Chapter 1
Sammy finished writing out checks for her employees and put her things away.
The safe was the best place for her checkbook and other items for the office, so she knew it would be there when she wanted it.
The restaurant was doing very well, and she was happy for it.
That meant that all her savings and investments were safe from her having to dig into them because she needed money.
It was, for her at least, a win-win situation.
She thought about the call that she’d gotten from Storm Walsh and what she said about her being mated to her son.
Melbourne was his name, if she remembered correctly.
She gave her this story about how she’d interviewed a man about a position at the restaurant—she only hired convicts, but she did an extensive background test on them so that she could find out if they had any abuse on their records.
Neither child nor spousal abuse would be tolerated by her since she’d grown up in that kind of environment when she’d been a child with her sister, Justine.
Anyway, she was to have had direct contact with Storm Walsh when she checked this other man’s reference, then she’d have contact somehow with Storm’s son, Melbourne, and they’d become mates.
For some reason, that didn’t happen when it was supposed to, and she wanted to make sure that they still got together.
But Sammy didn’t want that to happen as she had enough troubles with men, including her father.
Storm said that the fates had wanted them to be together for some reason, and Sammy thought that they’d changed their minds about the two of them, and that was fine by her.
She didn’t want a bossy man in her life at all.
Once she was finished for the day, she made her way home.
It was then that she noticed her sister’s car out front of her place and dreaded going to the door.
Her sister had had a nasty habit of buying herself gifts for her birthday and then expecting Sammy to pay for them.
She’d gotten really good at telling her no.
If not, her sister would drain her dry of even enough money to buy herself cheese and crackers to get her through the month.
She hoped that she’d get it someday, but so far she had to tell her no every year for the last five of them.
About the time she began telling her sister no was when she’d won a jackpot from the lottery.
She’d been the only winner, and not only that, but it had been so big that even without all her investments, she would have been able to live a very comfortable life without having to work a single day since then.
But she had, it was work or go crazy, so that’s what her sister thought she did.
Was working as staff for the restaurant when, in actuality, she owned it.
Justine knew nothing about her winnings, nor the fact that she owned the restaurant, and she wanted to keep it that way.
“What do you want?” Justine pouted at her and told her she should be nice to her because it was her birthday month. “I’ve said this to you before, but you’re a little too old to be having birthdays for the entire month and expecting me to purchase you something after all this time.”
“Why do you have to be so mean to me?” She shrugged her shoulders and said that she made it easy. “I’m coming in, and then we’re going to go out to dinner when you change. You’re paying.”
“No. First off, I’m too tired to want to have to entertain you, and secondly, I have to work in the morning, so going out with you means that I’ll be late coming home, and I don’t want to do that.
Go out and have dinner yourself. Lots of people do that.
” She said that she never went out to eat on her own.
“Well, you’re missing out on a great time with yourself, and that’s all I have to say about that.
Other than again, no, I’m not going out to dinner with you. ”
“It’s the least that you can do since you wouldn’t allow me to buy myself something nice from you.
I got my deposit back from your last gift, but they were very testy about it with me.
” She said she didn’t care. “Come on, Sammy. Take me out to dinner. I promise not to beg you for money to get me something. And if you do, I’ll allow you to pick out the place we go, so long as it has cloth napkins.
I know you’re more comfortable with napkins out of a dispenser as well as your food coming out of a Styrofoam box, but I want something nice.
It’s my birthday today, and I want you to take me out. ”
“I can pick.” She promised her that she wouldn’t complain and that it really had to have cloth napkins. “All right. But we leave when we’re done eating and not lingering around after until the place closes. I really do have to work tomorrow, and I need to get some sleep.”
“Deal.” Opening her door, she remembered that she’d not cleaned up after herself this morning when she’d left, as she’d overslept.
As her sister chatted on about where she was going to get to go, Sammy went into her bedroom to shower and change.
She smelled of food and didn’t want the lingering smells to put her off any more than she had to.
As soon as she was finished, she met her sister in the living room, where she was watching television.
“You should get yourself a bigger television. This one is smaller than mine, and while I like the fact that you have something not as nice as I do, I know this thing is from when we were kids and used to watch it in our rooms so that we’d have something to do when we were locked up.
” Sammy told her sister that it still worked.
“Of course it does, it weighs about fifty pounds too. Did you know that they make televisions as thin as a cell phone? What am I talking to you about a cell phone for? You don’t have one of those either.
You must be the only person in the world who has a house phone to use. ”
“I doubt that. And besides, I really don’t need to be bothered by the phone when I’m home.
It makes it so that I can get a good night’s sleep for a change.
” Justine huffed at her, and she had to laugh.
It would be like her to think that she doesn’t have anything to do with the twentieth century.
“Are you ready to go? I am. Remember the rules, Justine, or I’ll leave you with the bill when I walk out. ”
The restaurant was nice, and the food was good and solid. She ordered what she wanted, not worrying about the calories, while Justine fussed about everything being full of carbs. After clearing her throat for the second time, she ordered and gave her menu to the waiter. Then she glared at her.
“I should have known that you’d take me to a place like this.” She asked her what was wrong with it. “Everything is so Italian. Next time that I make a bargain like this with you, I’m going to insist on it being a place that has no pasta.”
“Make too many stipulations and I’ll pass on taking you out.
I love it here. It’s a calming place, the staff is really good, and you can get all the salad you want.
If you wanted no carbs, I know that the salad here is good for you.
It’s why I love this place so much.” She huffed again, and Sammy decided to ignore her for the people sitting around them.
She loved places where people were. She didn’t care for dealing with them all the time, but she did enjoy listening to them as they talked around their table.
Sometimes she’d get a bit of gossip, other times she would figure out why she didn’t like dealing with people.
Sammy thought that all men and women were selfish and rude to others. Just like her parents were.
“I saw Dad the other day. He’s looking old.” She turned to look at Justine. “He was coming out of the hardware store. It looked more like he was being thrown out, but I didn’t hang around to see what that was about.”
“You need to be more careful. What if he’d had seen you?
Or Mom? What would you have done then?” She said that she was forever careful not to be around them, that’s why she saw him.
She’d been making sure he wasn’t around her.
“They’re dangerous, you know. And won’t hesitate to hurt you if they can get to you. ”
“I know that better than you do.” She nodded and asked her if she’d seen their mom. “No. Not to say that she wasn’t hanging around him, too, but I saw him and left the area. I was terrified that he was going to see me. I thought for sure that he’d be dead by now.”
“One can only hope, Justine.” She filled her plate with salad when it arrived at their table. She noticed that Justine had done the same to her plate. “What are you doing hanging around a hardware store anyway? I thought that you had a handyman at your place who does all the repairs.”
“I wasn’t at the hardware store, but walking by it.
I needed to get something for my washer.
Did you know that you’re supposed to wash your washer once in a while to keep it in good working order?
Dumbest thing I ever saw, but I read up on it yesterday, and they say that’s true.
It also keeps your clothing from staining too much or something like that.
” Sammy told her that she had nothing to do with the washer and dryer at her apartment complex.
“You still share with the others in your place? That’s just gross, Sammy.
When I moved this last time, I made sure that I had my own hookup for a washer and dryer.
I wanted to be safe when I went to wash my clothing.
And it’s nice to have my own set when I think about how many germs are going through the ones there.
You should think about moving into my place.
They have a lot of rules, but they take care of me when I need it. ”