hey, before you go.”

I turn back to him, hiding my smile. Most people want to talk. They want advice. Claire is a different breed, wanting to struggle and fight her battles all alone.

”What”s up?”

”Are you hiring?”

This question throws me for a loop.

”If you worked here, you wouldn”t be able to drink beer while on the clock,” I tell him with a laugh.

He laughs too, but he shakes his head while he”s doing it.

”My cousin mentioned wanting to move to town at Thanksgiving when she came to visit. I thought she was just blowing smoke, but she called last night and mentioned it again. I think she might honestly be considering it. She asked if there was any place she could work and get good tips. I suggested The Brew and Chew, but I think the gagging noise she made means she isn”t interested in that place.”

”We”re always hiring,” I tell him honestly, even though I told Claire the opposite when she applied both times.

I”ve spent hours actively regretting not hiring her a lot sooner.

”Do you have a link to an online application?”

”Sure,” I tell him, reaching into my pocket and pulling my hand out with my middle finger in the air. ”Name one place around here that’s that technologically advanced?”

He huffs a laugh, nodding because he knows it”s true.

”Let me get you a paper one. Maybe you can have Sage down at the bookstore scan it in for you and you can email it.”

”I have a scanner, asshole,” he mutters.

I”m still laughing as I walk away from the bar and head down the hallway to grab an application from the office. It takes me longer than it should to find it with how Claire has rearranged things. It reminds me that she hasn”t given me a list of things she needs to get this place in order, and that makes me think she”ll never come back. She really needs to stand her ground with the Kennedys and that means not having evening daycare.

My mood is sour by the time I drop the application off with Mac, and I have several customers standing at the bar waiting for drinks.

Megan is making her rounds and staying busy, so I help the customers one by one until the queue is cleared.

The night continues, and it seems like every second drags on.

Knowing that she”s with Larkin and would never come here with her child doesn”t keep me from watching the damn door as if she”ll magically appear. My eyes stay locked on it nearly every second after five, knowing she’s finished her shift at the vet”s clinic.

When seven rolls around, I”m disappointed all over again, even though she called in for her shift hours ago.

The woman has me all tangled up, but I”m not exactly angry about it. If I were getting to go home to her, having her waiting for me in a bed we shared every night, it would make these hours without her bearable, but as it stands right now, I don”t know when I”ll see her again.

I know from history she isn”t just going to pop up someplace to see me. If I want to see her, then I need to be the one to make that move.

I”m considering all the ways I can run into her without making it look too suspicious when I see Riley Wilson walk in and take a seat at the bar a few spots away from Mac.

From the distance they”ve put between each other either, they know each other and hate the other or they never took my advice.

Riley looks just as downtrodden as she did the last time she came in here, and I know from a recent post she made in the town social media group that rather than changing her menu to something more palatable for the people she”s catering to, she doubled down and announced she was offering something I couldn”t even pronounce.

”Hey there, Riley,” I say as I approach her. ”What can I get you to drink?”

”Do you sell whiskey by the bottle?”

”I do,” I answer, not sure if she”s being serious. ”But if you don”t finish it, you have to leave it here. It”s illegal to take it out of the bar.”

”Of course, it is. Getting arrested is just what I need. I can see the headline now,” she says, swiping her hand in front of her face as if indicating something written there. ”Police Chief Cash Tucker was seen dragging a drunk caterer out of the bar.”

”I imagine Bobby John Pritchard would have a field day posting that,” I say with a laugh.

”He”d do it under that anonymous feature like we don”t know it”s him,” she mutters, laughing when I do. ”I”ll take a diet and Jack.”

I make her drink, and flag her down closer to Mac. She reluctantly gets up from her seat and takes the one directly beside him.

“Mac, this is Riley. Riley, this is Mac.”

”We”ve met before,” Riley says, but she still holds her hand out to him.

He looks down at it for a long moment before he lifts his to shake hers.

”We”ve met?”

Riley rolls her eyes as she releases a long sigh, picking up her drink and damn near draining the thing in one swallow.

”Not very memorable, am I?”

”That”s not what I meant at all,” Mac stammers. ”I just... my memory is shit.”

”Is that why you didn”t take my advice about reaching out to her about that catering job you needed?” I ask him.

”Oh!” he says, snapping his fingers. ”You”re that Riley. I left a message and she never called back.”

He says the words to me instead of directing them at her.

I watch as her eyes narrow to slits. ”You wanted me to cater chicken and dumplings. If memory serves me correctly, you urged me to kidnap Ruth and make her give me the recipe before saying that it didn”t matter because no one could ever make chicken and dumplings the way Ruth does. Then you burped and told me never mind. All in the same message. Did you really expect a callback?”

”Wow,” I say, taking a step back because I didn”t know what a can of worms I was opening up. ”That”s a lot to unpack.”

”Clearly I was drunk,” he mutters, as if that made a difference.

”Mac,” I say, my voice marked with disappointment.

He”s a grown man and knows better than to act like that.

He shrugs as he looks at me. ”Are you going to tell me that you think she can make better chicken and dumplings than Ruth?”

I see several people in the bar hear him and turn their attention in our direction. I know to tread lightly.

”Ruth makes the best chicken and dumplings I’ve ever tasted,” I say, nodding to several of the men staring at me.

“See!” Mac says, as if my opinion is the end-all be-all of opinions. I almost open my mouth to tell him I also enjoy tuna directly from the can without even putting salt and pepper on it, but what”s the point? He just wants to be right.

”There is more to food than sauce and lumps of raw dough,” Riley growls.

”You take that back!” Mac snaps, sounding like a child arguing with a sibling. ”You expect people to eat escargot and crap like that. The only people in town willing to eat that mess are junior high boys on a dare.”

Her eyes widen as if he just slapped her in the face. ”Mac Hammer!”

He doesn”t bother to look even a little ashamed when he grins around the mouth of his bottle before draining it and asking for another.

I take a step back, grabbing a beer from the cooler and handing it to him. I want to apologize for even getting involved, but the front door opens and a rowdy group of college students enter.

By the time I think of it again, Riley and Mac are gone and there’s a pile of cash on the bar top to pay for both of their drinks.