Chapter 25
25
J ace glanced toward the front of the bar as he waited for Mason to mix his drinks. Margo and Carly entered the Sandbar and spoke to the hostess. She nodded her head and led them to a table in the corner. His smile was instantaneous. His heart beat a little faster, and he couldn't help but admire how beautiful she looked again today. It seemed to be the norm for her. No matter what she wore, she always looked elegant, refined, and incredibly sexy. Her eyes met his, and she waved. He strode toward her table, excited to chat with her. "Hello, ladies. What can I get you started with?"
Margo chuckled. "I'll take a raspberry iced tea."
Carley smiled. "Same, please."
"Coming right up." He hustled to the bar and hung their drink order on the order board for Mason, picked up the tray of drinks waiting for him to deliver to their thirsty customers, and hurried outside to deliver them. As soon as he re-entered the restaurant, he scrambled to the bar, picked up Margo and Carley's teas, and delivered them to their table.
"Here you go, ladies. Raspberry iced tea."
They smiled at him, and he found it difficult to look away from Margo's smile. Laughter from another table brought him around to the task at hand - lunch.
"We have smoked salmon salad on a bed of spinach for our lunch special today."
Carley responded immediately. "I'll take that, please."
He wrote her order down on his order slip. "We have Asian ginger or balsamic dressing."
"Oh, I'll take the Asian ginger, please."
He grinned. That was his favorite too. He turned his head to Margo and noticed her watching him. His heart skipped a beat. There was something about her.
She smiled sweetly. "I'll have the same, please."
"You got it." He wrote her order down and noticed her shiver. "Are you cold?"
"I think the air conditioning is blowing right on me here. Maybe we should go outside and eat."
Jace leaned in. "Just so you know, Sierra's out there, so maybe you would want to stay inside?"
Margo nodded and took a deep breath. "Thank you for the heads up and absolutely we will stay inside. It feels wonderful being cooled down."
He grinned and received a gorgeous smile in response.
Margo asked. "How did we get so lucky to have the owner also be our server?"
Jace grinned. He turned to see Carley sit back and cross her arms watching her sister play.
"I've been told I'm a flirt and then two beautiful women walked in while I happened to be at the bar, and what can I say? I jumped at the chance."
Margo grinned, and he leaned down. "Is that derogatory?"
She turned her head and looked up at him. They stared into each other's eyes for a few moments, and then she burst out laughing. "No, it's not derogatory. I'm sorry I told you that."
He nodded. "All right, just checking. I'll put your orders in."
He kept himself busy running orders and delivering drinks. When Margo's order came up, he hurried to pick them up and deliver them. Setting their salads in front of them, he put the dressings on the side. "Anything else I can get for you?"
He stared into Margo's eyes for a moment and the sexy look she gave him sizzled right through him. Carley chuckled and Jace thought, it boded well for this evening.
"No, thank you."
"Well, you two ladies are easy." He quipped.
Margo gave him a side eye, a half-smile on her face. "One thing I am not Jace, is easy."
He nodded. "Noted. I'll be back to check on you shortly."
He practically whistled and skipped back to the kitchen. He was beginning to see playful Margo, and he liked her a lot. He checked for his orders. Nothing was up yet, so he did a run-through of his tables for drinks. He did the same outside. As he made his way back to the restaurant, he noted that the workers were back to finish up the tiki bar. Hopefully, it wouldn't disrupt the lunch crowd too much, but he wasn't going to tell them to go away. It was hard to get Quinn's crews back. They were busy as hell this time of year.
Carley strode past him to use the restroom, and he glanced to see Margo chatting with the woman at the table next to her. He grinned. He’d let her chat. He strode into the kitchen to check on things. All seemed in order. As he stepped back out to the restaurant, he noticed Carley moving toward her table and Sierra moving quickly toward her. Alarm bells went off at the look on Sierra’s face, but before he could move, Sierra rammed into Carley and spilled an entire drink on her.
Carley looked down at her clothing, then up to stare at Sierra. He intervened quickly, as did Theresa, his server.
He nodded to Theresa, who put an arm around Carley. “Let me help you with this. I have towels in the office.” She moved Carley to the back room and the office. He glared at Sierra. “That was uncalled for.”
“It was an accident.”
“It wasn’t. I saw the whole thing. I’d like you to leave now.”
“I was just coming to see if you’d like to have dinner tonight.”
“No.” He swallowed. “Leave now.”
She tossed her red hair over her shoulder and glared at him. She inhaled deeply, then strode to the front door without looking back. If she had, she’d have seen him glaring at her and Margo doing the same thing.
Carley came back to the table in a few minutes and sat down.
He strode by to check on them. Just as he arrived, a loud bang, like the sound of lumber being dropped outside, reverberated through the bar, and then Carley sat up staring at the bar. Jace slowly turned and saw Mason in a panic attack.
Jace hustled over to Mason. "Are you okay, bud? Do you need to sit down?"
He pulled a chair to the bar and helped Mason into the chair. It was as if he couldn't really see. Mason shook, and Jace kept his body in front of Mason to shield him from the people in the restaurant. The kitchen door opened, and Jose came out with some plates of food. Jace nodded at him, and Jose delivered his food quickly, then rushed back.
Jace whispered, "Get me some water for Mason."
"Will do." Jose hurried behind the bar and pulled a bottle of water from the cooler. Jace knelt next to Mason with his arm around his shoulders, adding pressure. Boy, he wished Grace's support dog, Chiefy, was here right now. She was excellent at this. And that's when he wondered if he should get a service dog for the restaurant. It was unusual with food prep. She probably couldn't ever be in the kitchen, but he'd check and see if a service animal could be in the bar or behind the bar. After a few moments, Mason's shaking subsided. Jace rubbed his back and handed him the bottle of water. "Take a couple of sips, Mason."
He did as he was asked, then shook his head. "I'm so fucking embarrassed."
"Don't be embarrassed. This is nothing to be embarrassed about."
"But everyone knows."
"It doesn't matter what everyone knows. And for the record, what everyone knows is that I hire only veterans here, so they know that you've served. And if they saw this panic attack, they know that you have PTSD. There is no shame in that, Mason. None at all. I have it. Sid has it. Quinn has it. Marco has it. Theresa has it. We all have it."
Mason shook his head. "I could have broken something. I could have dropped something. Something bad could have happened."
Jace nodded. "Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Something could happen to all of us today, Mason. I could walk out of here and get hit by a car. We can't live in fear of that." Jace stood and patted Mason on the shoulders. "Now, do you need to go home? Do you need to lay down or want to take a break? Tell me what you need right now, and I will help you."
Mason swallowed. He took a couple of deep breaths. He looked up at Jose who nodded. "It's all good bud. It's all good. We're all here for you."
Mason nodded. "I think if I can just take about a five-minute break, I'll be fine. I just want to go back and maybe eat a little something and shake this off."
Jace nodded. "Okay, go do that. We're fine. Jose and I will watch the bar and take over. Do what you need to do."
Mason took a deep breath and slowly stood. He waited for his legs to steady under him, then he strolled to the kitchen. Jace checked orders at the bar.
Jose said, "Everything is calming down outside. I can handle the bar if you have things to do, Jace."
Jace grinned. "We'll take turns back here. Check our tables. Make sure everybody has drinks and then we'll switch. How about that?"
"Sounds good. We've got this."
Jace chuckled. "I'll run by my tables quickly."
He swung through the restaurant, checking tables. He stopped at Margo and Carley's table last. "You ladies need anything? Is everything okay?"
Margo reached over and put her hand over his. "That was beautiful."
He swallowed the knot that grew in his throat. "I only hire veterans Margo, and we all have issues with PTSD or other things. Sometimes it happens and I'm here to help. Always."
He saw tears glisten in her eyes. She pinched her lips together and sniffed slightly. "Well, again, that was beautiful."
Tears welled up in his eyes and emotion clogged his throat. He tried swallowing a couple of times. He turned his hand over and squeezed hers. He managed to get out. "I gotta go help at the bar. See you at six."