9. Brady
CHAPTER 9
Brady
“H ey.” The door to the back swings open, and Autumn comes into the bar as I step back inside, leaving the doors open to get a nice breeze going.
“Hey,” I reply to her, “you’re late.”
“Yeah, I forgot I had a doctor’s appointment this morning.”
“Everything okay?” I ask, looking down at her stomach.
“Yup, all is good. Baby is growing the way it’s supposed to grow, although the doctor said the baby is a bit bigger than normal.” I stare at her. “Of course it would be with Charlie’s big-ass head.” She shakes her head and sits down on the stool. “What do we need to talk about?”
“I hired Harmony Cartwright,” I inform her, and her mouth literally hangs open. I can’t even believe I’m saying the words. “I know what you’re thinking, but—” I try to brace for her to tell me I’m out of my mind.
“I’m not thinking anything.” She points at her chest. “You were the one who tore up her résumé yesterday,” she reminds me.
I shake my head. “Yeah, well, I had a change of heart,” I mumble, not ready to tell her the change of heart came when I taught her kid to play catch, and she came out trying to pretend she wasn’t crying. “She is going to try waitressing five days a week. I need you to prepare the papers she has to fill out.”
“Okay.” She takes a deep breath. “Do you want me to stay and train her?”
“No,” I snap immediately. “I’ll be fine. Janelle is coming in also, so she can handle it if we get slammed.”
“Sounds good,” she says, trying to hide the smile. “I don’t know what is going on, but I have your back if anything bounces back on us.”
“Good to know.” I try not to think of the ramifications of hiring her. Could the Cartwrights fuck with us? Yes. Would it be the first time? No. Am I ready for another round? Yes, yes, I fucking am. It’s almost as if I want to go to war with them again.
The day passes by quickly with two tours stopping in and then them staying to eat. I see her walk in out of the corner of my eye. Her blond hair hangs loose, and she’s wearing light-blue jeans that should be tight on her but aren’t. The green T-shirt fits her perfectly, the hem of the shirt falling just above the waist of her jeans, showing off a hint of her stomach. She looks around, spotting me, and I give her a chin up before meeting her at the bar. “Hi,” she says, “I came in early so I can start at six.” She smiles at me, and I can tell she’s nervous since her hands are shaking as she tries to hold on to the strap of her purse.
“Follow me,” I urge, motioning with my head to the back closet. I open the door that has Staff written on it. “You can hang your purse in here.” I motion with my hand to one of the empty coat hangers.
“Okay.” She puts her purse on the rack before grabbing her phone and putting it in her back pocket.
“We don’t tolerate phones while working,” I tell her.
“Can I put it behind the bar, then?” she asks. “It’s just in case something happens with Wyatt.”
“Fine,” I cave, “but don’t let me catch you on it.” She nods at me. “Come this way. You can fill the papers out in the back.” I push on the door and step into the back, going to the office. I grab the file on Autumn’s desk and hand it to her. “Fill these out, then meet me out front.” She reaches out her hand and grazes my fingers before she snaps back with the file in her hand.
“Is there, like, an employee break room?” she asks, and I laugh. “Or a table I can fill these out on?”
“There is a desk and a pen.” I point at the desk. “I have to head back out there.”
As she reaches across me to grab a pen, the scent of vanilla fills my nose. “I’ll fill this out by the bar, away from everyone.”
“Suit yourself.” I turn and walk back out, going behind the bar where Janelle is making her drinks. I look over at her as she stands at the corner of the bar. “You need anything else?” I ask Janelle, who shakes her head.
“Just need a refill.” She motions to the two glasses she put on a brown tray before delivering them to a table of men who came in for the tour, then stayed to have dinner.
I work on the four other orders she has put on the bar since I went in the back, placing them on the trays with the papers. “You done?” I ask when she closes the folder, and she nods. “Okay, you can have those three tables over there.” I point at the three tables in the corner. I grab a white pad of paper. “When you get the orders, come back, and I’ll show you how the system works.” She nods at me and then looks at the table. “They aren’t going to bite.”
“Easy for you to say,” she mutters, making me chuckle as I watch her walk over to the table, taking a second to check out her ass. She walks up to the table, and I hear her introduce herself to the group of women. “I should probably apologize to you guys now,” she says. “It’s my first day on the job.” The women laugh with her. “But I’ll try.”
By the time she makes it back to me, she has three different papers with the orders on them. I see that she drew the table and numbered the chairs so she knows who gets what. “Okay,” she states, “step one done.” She takes a deep breath as I step out from the bar and go to the POS system that Charlie’s grandfather had for us.
“Okay, so you press the table,” I tell her, touching it on the screen, and then show her where everything is. “It’s all numbered so if they order it off the menu, you can just look for the numbers.”
“This girl wants a vodka cranberry with a splash of pineapple juice.” She looks at her paper. “Do we offer that?”
“Yeah, it’s under vodka,” I say, pulling down the vodka menu. “Did they order food?”
“No, I didn’t ask.” She shakes her head. “Should I go back?”
“No, you can ask them when you deliver their drinks.”
“Okay, good. Now, do I have to make these drinks because…” She trails off, and I laugh.
“No, that’s my job,” I inform her, and she looks at me.
“When you do that, what do I do?” she asks.
“You wait,” I tell her, stepping behind the bar with the pieces of paper in my hand.
“Hi,” Janelle greets when she comes to Harmony’s side, “I’m Janelle.”
“I’m Harmony.” She puts her hand out. “First day on the job—ever.” She exhales.
“It’ll be fine,” she assures her. “Brady is the best.” She smiles at her, and I see Janelle look at me, winking. “His bark is worse than his bite. Isn’t that right, big man?”
Harmony looks at me and then Janelle. “Here you go.” I place the drinks on the tray. “You, stop trying to scare her.”
“Me?” Janelle points at me when Harmony walks off. “You’re looking at her like you are going to chew her head off.”
“I am not,” I scoff at her, turning and filling out the orders. For the rest of the night, I teach her to put in orders and take payments. Lucky for me, she’s a quick learner; more importantly, the customers smile when she’s with them.
“Janelle, you can clock out,” I announce at ten thirty when there are only two tables left. “I’m going to show her how to close up.”
“Sounds good,” Janelle says. “See you soon, Harmony.” She waves at her when she grabs her bag from behind the counter. “Later, Brady.” She walks out of the bar. I watch her get into her car from behind the bar and then turn to see Harmony coming back toward me.
“What do I do now?” she asks, putting her arms onto the bar top.
“Clean up.” I grab a rag and the spray bottle. “Make sure every single table is clean.”
She walks around the bar, cleaning every single table, even the ones I know are still clean from before. I hand her a white envelope. “What is this?” she asks.
“That’s the tips for the night,” I tell her, and she doesn’t even open it. “You can clock out,” I tell her, and she just stares at me.
“How does one clock out?” she asks. “Do I text you?”
“No.” I walk to the POS system. “Your name is already in the system,” I say, pointing at her name. “You just click, end shift.”
“But I didn’t do that when I started,” she mentions, pressing the button.
“I did it for you,” I inform her, and she nods, going to the closet and getting her purse before coming back and grabbing her phone that she left turned over behind the bar.
“Is that it?” she asks. “Do I come back tomorrow?”
I stare at her, taking in how her eyes are guarded. “Yeah, you come back tomorrow.”
“Perfect.” She starts to walk out of the bar. “See you tomorrow, Brady.”
“I’ll walk you out.” My mouth deceives me and she turns to me.
“Why?” she asks me, her eyebrows pinched together.
“Because it’s late and I want to make sure that you get to your car.” I toss the rag on the counter and I’m about to walk around it before I watch her head tilt to the side.
“But it was okay for your girlfriend to walk out by herself.” The way she says it rolls out with disgust.
“Girlfriend?” I ask, shocked. “Who the fuck is my girlfriend?”
“Janelle.” I throw my head back and laugh.
“Harmony, Janelle is not my girlfriend.” I watch her eyes go up in surprise. “I don’t shit where I eat. Which means I don’t date anyone who works for me or with me.”
“Oh,” she says, “but she winked at you.”
“Yeah, Janelle winks at everyone. It’s her thing.”
“Got it,” she says, then looks down. “Well, good night, Brady.” She turns and makes her way out of the open doors.
I watch her walk out of the bar for a second longer than I should before I walk over and close the door. Ten minutes after she’s gone, I walk out of the back after alarming the door.
My eyes go to her house as I make my way to mine, and I see she’s not home yet. My heart starts to beat just a touch faster since she left early, wondering if something happened to her on the way home. Even though we would have taken the same streets and there wasn’t a car in sight. I get out and walk over to the steps, seeing the car headlights coming my way. She left way before me, I think as I watch as her car pulls up into the driveway, and she gets out, going to the back door and opening it up. She bends inside, and I see her try to carry her son into the house. His feet dangle by hers as she steps up the stairs. He’s dead asleep on her as she closes the door behind her.
I stare at the house a couple more seconds before I see her return and go to the car to grab a bag before heading back inside. I shower and crash into bed, waking up at 5:00 a.m., looking out the window from my bed before getting up and heading down to the kitchen to grab some water. I see the house next door with the lights on from the kitchen. “Does she sleep?” I ask myself before walking up the steps and returning to bed. But instead of sleeping, I worry about whether she is getting enough sleep. That’s the second time I’ve woken up in the middle of the night, and her lights have been on. I stare out the window, watching the darkness turn to light, and I get up, giving up on sleep and knowing I’m going to be dragging my ass by tonight.
Instead of having my coffee outside, I get in my truck and head to the bakery. I get there at the same time Ms. Maddie opens her door. “Aren’t you here early?” she says in greeting, and I just smile at her. “I haven’t even set out the donuts yet,” she tells me, walking to the back of the counter and putting fresh cakes out, wrapped in cellophane with a white ribbon.
“Since when are there cakes?” I ask, looking from the donuts to the cakes.
“They’re new,” she replies. “They usually sell out by ten.”
I look at the cakes, seeing strawberry jam cake, lemon raspberry, apple caramel, and then the raspberry white chocolate that looks pink with a white drizzle on it. “I’ll take this,” I order, “and two coffees, please.”
I head back home and see her car is gone from her driveway. I grab the cake and the coffee and head out toward my front door when I see her coming back. She gets out of her car, and I see she’s wearing cutoff shorts with a tank top. My feet start to move toward her house, and she must sense someone is there, so she looks over her shoulder. Her hair, which was all wild last night, is now tied on the top of her head. I can see she is tired. “Morning,” I say when I get close enough, “I brought you coffee.”
The confused look on her face makes me think this is a very bad fucking idea. “And cake.” I hold up the cake, and her eyes go from me to the cake and then back to me.
“Um,” she says, “okay.” I can tell she’s nervous as I walk to her.
“Do you want to sit outside?” I ask, pointing at the stairs, and she just nods. I follow her up the steps, and she turns and sits down on the top step. I hand her a cup of coffee before sitting next to her. “So how do you think last night went?”
She takes a sip of the coffee. “It could have been better, but then again, it could have been so much worse.”
I open the cake and take out a piece, offering it to her, and she shakes her head. I take a bite and moan, “This is really good.” I take another bite. “You should have a piece.”
“I’m good.” She leans forward, putting her elbows on her knees.
“I saw you get home last night with Wyatt.” I take a sip of my coffee. She just looks over at me, waiting for me to finish whatever it is I’m trying to fucking say. “Who watches him?”
“Someone,” she replies, and I can see the guard go up.
My stomach sinks, and my mind immediately goes to her leaving her son in the car. “If there is any shady shit going on…” I don’t even know why I say the words.
She takes a second to look at me before getting up, still holding on to her cup of coffee. If I’m honest, and it was me, I would have probably thrown the coffee in my face. “I may be a lot of things…” I can see her fighting to control her emotions, but her bottom lip quivers, making me feel like someone just kicked me in the stomach. “But my son is everything to me, and if I had a choice, there is no way I would be working instead of home with him.”
She turns, and I hate I’ve made her feel like this. “Harmony,” I say her name, “that isn’t what I meant.”
She stops when she gets to the door. “I know you hate me because of him and his family. Trust me, no one hates me more than I hate myself.” Her voice shakes at the end as she pulls open her door, and she’s about to step inside. Instead of just letting her go, my mouth opens.
“I see that you’re a good mom.” I get up from the step and walk toward my house without looking back and hear the sound of the click of her lock. “Well, that went fucking well.”