Chapter 6
Lisa decided that she was going to have to find herself a job or go insane.
She’d been working all her life, and the way things were going, by the end of the month, she was going to be begging the firm for something to do, or they were going to find her in a corner someplace sobbing with her thumb in her mouth. She didn’t want to do either.
She and the women were supposed to meet today at the restaurant in town.
She didn’t know if it was something that they did all the time or just today, but she was nearly giddy with the prospect of getting out of the house and doing something different.
She loved Devlin, but he was still weak, and she was tempted too much to let him just lie in the bed alone.
Ivan told her that in a couple of more days, he should be up to his old self again, but that was more days than she had to deal with. She wanted him better now.
The restaurant must have known they were coming because the table was set for six and there were veggie appetizers on the table already.
It was a big table too, and there was plenty of room for them to hug and get to know one another again.
She’d not been part of this part of the family, so she had to remember their names and who they were married to.
It was quite fun, actually, to match the men up to these strong women. They suited each other quite well.
“Selma wants to talk to you, too. She said that you have a ghost with you all the time, and she wanted to know if you want to know why.” She said that she didn’t know anyone who had died recently, but she’d like her to tell her who it was.
“Good. She said that she’s not causing you any harm right now, but she doesn’t know what she wants.
It could be that she just likes the way you move around. But she’ll tell you.”
She’d forgotten that Summer had two little girls, Selma and Harley, and one of them could see ghosts.
It came about when Selma had been shot in the head by her father when a drug deal had gone bad, and it had nearly killed her.
If not for the magic of Brandy, the little girl would have died, and that would have been the end of it.
Summer was mated to Ayden, who had his own set of problems.
He couldn’t be around nor eat red meat. He’d been on an undercover thing for a restaurant that Brandy was thinking of buying.
But they were losing money hand over fist, and no one could figure out why.
Come to find out, they were selling off the meat that would come into the place that was supposed to be serving the customers.
And to compensate for the restaurant not having enough meat, they were killing off the staff and serving them up for dinner.
It made Ayden so ill that even his wolf couldn’t eat or be around red met anymore.
“I have another job for you. You worked out so well on the first one that I’d like to hire you full-time to be a person who goes to the wait staff at a few of my places and sees how things are being run.
I learned a great deal from you the first time.
” Lisa said she’d love to have something to do with the firm.
“Good. I have a list of several places that you can start on, and that would help me out a great deal. The last time, it was only having cloth napkins at dinner, and that was easy enough to fix.”
“It was a bit more than that, but I understand how the staff can give you a heads up that the bosses wouldn’t understand.
” Brandy told her that she was having the menu redone, too, and that was going to make everyone happy.
“Yes, they were tired of telling people what they didn’t have on the menu anymore that had been discontinued.
Having all of that taken off will shorten their time at the table, too. ”
Amber, Guy’s mate, worked for the firm as well.
She did the books for a few smaller companies that Brandy owned and that helped them out as well.
As soon as their books were done, she’d turn them over to them to show that they’d been making a profit.
That was good for everyone. Especially the companies.
That’s why Brandy purchased them so that they could get on the other side of being in the red.
It was helpful to everyone that things were looking up for the companies.
Mac worked directly with Brandy as her second.
She was also there to keep her safe when they were out and about.
She took her job very seriously and protected Brandy all the time.
Edmond did the same for Lica, her husband, when he was out and about.
Being the alpha and alpha bitch for the large pack could be dangerous if anyone got it into their head to take them out so that they could be the alphas of the pack.
So they were happy to guard them against threats that might see them as easy prey.
She knew that she should know Sen better, but she didn’t see her as much as she did the other women, and that was why.
She knew Ivan well; he’d been to the house several times over the last couple of weeks, and she’d gotten to know him very well.
But his mate was working full-time for her father’s firm—with the help of Brandy, and she didn’t see her much. She liked her, however.
Just after their orders were taken, Sen passed out envelopes.
She opened hers to find a large check in the amount of two million dollars.
The others told her that they didn’t need it, but she kept her mouth shut.
If she knew her better, she might have complained, but she just let the others do the talking.
“I don’t need this. I’m sure you know that.” Brandy was a billionaire, too, and she thought that she knew how to spend money better than the rest of them did. “You can divide this up between the others and let them have it.”
“In order to make it fair for everyone, you get a check too. This is from my first week in office. I got a bonus check for pulling in a couple of companies that my father couldn’t.
The board thought that I should have a big percentage of the money now instead of waiting for the quarterly reports to come in.
I decided to share with everyone. So you’ll take the money and have fun with it.
” She put her purse away and smiled around the table.
“I was a struggling waitress not six months ago, and now I can hand out checks this big and not feel the pinch of it. Please take it and have some fun with it.”
She’d heard how Sen’s father had made himself sick by being nice all the time to Sen when all he wanted to do was to yell at her about doing things his way.
He’d not wanted her to be married, but since she’d been married to Ivan before her father came into the picture, it was never discussed that they should divorce.
Howard Ranger died of an ulcer eating away at his stomach, plus a heart attack that took his life before he could change his will to suit him better.
The man had been a monster and a tyrant to Sen and Ivan, and she won in the end.
Inheriting not just his wealth but his business too.
“Well, I’ll take it.” Everyone around the table laughed with her.
“I’m an out-of-work waitress too, and I know how that feels.
Devlin and I need to get our house in order, and this will go a long way in making it happen.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this; it’ll go for a lot of stuff around the house. ”
Brandy gave her the list of places she was going to go to, and she was excited about that.
Having something to do during the day was awesome, and she was looking forward to finding out what improvements Brandy could make with the restaurants to make them better.
Like she said, it might be something as small as cloth napkins or a new menu, but whatever it was, it was a boost to the morale of the people working there.
The rest of the lunch went great. The food was brought to them by several waitstaff, and she had a feeling that this was the norm when they all got together.
Brandy would pick up the check, and everyone else would leave the tips.
The staff would make out very well for the table of six that lingered a bit too long.
But it had been fun, and she couldn’t wait until next week when they got together again.
It was all meeting after the food was taken away.
She didn’t mind working for Brandy. It was a good job that paid well. She did miss the people that she’d worked with at the Little Diner, but she knew that the kind of friends she was making now would be long-lasting. They were sisters-in-law and had the best brothers-in-law a person could ask for.
Driving home, she decided to pick up something to have for dinner.
It was Annabelle’s night off, so they’d have to fend for themselves anyway, so she bought the easiest thing there was to have.
Grilled steaks and baked potatoes with a salad.
Even the salad was easy, as it was in a bag that came with the croutons as well as the cheese for it.
Excited to be able to pick out the dressing that they’d have, she reached out to Devlin to ask him what he wanted in the way of dressing for his salad.
“I love green goddess. I don’t know if they carry it, but that’s what I’d like to have.
If not, just a creamy French would be good.
” She said that she’d never had the goddess dressing before, but they had it.
She was going to get a bottle of oil and vinegar so that she could have leftovers sometime when they had subs.
She loved it on subs fresh from the oven.
“That sounds better than steaks. See if they have a couple of Italian subs. I can eat that and not have to worry about getting steak juice all over me when I’m lying down. ” He laughed, and she did as well.